Mohan Bhagwat’s quota poser deserves a debate and an answer | The Indian Express

Mohan Bhagwat’s quota poser deserves a debate and an answer | The Indian Express

Written by Meghnad Desai |Updated: August 25, 2019 7:19:50 am

Meghnad Desai loves to cook, watch and write about old Bollywood movies and shuttles between London, Delhi and Goa. He pursues controversies on economics, history and anything else which catches his attention. He is also a British parliamentarian sitting in the House of Lords. He has written over 25 books, over 200 articles in learned journals and hundreds of newspaper columns in UK and India.

Mohan Bhagwat’s quota poser deserves a debate and an answer

At what stage of prosperity can India give up reservations? After all, other democratic societies have income and class inequalities but do not require affirmative action. Why not India?

Bhagwat wishes all reservations would wither away and Hindus could be a single people. He knows it cannot happen yet but he wants to pose the question of equality versus entrenched reservations. This is what he wants to discuss.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has a question troubling him which he wants debated. He asked the question at the time of the Bihar elections four years ago. It embarrassed the BJP then and he had to keep quiet. But he has raised it again. It is a question which is at the heart of the RSS and its vision for the future of India. Only someone not in electoral politics can raise such a question. It deserves a serious debate.