RESERVATIONLESS FUTURE
Sujat’s take on reservation may not find immediate resonance among Dalits, but it has takers among a small group of SCs and STs.
“Dalits should defeat caste with capital and become job providers,” says Milind Kamble, chairman of the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The issue of reservation has been at the centre stage of political debate in Maharashtra with Marathas and other castes demanding quotas for the community. In an interview, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said the time has come for reservation on the basis of economic criteria rather than caste. Reactions to Pawar’s remarks were mixed. don’t think there is a need for political reservation. In jobs and education, reservation should be continued although people who have achieved a certain economic condition should voluntarily give a chance to those in the community, who are still at the bottom of pyramid.”
Sujat’s views are similar to his father’s. In an interview in 2013, Prakash Ambedkar had said that the time has come for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes to get rid of reservation in electoral politics.
Sujat, for the record, has never availed of any reservation and always studied through the open category. “I consider myself most privileged since I got everything from the beginning,” he says, wanting to go beyond reservations and atrocities against Dalits to highlight day-to- day issues being faced by the marginalised through the website he is planning to launch.
The fourth generation Ambedkar scion is currently serving his notice-period at a city-based tabloid he joined some four months ago.
“I have resigned from the paper because I want to start a news portal that will raise issues of the marginalised class,” says Sujat.