On My Mind

It's often said that public has a short term memory. In India, policy of reservations has successfully defied this notion. Some thing or the other keeps popping up in the news every few days. So, what's exactly reservations all about? Reservations were envisaged by the founding fathers of the constitution as means to reverse the ill effects of the historical suppression of the lower classes of society by the upper class. They envisioned equality in the constitution as Equality among Equals . Keeping this view in mind, it's not difficult to see that the lower classes needed a push and this is how Reservation Policy came around. Not going into the political nature of the issue, the reservation was extended to the Other Backward Classes by VP Singh govt on the recommendation of Mandal Commission. After a subsequent Supreme Court judgement, the current status on caste based reservation is as follows: 15% for SCs 7.5% for STs 27% for OBCs - Non Creamy Layer This rese

" It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer " - William Blackstone In his seminal work "Commentaries on the Laws of England", William Blackstone expressed this idea which though not new, was then cemented and became a profound principle in criminal law. I find this quote rather under-celebrated. To confine it to the brim of law and judiciary seems unjustified. For me, this summarises the differences between every ideology with a tinge of liberalism and those inclined towards radicalism. The focus on the rights of an individual associated with the quote has served as the baseline for Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the stepping stone of liberalism. Having journeyed through different ideologies and philosophies, it seemed we were converging to Liberalism. The year 2016, however, has seen a lot of diversions. Brexit could possibly be marked as the first event this year to reflect the shifting ideologies. People of Britain i