Prakash Jha's latest film:"Aarakshan"(Reservations) that was viewed by an Examination Committee of the Central Film Certification Board (commonly known as Film Censor Board), comprising a representative each of SCs, STs and OBCs, before it was certified for universal exhibition after one or two minor cuts like removing the word "dalit", has triggered a major controversy in the media. The culprits for raising needless passions alleging anti-dalit nature of the film, are their socalled custodians like the head of the Commission for Scheduled Castes and others. The film-maker in his interviews with the media has been insisting that the his film is not against dalits. Hypothetically speaking, even if the film diapproves of the open-ended continuation of reservations, Prakash Jha has every right to do so in a democracy.
It is common knowledge that the beneficiaries of the reservations-particularly the creamy layer, and their political patrons, have developed a vested interest in the indefinite continuation of this privilege at the cost of other deprived and disadvantaged Indians who do not have the SC/ST/OBC tag. Why, for instance, the children and grand children of a top level bureaucrat or diplomat, who had been to foreign schools and colleges for studies, should be entitled to reservations, even for promotions? Is it fair and just? Why should the accident of birth in a BPL family, even though it may be a Brahmin or an upper caste one, deprive its child with merit an opportunity for reservation? Is it not time to discard caste-based reservations in favour of economically, socially, educationally weak Indians?
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