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Don't give to minorities what is denied to the majority By G Sukumaran Nair Surprising enough, Muslims in Kerala enjoy all the protection available as minority community besides being showered with reservation benefits. The same is the case of the Christian community in the state who are getting the minority protection as well as reservation benefits for a few sections among them. No doubt, protection to minorities is a necessity in the interest of the nation at large. But it is not justifiable to give protection to the minorities which is not enjoyed by the majority. So far as the state of Kerala is concerned, the minority communities have come to the forefront in the fields of education, social status and economy over the years than the majority. I must say that this has happened due to the policies framed by the various governments with malicious political motives. They always wanted to maintain power and to strengthen their parties by ensuring the consolidated support of the minorities as a vote bank. They realised that such a consolidation among the Hindus will certainly be a menace to achieve their aim and effectively formulated plans to keep them divided. This they did by grouping the Hindus as to forward and backward communities and giving enormous privileges to the backward communities through their reservation policy. As a natural outcome of the above strategy, now, the minorities enjoy the upper hand. Thus they have grabbed supremacy over the majority over the years since Independence. Similarly, the fruits of reservation privileges are reaped by the financially sound among the backward communities due to the present reservation policy. We feel that the grant of minority protection and reservation benefits should be enforced state-wise according to the circumstances and requirements of that state. The stand of Nair Service Society (NSS) is very clear on this issue-Reservation should be made applicable to the economically poor and caste or creed should not be the basis for granting the same. The far-sight of the founder leader of NSS Shri Mannathu Padmanabhan realised the importance of economic reservation and urged his followers to propagate and fight for the benefits of reservation with economic criteria. The NSS has ever since stood for this stand which it believed only will bring about social justice. Surprising enough, Muslims here enjoy all the protection available as minority community besides being showered with reservation benefits. The same is the case of the Christian community in the state who are getting the minority protection as well as reservation benefits for a few sections among them. These circumstances have made issues more and more complicated and tense. There is sufficient ground to fear peace in the state being threatened by such discrimination. Reservation is not a right by birth. It is only a privilege granted by Constitution over a period of 10 years which is to be periodically reviewed on the basis of scientifically gathered data. The NSS is never against the good principles behind reservation being made available to the needy. We say that this should be enforced with economic state of affairs as the basis of its grant. With this ensured, the poor section in Hindu community will progress and prosper and this will take away the rift now seen among them as backward and forward and thus will revive the lost hopes of the Hindu community as a whole. (The writer is assistant secretary of Nair Service Society.)

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