OJ's Corner : Mandal Mafia

REFLECTIONS

It is time the political playground is cleared of foul players kickstarting another Mandal mess. Often, those who indulge in intrigues and suspicions to stage a palace coup get dumped in the deep recesses of political oblivion. However, there is no time left for the country to wait for a natural end to the calumny that is going on in the name of reservation in institutes of higher learning.

Arjun Singh is one of the senior-most politicians in the Congress hierarchy, but he has been left high and dry on crucial occasions when he felt that Prime Ministership was within his grasp.

He has had that feeling etched in his mind ever since Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. His ambitions had to take a backseat on and off. When Dr Manmohan Singh was chosen the Prime Minister, irrespective of Arjun Singh’s seniority, he felt ignored.

It was ignominious that his junior Pranabkumar Mukherjee got Defence and much younger Shivraj Patil secured Home. Arjun Singh was bestowed with the omnibus Human Resources Development.

Moreover, lately Arjun Singh was cut up when he was about to be dumped, without getting a sure Rajya Sabha seat after his tenure was over. All the same he cringed and managed to get the seat and retain the Ministership.

It was like the empire striking back. One fine morning, Arjun Singh was overawed with love for the OBCs and moved fast to provide reservation for them in institutions of higher learning like AIIMS, IITs and IIMs. By any stretch of imagination, no politician, not even the ilk of the BJP, could come out in the open opposing reservation for the OBCs as it was a natural extension to the provisions contained in the Constitution 93rd amendment.

Arjun Singh did not give anyone breathing time to ponder over it, for his act was played when the country was facing Assembly elections in four States and one Union Territory.

It is open knowledge that Arjun Singh did not want Manmohan Singh to go that smoothly as the UPA Government was entering the third year of its functioning.

During the Assembly elections, there were broad hints made by sundry parties and individuals about forming a third front. V P Singh, who had used the Mandal card to ward off the Ayodhya movement, was recently amenable to setting up a new political formation.
Arjun Singh may be entertaining hopes that his foray into newer pastures might give him a break.

Now no one can remove him from the Cabinet, for those who do it would be dubbed anti-OBCs. The country is teeming with OBCs as a thick vote-bank.

Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitishkumar, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati, Deve Gowda and possibly the DMK would not tolerate any action against the Mandal-mongers.

Arjun Singh is only itching for a counter-move by the PM or the Congress Party, who are all playing safe.

The PM has set up a group of Ministers to come up with cogent ideas to solve the problem. Giving 27 per cent reservation to the OBCs coupled with seat enhancement to provide for the merit quota appears to be a temporary solution.

But the genie has been uncorked. There should be political tantras and mantras to woo it back into the bottle. In the process, the power players should also be suppressed. Otherwise, no one would be able to stem the rot, that would spoil the country’s spirit.