Reservations for minorities

This is an e-mail I sent to the Chairman of the Commission on reservations. 28th October, 2006. Respected Chairman of the Commission, I have come to understand that the Government of India has set up a Commission to find out about the possibility of granting SC/ST status to converted Muslims and Christians and that the Commission has sought public opinion on this issue. In this regard, I wish to state my opinion. While reservations are meant to uplift the weaker sections of society, we must have an elaborate mechanism to identify the weaker sections, nay individuals. To dub entire sections as perpetually weak is just being too lazy to identify the weak at a micro level under ever changing circumstances. My suggestion goes like this. Now that the Income Tax Department has made income tax returns an on-line affair, I am sure that we can have a provision to include all Indians as 'filees' of income. Since everything is computerized, we can quickly identify which Indian has what income and categorize them into either income tax payees or 'income reservationists’. (That is, one section of the population pays money to the Government and the other section gets money from the government, be it in the form of educational concessions, jobs or perty disbursement.) I am willing to spell out the implementation of this scheme in its practical aspects if called upon to do so. We have certain categories already availing reservation facilities. But now with India poised to lead the world economically and already leading it in computerization, we can certainly aim at a more scientific and systematic reservation on individual-need basis, instead of sticking to en-block communal reservation. I thank the Commission inviting me, as a citizen of this great nation of ours, to submit my humble opinion on this vital issue. Thanking you,