Unequal Equality

I remember a story I heard during my young age where the ants worked extremely hard during the summer so that they had enormous stocks to feed upon during the winters. And when the winter came the grasshoppers, who had failed to be proactive enough, conducted a ‘satyagraha’ outside the ants’ colony demanding a share of the grains. The media created havoc with footage of lean grasshoppers fighting the cold around the world while the ants were cozy within their colonies with enough and more nutritional sources. The human rights activists rushed to the help of the grasshoppers. And I believe they were right to an extent. Weren’t the grasshoppers denied the opportunity to those particular grains because the ants had been smart enough to carry them to their colonies! The politicians grabbed the opportunity of a ‘bandh’ while the most intelligent of the lot happily queued for their share of nutrition from the beverages corporation! Nutrition surely is a fundamental right! Right?

Following the T20 world cup, one of the most extravagant events of recent times, I was struck with grief. Being brought up in a nation where people fight to be called ‘backward’, I was baffled by the fact that Afghanistan was not reserved a place in the final 8! Considering the turmoil the country has gone through, I think even reserving a cup would have been nothing far from social justice!

But then, wasn’t New Zealand and for that matter even Sri Lanka one of the oppressed teams when they came into the international cricketing arena. Didn’t they compete with countries who had dominated the sport for over a century? And did they not emerge as winners without any kind of life support system that ensured they got a berth in every quarter final and a cup reserved for them due to their so called ‘backwardness’ in the game! The positions these teams hold today and the respect they earn through their hard work makes me think beyond the principles of democracy and social justice that I have been brought up with.

It is not necessary that you fail if you are not given an unlevel playing field! It is not necessary that you under achieve if you are called a ‘third world’ nation rather than being positively stroked as ‘developing’! The respect, confidence and strength you earn when you win on a level playing ground cannot be replaced by any of the reservations that are made for you.

The recent enthusiasm to bring in reservations in promotions makes me think that we are yet to understand the essence of the ant-grasshopper conflict! It is high time we understand and accept our failure of trying to bring equality through a system that is fundamentally based on inequality! It is time we stop denying people the experience of true achievement!