Reservations, the Indian way
After the last wave of reservations, i thought that politicians of our nation would never come up with a ill-advised policy like that ever again. Guess what.. i was naive to under-estimate the foolhardiness of our great great political leadership. Our politicians have again and again come up with such poorly thought out, retrogressive plans over and over, with an alarming alacrity to defy all imagination. As if there is a competition among them to see, who comes up with a policy most damaging to the future of our own country.
Reservations-II, this time for OBCs (Other Backward Classes/Castes), is one of these gems, which Mr Arjun singh has enveiled to the nation. What this means is that, if you are from an OBC, even though you are well to do, you just need to score 10% in an entrance exam or even better, in some cases, just appear for the exam and you get into one of the premier institutes of our country. Institutes targetted are IITs and IIMS, which are appreciated all over the world for their excellance in academics.
The reason for reservations, as presented by many Pro-reservation activists is that, for centuries some castes in Indian society have been socially exploited and they needs to be given a chance to enjoy the best our nation has to offer. I totally agree that the caste system is probably the worst part of our social heritage. And people who have been left behind needs to be uplifted, so that they can join the mainstream. But, are reservations the only way to do that? Is the criteria of castes is a right one for reservations? By basing the reservations on caste, wouldn't after 30-40 years we would need to provide reservations to the castes which are excluded from such a reservation package this time around? Are we committing another injustice just to undo past injustices? Aren't we making the same mistakes which our forefathers made by favouring certains castes over others?
I was reading an article in "The Indian Express" by Mr Sachin pilot, an MP of Lok Sabha. He had mentioned few good points in the article. One that appealed me the most was that, the Reservations should be in a time-bound manner so that they are not taken advantage of for generations to come. But the problem is that the package that our government of which he is a part, is pushing wouldn't have both of these clauses in it. Since the last push for reservations, many people who benefitted and are now well to do, but still their children are getting quota under the same garb of upliftment of backward classes. Do you think they are still backward? And those who really need reservations, still dont get it. And did any of our politicians across different parties had courage to raise this issue... even though they know its clearly a mis-use of the system. Did anyone raise this issue??
Another point that i have is, why lower the bar of competition? Instead of requiring a student from reserved classes to just show up for an entrance exam to get a seat in engg or medical college, why dont we give them money and support them, so that they can get proper coaching. This way they will be on the same level as other students and compete "fairly" with them to get into any institution. Isnt it a better approach, not only for those students but also for the nation? Wouldn't we be producing better enggs and doctors this way than our existing system? I will give an example here, Suppose our government wants to buy 100 heart pacemaker devices. Suppose there are 4 companies bidding for that contract, 3 are private firms with their product scoring 90, 91, 92 marks out of 100 on quality. And the 4th one is a government enterprise, and has a poor product with only 25 marks out of 100. But Government wants to help this govt enterprise to be a world competitor. Would the better approach be to help this company with funds so that they improve their product and then compete with other companies or just buy its product even though it doesnt meet the
mark, because you want to help or uplift this company? It shouldnt be hard to make a decision in this case. Is it? Everyone, no matter educated or not, from any strata of society should be able to make this decision very easily.
Alas, esteemed politicians of our nation are too scared of opening their mouth on any issue which can hurt their vote bank. You know it, i know it, everyone knows it.. isnt it? Dont you think there can be better aproaches to uplift the backward classes of our country than what Arjun singh or VP singh are doing or have done? Our nation expects and deserves a better deal than this. Isn't it?
Reservations-II, this time for OBCs (Other Backward Classes/Castes), is one of these gems, which Mr Arjun singh has enveiled to the nation. What this means is that, if you are from an OBC, even though you are well to do, you just need to score 10% in an entrance exam or even better, in some cases, just appear for the exam and you get into one of the premier institutes of our country. Institutes targetted are IITs and IIMS, which are appreciated all over the world for their excellance in academics.
The reason for reservations, as presented by many Pro-reservation activists is that, for centuries some castes in Indian society have been socially exploited and they needs to be given a chance to enjoy the best our nation has to offer. I totally agree that the caste system is probably the worst part of our social heritage. And people who have been left behind needs to be uplifted, so that they can join the mainstream. But, are reservations the only way to do that? Is the criteria of castes is a right one for reservations? By basing the reservations on caste, wouldn't after 30-40 years we would need to provide reservations to the castes which are excluded from such a reservation package this time around? Are we committing another injustice just to undo past injustices? Aren't we making the same mistakes which our forefathers made by favouring certains castes over others?
I was reading an article in "The Indian Express" by Mr Sachin pilot, an MP of Lok Sabha. He had mentioned few good points in the article. One that appealed me the most was that, the Reservations should be in a time-bound manner so that they are not taken advantage of for generations to come. But the problem is that the package that our government of which he is a part, is pushing wouldn't have both of these clauses in it. Since the last push for reservations, many people who benefitted and are now well to do, but still their children are getting quota under the same garb of upliftment of backward classes. Do you think they are still backward? And those who really need reservations, still dont get it. And did any of our politicians across different parties had courage to raise this issue... even though they know its clearly a mis-use of the system. Did anyone raise this issue??
Another point that i have is, why lower the bar of competition? Instead of requiring a student from reserved classes to just show up for an entrance exam to get a seat in engg or medical college, why dont we give them money and support them, so that they can get proper coaching. This way they will be on the same level as other students and compete "fairly" with them to get into any institution. Isnt it a better approach, not only for those students but also for the nation? Wouldn't we be producing better enggs and doctors this way than our existing system? I will give an example here, Suppose our government wants to buy 100 heart pacemaker devices. Suppose there are 4 companies bidding for that contract, 3 are private firms with their product scoring 90, 91, 92 marks out of 100 on quality. And the 4th one is a government enterprise, and has a poor product with only 25 marks out of 100. But Government wants to help this govt enterprise to be a world competitor. Would the better approach be to help this company with funds so that they improve their product and then compete with other companies or just buy its product even though it doesnt meet the
mark, because you want to help or uplift this company? It shouldnt be hard to make a decision in this case. Is it? Everyone, no matter educated or not, from any strata of society should be able to make this decision very easily.
Alas, esteemed politicians of our nation are too scared of opening their mouth on any issue which can hurt their vote bank. You know it, i know it, everyone knows it.. isnt it? Dont you think there can be better aproaches to uplift the backward classes of our country than what Arjun singh or VP singh are doing or have done? Our nation expects and deserves a better deal than this. Isn't it?
posted by Jayant @ 10:16 PM
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