A tamil translation of this appeared in dinamalar (tirunelveli)

V.Krishna Ananth

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued suo-mottu notice to the Police Commissioners of Delhi and Mumbai to explain on the use of ``force’’ on striking medicos. The NHRC has also declared that ``no civilized state can justify use of brutal force on peaceful demonstrators.’’ Well, the Commission seems to have woken up, at long last, to do its duty. The NHRC, after all, exists to check the violent acts by the State.

But then, there is no way one can gloss over the fact that the NHRC had not shown such concern in the past. One does not recall such a prompt action when the police force went about killing several tribals in Kalinganagar in Orissa. One does not recall such concerns being expressed when the police use ample force to put down an agitation by adivasis in Wayanad in Kerala a few years ago. One does not recall such concerns coming from the NHRC when the Joint Special Task Force (JSTF) of the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka Governments went about killing a couple of hundred innocent tribals and subjected several more to inhuman torture in the name of nabbing Veerappan.

The story involving the JSTF is further strange. The Sadashiva Panel, appointed by the NHRC to look into the allegations of torture and rights violation had, in fact, pointed to several instances where the policemen violated the rights of the poor villagers. And yet, the NHRC, has not done anything to show that it intends fulfilling its mandate. For these reasons, the NHRC’s action now – to issue notice to the Police Commissioners in Delhi and Mumbai – look somewhat like a cruel joke.

Let it be clarified at the outset that the police in Delhi and Mumbai were not justified in using force. But then, it is also important to find out the extent of force that was used. It appears that the demonstrators were lathi-charged and this is something that the police have resorted to several hundred times in the past too. In any case, the police is there to ensure law and order and this cannot be ensured without use of some force.

One will have to live in an ideal world to expect that the policemen are engaged only to regulate traffic and to help the old aged men and women and children to cross the road. It will take several decades for us in India to see this happen. There is nothing wrong in dreaming such a social transformation. And if that has to be realized, we as a people must do everything to put a stop to discrimination based on caste, religion and other denominators.

And this democratic objective can be achieved only if we agree to accept, among other measures, the principle of affirmative action. In other words the idea of reservation in jobs and in institutions of higher education, for social groups that were denied of educational and other such opportunities is a necessary step to achieve this objective. And this indeed is the issue that will have to be debated in this instance.

It is possible to look for partisan and self serving motives behind Union Human Resources Development Minister, Arjun Singh’s moves in pushing for a legislation to set aside 27 per cent seats in IITs, Medical Colleges and IIMs to the OBCs. This is what sections in the media and elsewhere are attempting now. It may be true that Singh is doing all this to carve out a space for himself in the political theatre and looking forward to become the Prime Minister.

But then, this explanation is only a way to couch the status quoist approach these eminent men and women in the media and elsewhere stand by. Let it be understood that these people had argued against reservation in jobs (when the Mandal Report was implemented) and argued that the more effective way to uplift the OBCs was to give them preferential treatment in educational institutions. And when this is now becoming a reality, they are out in the open to argue that reservation in institutions of higher learning will not help and that the need is to improve the quality of education in primary and secondary schools run by the government!

Well. The state of primary and secondary education, particularly in schools run by the various State Governments is pathetic. Poor parents now prefer to send their children to private teaching shops (if they can afford the high cost of education) rather than government schools. And that is because they know that their children will not reach anywhere by going to the government schools where there are no teachers, no blackboards and nothing that is needed to study.

And reservation or no reservation, these poor children, mostly belonging to the OBC communities and the Dalits cannot aspire to reach the portals of the IITs, IIMs and the Central Medical Colleges.

And this should have come to the notice of the NHRC long ago. This must have been addressed to by the media commentators long ago. And this must have drawn the attention of the students in our medical colleges, IITs and IIMs long ago. They all did not agitate all these days against the pathetic state of our government schools all these years because it did not affect them. Instead, it helped the rich and the powerful sections in our society to claim to themselves all the seats in the elite educational institutions, heavily subsidized by the government and then land in high paying jobs.

The issue now is that a section from among the OBCs will find a place in these educational institutions and then move on to demand their own place under the sun. And it is natural that the NHRC and other such institutions are worried about. The status quo is being shaken and they are out again in the name of protecting the rights of a section whom they represent.