From the point of view of natural justice, showing discrimination to any section of people, in any form is taboo. For trying to improve the lot of the socially disadvantaged sections, through the process of reservations in educational institutions and in employment could at best be a short term measure. Reservations dampen the initiative of individuals for improving core competence in them. Denigrating the majesty of merit, competency and natural justice through defective policies of reservations with an eye on electoral politics is not only doing disservice to the deprived sections of the society, but it also amounts promoting mediocrity. My heart bleeds when I see the condition of the poor and the down trodden. They must be helped in all possible ways and they must be paid adequate attention in terms of providing liberal financial assistance, free education and rigorous coaching until they attain the requisite core competence, so that they can stand on their own legs in the society and not on borrowed props. Whenever man tries to meddle with natural processes; the end result has never been satisfactory. Miserable failure of communism practiced in certain countries is a pointer in understanding how unnatural meddling in social engineering work in the end. Providing fresh reservations for any sections of the society, in educational institutions or in employment in government organizations or in private sector without underpinning them with core competency would be an unhelpful and unsustainable measure in the long run.

A road side petty vendor or mender of minor gadgets, round the corner may be earning close to twenty five to thirty thousand rupees in a month. Still, we see him in tottered cloths, bare footed, living in shanties, struggling for his square meal, in pitiable living conditions. If we bother to know how he is managing his resources, we may find him squandering his hard earned money for consumption of booze or indulging in gambling etc. His vision is myopic. He is worried about his immediate needs, not farther than the needs of next twenty four hours. Attitude defines ones goals of life. Look at a forward looking fellow irrespective of caste, color and creed. He may be a forward caste fellow or a backward community fellow occupying a menial position and suffering penury. He pays a lot of attention for thrifty management of his scarce resources, saves every conceivable penny for investing in education of his children. He sets before him a long term goal and carefully works his way to a great degree of success. These are general observations. There are always exceptions. It is inane to discriminate a beggar of a forward caste fellow from that of his fellow backward beggar. The need of the hour is to bring about changes in outlook or cultural changes in the deprived sections of the society. They must be helped for living in hygiene or salubrious environment. Government of the day may provide free housing to them. Schools must reach their children and not expecting the children to reach the school. The single most determinant for transforming the society is literacy coupled with deep rooted moral and cultural grooming. It is impossible to build a monolithic and harmonious society, if we are bent upon trying to identify social stratifications. Our policy of reservations with utter disregard to merit leads us in compromising on the quality of our work life. It is unthinkable why a private entrepreneur must be compelled to induct mediocrity in his enterprise and lose his competitive edge in the market and in the process lose his precious hard earned money.