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Sainis get Backward Class status, but then lose it again
WSN Network

JALANDHAR: The elite Saini caste members who opposed the Backward Class tag given to their caste by the Punjab Government finally won with the Punjab Government putting the decision in abeyance. The demand for granting the Sainis the status of Backward Class was raised by Tarsem Saini, an influential leader and a close acolyte of the Badals who also represents the interests of the aarhtiyas. Later, many Saini organizations and front bodies mushroomed within days and demanded that 0the BC tag was an insult and how dare the government call them Backward Class.

Saini Welfare and Cultural Society president Harbhajan Singh Saini, Balbir Singh Saini, Jai Pal Saini etc, all opposed the new status (see pix). Much of the brouhaha against the government’s decision was raised at the instance of an editor of Punjabi newspaper Ajit, Barjinder Singh Hamdard, himself a Saini.

Most of the criticism was centred around claims that the Sainis are very advanced, and have achieved the moon and now they are a very forward community. The argument was that the new tag was akin to diminishing them as human beings and was a gross insult. Little did the master editor directing this orchestra of press conferences and statements or those mouthing such arguments realise that their actions amounted to insulting all those who fall within the BC purview.

The classification as BC entitles those marginalized by the system to get a toe hold in the form of some affirmative action, and it is in no way an insult. There could have been many polite ways of saying that the Sainis can do well without the state largesse but they clearly showed their cultural backwardness by making the argument in a most uncouth way.

4 March 2009
 

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