of the bc applicants could get the seats they wanted like in medical or engineering courses not many of the seats earmarked for bcs would have gone out of their lap and benefited the ocs there were enough bc applicants from weaker sections to still use up the quotafrom 1971 the reservation system tweaked the lists of castes and beneficiaries to such a level that bcs had to fight one another for space this led to violent agitations for the vanniyar caste in 1987 when 21 people lost their lives in police firing this provoked agitations by other castes as well fresh violence broke out after m karunanidhi came to power in 1996 which forced the government to hastily withdraw the names of districts and transport corporations given to various leaders of tamil nadu on the ground that they were seen as leaders or representatives by one caste or another and therefore buses carrying their names were targetedboth the dmk and the aiadmk have been guilty of pandering to casteist votebanks using the reservation policy to provide a few sops parties led by specific castes have even resorted to violence to put down or threaten those who projected an alternate reservation system over the years due to the intervention of the courts reservation was neither 50 nor 69 but somewhere in between as the courts would frown upon providing 69 reservation and would order that litigants from the open category should be provided additional seats that yearthe lastminute shortsighted move of the aiadmk government led by edappadi k palaniswami to provide a subquota of 105 for the vanniyar community did not really provide electoral benefits for the aiadmkled alliance on the other hand reports indicated a backlash from other communitiesg chidambaram former member of the tamil nadu planning commission suggests the way out of the present mess is to return to the objectives set out by the supreme court in 1951 when reservation was allowed by a special amendment to the constitution on the basis of classes and not castes for instance landless labour mechanics plumbers electricians plumbers potters and such others among dailywage earners who need an educational net for their wards this way firstgeneration aspirants would have an advantage and there would also be no need to introduce an economic criterion or creamy layer as the system by and large takes care of itself here reservation is not permanent and there is an inherent mechanism to take care of the genuinely backward class and movement into or out of the class is possible unlike in caste groupings it is the duty of the governments to protect the underdogs only if the reservation benefits are extended on the basis of classes and not castes will there be real justice and progress in uplifting weaker sections of society that would be the true aim of reservation it was never thought of as perpetual reservation but intended to help uplift certain classes of people who need help says chidambaramin the present