India’s reservation system began with a moral purpose that commanded broad respect. 

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar envisioned it as a constitutional instrument that could repair centuries of exclusion and open doors that caste, poverty, geography, and social discrimination had kept shut. 

Reservation emerged as a bridge into public life for communities denied access to education, jobs, and state power.

That vision still holds immense value. 

Millions of Indians entered universities, government offices, and professional institutions because the Constitution recognized that equality on paper means little when society begins with unequal foundations.

A serious problem now confronts that vision, especially in Jammu and Kashmir. 

Reservation increasingly serves people with influence, financial security, institutional access, and political reach while many genuinely disadvantaged students remain trapped at the edge of the system. 

Honest discussion on this issue rarely survives beyond slogans because political parties treat reservation as electoral territory rather than public policy.

That silence has produced deep resentment among young people who spent years believing hard work still mattered.

Reservation and merit can work together when the system functions honestly. 

A first-generation student from a remote village in Poonch who studies through power cuts, attends a poorly staffed government school, lacks coaching support, and still qualifies for a competitive examination represents both social justice and academic merit. 

Such a student deserves institutional support because the playing field began sharply uneven.

The crisis begins when privilege enters the system wearing the mask of disadvantage.

A senior bureaucrat’s son raised in a government bungalow, educated in elite schools, coached in Delhi, and surrounded by institutional guidance can still appear in recruitment lists through reserved category certificates. 

That reality destroys public faith because every such selection pushes out somebody who genuinely depended on constitutional protection.

This distortion grows sharper in Jammu and Kashmir because government employment remains the main path to economic........

© Kashmir Observer