Why a Saif Ali Khan film scene is viral as Reservation Hatao Movement gains traction

Reservation Hatao Andolan has a logo and slogan. Image: Instagram

New Delhi: A dialogue from Saif Ali Khan’s 2011 film Aarakshan has gone viral as the “Reservation Hatao Movement” (“Remove Reservation Movement”) gains attention on social media.

The campaign has been circulating on Instagram, X and Reddit over the past few days, with posts calling for caste-based quotas in education and government jobs to be removed or reworked. 

In the resurfaced clip from Prakash Jha’s 2011 political drama, Saif Ali Khan’s character Deepak Kumar argues that reservation is not cha rity.

“Aarakshan hamara janmasiddh adhikar hai,” (“Reservation is our birthright”), he said.

For some reasons, kinda love the staging of this scene from Prakash Jha's Aarakshan (2011)

Proper intensity from both Manoj Bajpayee, Saif Ali Khan and Prateik Babbar imo.

Also happens to be the pre-interval scene iirc. pic.twitter.com/GYaBF6v4Uz

— Shilpak. (@ugach_kahitarii) July 26, 2026

 

Aarakshan starred Khan as Deepak, a lower-caste teacher, and Amitabh Bachchan as Dr Prabhakar Anand, his mentor and college principal. Deepika Padukone, Manoj Bajpayee and Prateik Babbar also starred in the film. The film was built around caste-based reservation in education and government jobs, and the conflict it creates inside a college.

 

Support and pushback

The Instagram page @reservationhataomovement has used the slogan “Equality. Merit. Equal Opportunity” to propel this movement, initially thought to be satire. 

It was found followers in millions but the pushback, too, has been intense.

One Instagram user posted: “Paper leak toh paper hone se pehle bacche ka haq maarta hai, lekin aarakshan har us ek bacche ka haq maarta hai, aur kai baar marta hai jo din raat mehnat karta hai” (“A paper leak takes away a child’s right before the exam, but reservation takes away the rights of every hard-working child again and again”).

“What is a reservation hatao movement bro read some Ambedkar,” another user wrote on X.

Another X user shared the clip from Aarakshan and wrote, “Aarakshan becomes even more relevant. Bollywood once gave us films that confronted real problems, now it churns out majoritarian propaganda instead.”

Every time someone argues that reservation should be removed, Saif Ali Khan’s monologue in Aarakshan becomes even more relevant. Bollywood once gave us films that confronted real problems, now it churns out majoritarian propaganda instead https://t.co/eBXnNcglU6 pic.twitter.com/WEVTGQgICO

— r (@bekhayalime) July 26, 2026

 

The film had faced controversy before its release in August 2011. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes objected to some dialogues and scenes, saying they were derogatory towards Scheduled Castes. Then NCSC chairperson P.L. Punia pointed to a scene in which “Aarakshan hamara janmasiddh adhikar hai” (“Reservation is our birthright”) was mocked by replacing “adhikar” (“right”) with “khairaat” (“charity”).

Reservation in India was introduced as a constitutional measure to address the exclusion of historically oppressed caste groups from education, employment and public life. It is not just an economic welfare policy. The Constitution allows special provisions for socially and educationally backward classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The Mandal Commission, set up in 1979, expanded this framework to include reservation for Other Backward Classes.

(Edited by Stela Dey)