Agitation unacceptable

In your editorial, ‘Caste conundrum’ (August 27), you have aptly analysed that inclusive growth is the way to achieve empowerment of the disadvantaged, not quotas and reservations. The ongoing agitation by the Patidar Anamat Andholan Samiti demanding quota for the Patel community is political, and their action is questionable. Politicians are taking their side only for political mileage and to make the government unstable. Reservation and quotas are means to end oppression, and are not an end in themselves. It is time to discuss the efficacy of Quota Raj.

TRN Sharma

Hyderabad

What was intended as a short-term corrective has now become an entrenched and unquestioned part of our national fabric. Political parties only use this as a tool to woo the downtrodden for political gain; no one has tried to review the situation. The Supreme Court’s observations that the identification of a group as backward solely on the basis of caste may not be sufficient; some new yardsticks must be developed which include social and economic criteria and even class. Political parties must keep in mind that the caste system is not a trump card for electoral gains; only improving the lives of the poor will help the country grow.

TSN Rao

Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh

The influential and rich Patel community agitating for inclusion in the other backward classes category has fuelled violence that led to the death of 7 persons, apart from causing damage to public property and affecting normal life. Though, reservation for Scheduled Caste and Schedules Tribes is okay as they are less privileged in society, reservation for rich and less meritorious candidates belonging to OBC is a farce. I appreciate the view that “inclusive growth is the way to achieve empowerment of the disadvantaged, not quotas and reservations”.

The permanent solution would be, probably, the creation of more employment opportunities and energising economic reforms. TheNDA came to power promising more opportunities, the weeding out of corruption, and revamping of the economy. However, it has done little to fulfil its election promises or deal with the agrarian crisis.

Jayant Mukherjee

Kolkata

Good news

The religion-based census data showing that Muslims are the fastest growing minority in India underscores the point that they were the only community to grow at a more than the usual rate. The UPA government had set up the Sachar Committee to study the socio-economic status of Muslims which confirmed the widely perceived impression that the community was relatively poor and neglected and had little share in the official cake. The positive interpretation of the latest population data is that Muslims are flourishing. India’s Muslim population of 172 crore is larger than that of other Muslim countries except Pakistan and Indonesia. It is an eloquent testimony to the multi-religious society that India is.

JS Acharya

Hyderabad

Organising onions

This refers to editorial, ‘Why onions make us cry’ (August 26). In the earlier days, dal-roti used to be the term to denote poor a man’s diet. Since last 15-20 years, dal has been snatched away from poor and replaced by kanda (onion), and kanda-roti became the standard poor man’s diet. Now, even the onion has gone out of reach.

We could see onion prices skyrocketing in July-August. After much hue and cry in the media, the government pretends to come on the scene and perform rituals of increasing onion export price and order import of onions. This time it included onion in the EC Act to prevent onion hoarding. Everyone knows that the sudden rise in price is not due to ordinary market forces; it is created by market intermediaries with the tacit support of people in position. Instead of taking measures in advance, the government does some routine exercises at a leisurely pace by which time damage has already been done. Such measures get operationalised when new onion crops come to the market and that leads to a sudden fall in onion prices.

Trupti Goyal

Jodhpur

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