Why calling caste is a crime when it is denial of a benefit ? Sanjay Chaturvedi.

A recent case which made the headlines in all electronic media and newspaper headlines was of a man being denied job by a diamond merchant because he is a Muslim. Much uproar is made everywhere; the man interviewed by almost each daily and got publicity over the issue. But is there anything wrong if an employer uses his discretion in employing people of his choice? Is there any rule that prohibits the private sector to employ people of their choice? No, I don’t think so. The only thing went wrong for this diamond merchant was that he spoke truth while denying the job. Had he kept silent and not appointed the person, it would have been fine. However, viewing it otherwise, the case is actually a milestone in the freedom of expression, on the one hand and doing natural justice on the other.
In order to understand the principle of natural justice we can have a look on category of reservations in any government and government undertakings. More than 50% of the total staff force is appointed on the basis of reservation, which is actually based on caste. This also includes the ‘so called minority of Muslims’. At the point of time everyone has to apply for the job there are categories in which the ‘so called majority’ is categorized in ‘General’ category while for other categories certain certificates are needed (probably) for the categories of handicapped, war widows etc. But any certificate needed for being a Muslim? The point here is that if the people form Muslim community is getting advantage of getting job on mentioning themselves ‘Muslim’, then why is there a problem in denying the job because of anyone is from a particular community? The worst thing in our system is that the diamond merchant has faced legal consequences for denying job on the basis of religion. What about the people who recruit people just because they belong to the particular religion or caste? All the government vacancies are filled the same way, by mentioning caste to which the candidate belongs. Just bowing to the pressure of so called minorities is no way in national interest. If calling them Muslim gets a job, its fine for them, but if the job is denied for the same reason it becomes the matter of minority commission and legal sections are imposed on the person.
In this reference without mentioning name of any company, anyone may observe that if any business is owned by a particular community belonging to the so called minority class, 95% of the employees is from the same community. More important is that in the lunch time they all go for about an hour as it is their prayer time. In the age when we are talking of going on Mars and exploring more areas in space, this is the style of functioning they follow. For the remaining 5% they have to appoint other people because of the need of a particular job, I suppose.
So, why are we so threatened of the minority (if it is) in our country? This also raises a question that even after more than 65 years of independence why are we still following the caste based reservation system? The political interests of all these parties have badly affected the progress of nation.
Another example of the curse of reservation was recently seen at the time of release of cut off for JEE mains. For the general category the cut off was 105 while for the reservation candidate it was 44. Just imagine a person with 104 marks is not getting a seat because another person of some particular religion or caste gets a preference by getting 44 marks. Where are we proceeding towards? An engineer securing 44 marks would be making our future flyovers, trains, ships and would be playing with the life of citizens that also include the probable candidate who was not selected because of getting 104 marks. We have to stop playing with the life of these young students. It is enough now. They have been given opportunity for three generations to rise above the level where they were understood to be in 1947. But if a particular category has not been able to uplift itself to the level of the ‘general’ category in spite of getting so many exemptions and favours, it is to be assumed that they are not the right person to get such opportunities. On the one hand youth are committing suicide for not getting jobs while on the other such people enjoying a list of preferences are making no attempt to compete on merits. If it is the government who is responsible, a tough stand by the intellectuals of the country needs to be taken at this stage.