V.P Singh - The Hailey's comet of Indian politics

Amidst all the confusion, tension, noise, blood and grime of the Mumbai terror stand-off, hardly anyone noticed that V.P Singh - India's former Prime Minister passed away in New Delhi yesterday. He was 77.

Known primarily for introducing reservations to the backward classes in public sector jobs and later educational institutions - accepting and implementing the Mandal commision recommendations, V.P Singh was actually like a comet - roaming around quietly on the outskirts of the galaxy till suddenly coming into bright, brilliant and resplendent focus for a brief while and then quietly fading away again.

His blaze of glory started with his surprise ascension as the Chief Minister of U.P in 1980 - Indira Gandhi perhaps needed someone dependable, quiet to manage her backyard......clearly she didnt know who she was dealing with. It seems it is here that he developed a penchant for "spectacular" politics - when he gained a lot of popularity for offering to resign when the objective of stamping out the dacoits, didnt go entirely to plan.

But this gimmick gained him so much clout that he was appointed the Union Finance Minister in Rajiv Gandhi's famous progressive cabinet of 1983. Again, taking his job perhaps too seriously, he went after titans he had no chance of defeating.....famously ordering Income Tax raids on Dhirubhai Ambani and Amitabh Bachchan.....he had some stellar work too - in helping relax the license raj and dramatically reduce gold smuggling in India.

Then he was shunted to the defence ministry....and Rajiv must have assumed he'll have some peace.......you think?

Our man unearthed Bofors there.....yes THE BOFORS case - which as far as I know is still muddling along - where huge kickbacks were rumoured to have been paid to Rajiv and co. Clearly with such explosive allegations, he couldnt remain in the government - so he resigned on "moral" grounds and promptly joined the opposition.....where through some very clever manoeuvering, postering and postioning, he came to power.....and then it happened - his Biggest claim to fame...

Accepting and implementing the Mandal Commission report - that a fixed percentage of jobs be "reserved" for the historically repressed backward classes - a way of punishing the current innocents for past crimes of their forefathers.

I feel strongly about reservations as a concept in society - I thinkthey have led to progressive de-generation of merit in our public sector companies, in our educational institutions. I believe they have put India back about 30 years on the development path in an escalator sliding backwards.....the more you try to push along, the more you remain stuck in the same place. 

Reservations are also an excellent way for the caste system to remain around for a long long while - we should be attempting to get rid of the archaic practice that outlived its utility some 2000 years ago.....yet now the backward castes want to assert their caste credentials - for it provides them "benefits". There were massive protests, the capital city came to halt this year when the gujjars (another group claimant for such status) demanded recognition as a backward caste and thus reservations.....this is fun - everyone now wants to be recognized as a historical loser and thus wants tio be rewarded with freebie. 

Our founding fathers saw reservations ass a brief, temporary measure that would implemented with clearly defined metrics for a brief period of time....no one realized this is a measure that once introduced can never be rescinded.......try as you might, India will now be stuck in this morass for a looooong loooong time.

Anyway, coming back to our protagonist V.P SIngh - the next big incident was when he was famously voted out our of power after he had his alliance partner L.K Advani arrested as his famous Rath Yatra was proceeding towards Ayodhya.....it was to later, a little later lead to the destruction of the Babri masjid - which along with the Gujarat pogrom I believe are the biggest reasons for the alienation of muslims in India today....more on that another day.

Post his defeat, V.P Singh decided to retire from active politics - yes, just like that he announced I'm done. And his all too brief but eventful political career had already come to an end. In 1993 he was diagnosed with Blood cancer - he fought bravely against this scourge for 15 years till much like the life he led - he passed away - on the fringe of the galaxy - almost un-noticed.

May you rest in peace.....