The doctors and medical students of All India Institute of Medical Sciences ( AIIMS) have lifted their 19 day strike following an order from the Supreme Court which stated that their failure to do so before midnight of 31st of May would bring them under custody with the charge of Contempt of Court. This is yet another example of the fallacy of Democracy. What is democracy then? A government of the people ( yes, the hoodlums, criminals and thugs of society), by the people ( hmm… you have to count booth capturing and rigging too) and for the people ( yea right, the government is the best route to becoming a millionaire, by just attending some lousy meetings at the Lok Sabha). The whole concept of Democracy now seems to be an elaborate hoax on the gullible race called mankind. It advocates high morals, principles and elaborate philosophies but when it comes to bringing these so called philosophies to practice, they always seem to fail miserably and subsequently manage to extricate themselves from the situation by ridiculous explanations and excuses.
Introduction of the 27% reservation for the OBC’s in all government and government aided institutions, is fundamentally against the tenets of democracy. A government which preaches equality among the masses, whose constitution states quite emphatically that all citizens will have equal opportunities as to where public services are concerned has failed to keep up to its dogmas. It would be logical if the reservation was made on the basis of financial position of the students family rather than on the basis of caste. It is not correct to assume that just being an OBC means the student is financially disabled and hence cannot possibly compete with the other meritorious students from the upper echelons of society. In fact, the biggest loophole of this policy is that it will be unfairly exploited by the relatively richer of the caste, who have the same if not better standard of general education than most of the others, rather than the poor and the oppressed. It is in other words a double edged attack on merit.
But the most shocking aspect of the whole situation was the response from the government to the protest against the whole quota system and the strike organized by the doctors at the medical colleges. They hardly paid any attention to what they demanded and instead issued a supreme court order for them to lift the strike or face dire consequences. Of course, it was a careless on the part of the doctors to leave the hospitals unattended. Government hospitals are the only health centres available to the poor and financially disabled of the country. So it cannot be commended as a good move. But the fact that the government did not pay any heed to the demands of the youth and the protestors was a slap on the face. Yet another illustration of the biggest practical joke that the Greeks played on humankind… dēmokratia.