After a long time…

Well well…for those who visit my blog, I am writing after a long time..hence am having cramps in writing. Yet I will make an attempt to write something..There is no specific topic in this blog. Just a few random thoughts put together, that’s it.
The recent tussle between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the Hogenekkal issue is surprising. The issue was resolved ten years before and has now surfaced again. The interesting aspect is the timing of the issue – just before the elections in Karnataka which in itself is a huge manifestation of vote bank politics that continues till date in India. This is not the first time that such a thing is happening. It’s sad because in this case, the issue was resolved previously and for no reason has been brought up. The intent in this case is pretty clear – to gain political mileage and garner more votes.

I was immediately reminded of a similar thing that happened in our TISS campus just before the union elections. A very sensitive issue was brought to the front by the constitution review committee which was whether there should be any affirmative action (read reservation) for certain communities in the executive body. Once again, it is the timing that created ripples. In a college like Tata institute where the majority of the students come for programs like social work, by virtue of what they learn and what they are forced to think, they always favor reservation without even understanding the larger purpose of the same. The institute clearly got divided along two lines with the people going against the concept of reservation being a minority (in terms of numbers). For sure, the aspirants who by virtue of their philosophy opposed the concept of reservations, lost because of sheer numbers.

The timing of an issue and the sensitivity can create a huge impact as people, I presume, generally vote on the basis of emotions and not rationale. I can bet on this, otherwise India for sure would have had better leaders. Secondly, the stakeholders never speak on the issue. For instance, I am not sure whether the people who are out on the streets of Karnataka and Tamilnadu destroying properties of each other are the actual representatives of the culture of the 2 states. Karnataka is generally known to be a peace loving state but the current status doesn’t quite reflect that. So was the case in TISS. The so called communities or people from communities never expressed desire that they wanted reservations. It was from some faculty corner or straight from the brains of a few intellectuals who wanted social justice to prevail in TISS as it represents a microcosm of the society.

Applying principles of position vs interest (courtesy: Conflict Management class of Patwardhan sir), the positions of both the states are clear. But it is the interest of Karnataka state that is appearing a bit murky. The issue is not water for sure. The interests lie somewhere in the upcoming elections.
Similarly upon probing a lot, the group that supported reservations in TISS were never quite able to provide satisfying theories. The communities are getting marginalized and hence they need representation or they need to be empowered and hence they need reservation; all these sound like mere rhetoric. If discrimination is the problem, use the cell that already exists for the communities in a more effective way. If empowerment is the real interest, then build the capacities/capabilities of the communities instead of fighting for a position in the union which would in the long run benefit the communities too.

Moving from position to interests in fact helps a lot in arriving at the root of the conflict. But whether it gets resolved or not truly depends to a certain extend on the skills of the parties involved and to a larger extend on the authority. In TISS, we were finally able to stall the process of amendment (of creating reservations for communities) by reaching out to a higher authority. In case of Karnataka and Tamilnadu what will happen is something that we need to wait and see..