Reservations. Is there a solution?

Recently, whole of Rajasthan was embroiled in a stand-off between Gujjars, Meenas and the state government. After all the hoopla the Gujjars, it seems have got a raw deal. The Chopra committee has not considered them for ST status and the state cabinet has also rejected their demand for inclusion in ST. Gujjars have called for mahapanchayat on the issue to decide the future course of action.

It seems the problem of reservation is fast turning into a threat for peace and integrity of this country.
Who deserves reservations and who should be excluded is the big question? The reservations in India have been caste-based since independence. The problem with this is that some castes have been grouped together under a group and that means the dominant caste is eating into the shares of weaker castes, defeating the whole purpose of reservations. This is what has happened with Gujjars. They are already in the OBC category and now they want themselves to be declared ST much to chagrin of Meenas. There have been numerous suggestions, ranging from doing away with reservations to giving reservation to lower income strata of Upper castes.

I believe the just way to give reservations is income level and not caste. However, in India we should look at various facets. There should be caste based reservations only for SC/ST. This is because they have borne the brunt of this caste system. The problem of untouchability continues in India even now. There are temples where dalits are still not allowed. However, immediate beneficiary of those SC/ST who are in class 1 and class 2 jobs should be kept out of this as they have the wherewithal to compete.
Only, those scheduled castes should be given reservation this way who are followers of Hindu religion because as far as I know caste system exists in only Hindu religion. However if there is any other religion with caste system, the followers of that religion should also be included. As for rest 27 % the reservations should be income level and all the other castes in Hindu religion and minorities should be included in this. Only those below poverty line should be given benefit. So, the group with maximum number of population below poverty line would benefit most and this is the whole purpose of giving reservations.

Another question is that quality will suffer. I will write on this topic later.