PM Narendra Modi was right to ignore Trump’s offensive tweet on India’s high tariffs and look ahead at re-forging India’s most important partnership. Trump must realise that he needs to embolden India to contain China, with whom he is sparring over trade. Both nations have no alternative but to engage.
Bombay HC’s Maratha quota order is hasty, will only fuel reservation politics
By allowing a breach in the 50% reservation ceiling in Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court may just have triggered the next round of quota politics. A judicial pronouncement on such a sensitive issue without consulting the caste census is hasty, ill-conceived. Politicians must wait for Supreme Court’s final ruling.
Reservation in any form is a bane of the society.
Nobody could be better aware of it than honest Indian leaders.
Efforts should be made to do away with it.
Difficult for a foreign leader to develop a personal rapport with President Trump and use it constructively to harmonise the official relationship. President Macron tried his best and failed, most notably on climate change and the Paris Accord. PM Abe started earlier, visiting the President elect in New York, only to see the US abandon the TPP. Or President Trump’s remarks before leaving for Osaka, that the security relationship with Japan might require to be reconsidered. The EU / NATO, led by Chancellor Merkel, have had their share of difficulties. For India, the safer course of action would be to let the relationship become a little more impersonal, EAM Dr Jaishankar walking on eggshells.
Reservations in Maharashtra are around 50% today. If one adds 10% for the economically less well off – as per the recent constitutional amendment – and 16% for the Marathas – although the HC has suggested a slight reduction – that means three fourths of posts in government service or slots in educational institutions are guided by considerations other than pure merit. This is deeply inequitous and it undermines efficiency. Idle to believe this will not cause strains in society, weaken cohesion. Since government jobs are shrinking, it will not take Marathas / Jats / Patel’s long to figure out that what they have been given looks like a sweet lime but it actually tastes like a lemon.
… iniquitous …