Why not to have quota based voting?

This issue popped up in my mind some time back when I heard our new HRD minister Dr. Kapil Sibal talk about having quotas for OBCs in private institutions. It’s not that I was amazed at this U-Turn by Mr. Sibal on the issue of quotas (He was one of the few from government to criticize Arjun Singh’s quota policy.). I have understood by now that you can never trust a politician. But this news item triggered a thought in my mind that when the government is keen to divide the society on the basis of castes, as opposed to what it SHOULD be

doing, why doesn’t it allocate a quota to the voting as well?

Here’s a proposition for quota-based voting in India. Let’s have 27% quota for OBCs, 33% for women, 15% for SCs, 10% for Muslims, 5% for Christians and 5% for others. Remaining 5% might be allocated to the General Category but only if Mr. Sibal and his government think that GC are intelligent enough to chose a government. If they decide to move ahead with their existing argument that GC people have EXCESSIVE advantage over other castes and categories of people, they might take away this Extra-ordinary right as well.

But just imagine what will happen after this quota allocation. 27% of the whisky bottles for elections will be distributed among OBCs leading to nation-wide strikes by SCs to increase their quota. The Election Commission of India will issue a

charge-sheet against Mr. Lallu for exceeding the quota of SCs and OBCs in his rallies. Mayawati will be awarded the “Best Politician” award for showing most respect towards the quota system and the quickest implementation in her state. Mulayam will be put behind bars for having 25% muslims in his party against the quota of 10%. And BJP will be banned for defying the entire Quota regime. Congress will still remain the Most Secular Party in India with strict adherence to quotas.

So, while the GC citizens will be downgraded to third-class citizens, India will develop as the Most Secular Nation on the planet with Quotas for everyone.

AS

Originally posted on http://am-i-possible.blogspot.com

History of various technologies

This is an excerpt from an article in the newspaper today.Found it interesting.

Ever wondered how old your favourite technology or gadget really is? Read on to find out


CELLPHONES

How many years old: 36

Date of birth: October 17, 1973

From being a luxury for the rich to an absolute necessity even for the common man, the cell phone’s come a long way. It’s almost an extension of the human body now. Martin Cooper made the first call on a handheld mobile phone on April 3, 1973. The first mobile phone was approved by the Federal Communications Commission in the US in 1983.

THE INTERNET

How many years old: 40

Date of birth: September 2, 1969

For something that you can’t feel or see, the World Wide Web has changed our thoughts and our lives in ways we’re only just beginning to realise. The Internet truly shrunk the world, being the harbinger of an information revolution. This mode of connectivity was born at the University of California 40 years ago last week. And when was the first time it was attacked? In 1988, by ‘Morris’, one of the first Internet worms!

BLOGS

How many years old: 12

Date of birth: April 1, 1997

This one’s the kid in the family. Blogs are freedom of expression on steroids — everything from Bush-bashing to your sex life can be broadcast to the world. ‘Scripting New’ was the first modern blog. Initially, it was named ‘weblog’ (meaning log of the web), and later, in 2004, it received legitimacy from the etymological elite, with the Merriam Webster dictionary making it its word of the year.

THE WALKMAN

How many years old: 30

Date of birth: July 1, 1979

This one passed away young, but its memory lives on every time someone plugs in the earphones of an MP3 player. Thirty years after it was born, the great grand daddy of iPods has been relegated to obsolescence, but the snazzy gadget revolutionised the way people listened to music, and still inspires fond nostalgia from the parent types.