Not right

Sunday, January 14, 2007
NOT RIGHT
Justice K.G.Balakrishnan was today sworn in as the Chief Justice of India. The media has been giving a lot of airtime to the fact that the Justice belongs to the Dalit community. The headlines proclaim that he is the ?first Dalit Chief Justice of India?.

Does Justice Balakrishnan have no other qualifications to merit the top job as far as the Indian judicial system is concerned?

Why does the media not judge the Judge on the basis of legal experience?

The same was the case when K.R.Narayanan became the President of India. He also belonged to the Dalit community. Few mentions were made of the academic and other achievements of the late President.

Let us not forget the issue of the present President, Abdul Kalam. He had all the credentials to become the President. We only considered the ?Muslim? part.
6:45:58 PM
Posted By saimadhav yv Comments (1) Musings
Comments
K.Venugopal Sunday, January 14, 2007 8:32:12 PM
There is no harm in mentioning the community of anyone. The innumerable communities we have in India are all to be cherished. What we should not have in the holier-than-thou attitude of claiming my community is high and yours is low. It is this attitude that has been the curse of our social living for ages. Now we must come out of it. Cherish all communities as members of the Indian nation and shun all communalism.

MUNEERUDEEN Monday, January 15, 2007 12:38:58 AM
Venu Bhai !I agree with you-- ??? Shun all communalism ??? YES . And peaceful co-existance of Muslims-RSS-Christians-SENA-Dalits-BRAHMINS-Harijans ALL . WE NEED TO HAVE COMMUNISM IN RELIGION !

K.Venugopal Monday, January 15, 2007 9:37:38 AM
Wow, Muneerbhai, You are turning out to be quite a liberal. Communism and religion are a contradiction of terms - communism believes that everything would be OK if external arrangements are made OK whereas religion says everything would be OK if the individual is OK. If by communism you mean the general perception that they stand for equality of everyone, then I agree with you.

lotus Wednesday, January 17, 2007 3:28:36 PM
Dear Saimadhav, 1. You have raised an objection/issue to which I agree in that, in every incidence or event, media doesnot forget to mention 'Dalit' if the person involved is so. For example-news from Bihar, "..dalit richshawwaala beaten by police" (this was a news few months ago). Is it special that the beaten person was Dalit by caste? It is common to see the police thrashing the common people on the roads, in the market eg. vendors, rickshawpullers. Do they ask a Dalit vendor his caste before beating him???2. Second part - Isnt it a wonder that "a Dalit" has become Chief Justice of India or became a President, in a country where there are constant allegations of discriminations or suppression against the "higher castes"?? That is an evidence that MARIT works in this country, if it is real merit.And the 'upper caste' doesnt always suppress the deserving people.3. Remember,the 'castists' never stop taking pride in 'Ambedkar's achievements'. Do they ever give any credit to the leaders like Nehru or Patel, the so-called 'upper caste' leaders- who gave the responsibility of drafting our constitution!! 4. Conclusion-- Stop demonising upper caste in general. Actually, the battle between 'haves' and 'have-nots' is as old as human. Only the 'labels' change. -- Dont insult the merit of the people like ex-president Narayanan and our new chief justice, by recalling their caste. They deserved it so they reached the top.
K.Venugopal Thursday, January 18, 2007 8:53:39 AM
Lotus, I agree with you. There are vested interests who want to divide the Hindu society by harping on castes. We must also remember that at the worst the upper castes are accused only of discrimination against the lower castes. There was never any ethnic cleansing charge against the so-called upper castes. The so-called lower castes are still very much with us. But where are the idol worshipers in Arabia? There was ethnic cleansing there.

SAIMADHAV Thursday, January 18, 2007 7:29:26 PM
Dear friends, I agree with you that the people who I mentioned in my post got to the positions not because of their caste but due to their merit. I am not in any way demonising the upper castes, I myself belong to a so-called upper caste. Let us give credit where it is due.