Reservation Policy
In IIT/Medico or not, general category or not, selfish or not. Whichever side of the or one may lie on, it's tough to not feel strongly against the recently announced Reservation Policy in its present form. I have vague memories of the protests that happened after the Mandal Commisson Report in 1993. The protests were seldom violent but still weren't allowed by the erstwhile Govt. to be used as a means of expressing disagreement with the policy. And the occasional violence that did happen was because police drew the first blood. Indifference shown by policy makers fueled the protests with an extreme case of a student inflaming himself in front of media.
Little did I know back then that in just over a decades time an identical crisis will hit the nation once again. Ofcourse, the reason I call it a crisis is because it directly affects a large section of students to whom I can closely relate to. Crisis also because it highlights the dismal attitude of politicians to sacrifice the future of the hard-working youth for vote bank. What's more hilarious is that the parliament was unanimous in support of the proposition.
Story doesn't end here. While Arjun Singh (HRD minister), with his well-known jealousy for Manmohan Singh, is the apparent culprit, many believe that he's being used as the scape-goat by the UPA Govt. PM side of the story is even more amusing. Immediately after the quota was announced, Manmohan Singh commented saying "we're doing everything we can..." Ghaza's interpretation of this statement seems pretty reasonable, given the academic/intellectual and political background that PM boasts. As per Ghaza, it's a trade-off Manmohan Singh has to do to stay in office and hopefully be in position to take more critical decisions for the country & that the we indicated that he is not in support of the move.
Yes, my last statement clearly implies that such a reservation policy, IMHO, will hardly contribute (in any way) to the development of the country. With an in-take percentage far lower than the leading colleges of the world, even with OBC quota these central universities will remain enriched with the same talent pool as earlier. What might change is the motivation level of these people as they won't know the value of what has been given to them. Here, I firmly believe, it's the so-called responsible crowd (the professors and the apparent victims of the policy) who need to rise up to the occasion and make sure this taken-for-granted attitude is short-lived and true hard work is required.
What makes the discussion questionable is the unavailability of credible stats pertaining to the issue. I am yet to see an effective use of authoritative data in any arguement made for or against the policy. Leaving aside the corrupt motives of UPA govt. (using socialistic principles as a sheild), the main arguement used by the protesters is on the unfairness that the policy dictates upon the deserving students. Ironically, how deserving a candidate is of receiving such quality education can only be gauged by the justice he does to the education and resources once he has completed it. Not entering the medical domain and strictly sticking to IIT, I see only a handful who can say with conviction that they deserved every bit of it. The others are just hypocrite bastards not realizing that they have been twice lucky in their life - once to have born in a family which provided them the opportunity and later when they passed JEE - which as we all know is a day's game.
Going further, why the sudden social awakening on part of the students? Wasting nation's money is never an issue for them, behaving irresponsibly has never stirred any such emotions inside them ever, getting fake income certificates and availing scholarships has never burdened their conscience... there are sooo many other things. Well, they are doing what they deem best. Meanwhile, I am arguing why I should not stand in the sun and stay hungry with an agenda (as I anyway starve myself half the time) and instead sit idle in the room doing nothing but laughing at the matter.
PS: Never am I saying that a protest should not happen. It's important for several reasons, specially in a country where democracy hardly exists as the to-be suffering class doesn't exercise its vote anyway. Why should any politician care about people who don't care about most issues but a couple that hit them directly in the eye?
Little did I know back then that in just over a decades time an identical crisis will hit the nation once again. Ofcourse, the reason I call it a crisis is because it directly affects a large section of students to whom I can closely relate to. Crisis also because it highlights the dismal attitude of politicians to sacrifice the future of the hard-working youth for vote bank. What's more hilarious is that the parliament was unanimous in support of the proposition.
Story doesn't end here. While Arjun Singh (HRD minister), with his well-known jealousy for Manmohan Singh, is the apparent culprit, many believe that he's being used as the scape-goat by the UPA Govt. PM side of the story is even more amusing. Immediately after the quota was announced, Manmohan Singh commented saying "we're doing everything we can..." Ghaza's interpretation of this statement seems pretty reasonable, given the academic/intellectual and political background that PM boasts. As per Ghaza, it's a trade-off Manmohan Singh has to do to stay in office and hopefully be in position to take more critical decisions for the country & that the we indicated that he is not in support of the move.
Yes, my last statement clearly implies that such a reservation policy, IMHO, will hardly contribute (in any way) to the development of the country. With an in-take percentage far lower than the leading colleges of the world, even with OBC quota these central universities will remain enriched with the same talent pool as earlier. What might change is the motivation level of these people as they won't know the value of what has been given to them. Here, I firmly believe, it's the so-called responsible crowd (the professors and the apparent victims of the policy) who need to rise up to the occasion and make sure this taken-for-granted attitude is short-lived and true hard work is required.
What makes the discussion questionable is the unavailability of credible stats pertaining to the issue. I am yet to see an effective use of authoritative data in any arguement made for or against the policy. Leaving aside the corrupt motives of UPA govt. (using socialistic principles as a sheild), the main arguement used by the protesters is on the unfairness that the policy dictates upon the deserving students. Ironically, how deserving a candidate is of receiving such quality education can only be gauged by the justice he does to the education and resources once he has completed it. Not entering the medical domain and strictly sticking to IIT, I see only a handful who can say with conviction that they deserved every bit of it. The others are just hypocrite bastards not realizing that they have been twice lucky in their life - once to have born in a family which provided them the opportunity and later when they passed JEE - which as we all know is a day's game.
Going further, why the sudden social awakening on part of the students? Wasting nation's money is never an issue for them, behaving irresponsibly has never stirred any such emotions inside them ever, getting fake income certificates and availing scholarships has never burdened their conscience... there are sooo many other things. Well, they are doing what they deem best. Meanwhile, I am arguing why I should not stand in the sun and stay hungry with an agenda (as I anyway starve myself half the time) and instead sit idle in the room doing nothing but laughing at the matter.
PS: Never am I saying that a protest should not happen. It's important for several reasons, specially in a country where democracy hardly exists as the to-be suffering class doesn't exercise its vote anyway. Why should any politician care about people who don't care about most issues but a couple that hit them directly in the eye?
posted by Pranav at 1:52 AM
3 Comments:
Not quite sure that I agree with the fact that democracy doesn't work in India. The social and economic gap between the "forward" and the "backward" has only increased in the years that I have seen. In that case if the rural voters are voting and making sure that governments change and that parties such as INC and BJP are kept away from power and let people such as Mulayam Singh, Mayawati etc rise, would you say that democracy is not working. Possibly none of the leaders are doing anything, but at least the voters of India ensure to a pretty decent level, that those who don't work for them are thrown out of power.
Ah dammit.. wrote a reply but it got washed away. In brief...
As far as I understand, democracy is meant for the junta to make an informed decision for the good of the country. With percent rural voting matching that or urban areas, its sad.. and with Mayawati and Mulayam winning it just supports what I meant by the statement.
And all this is coming with strong emotional background... being from a rather politically active family (in case you don't know already) and have seen the way elections and votings happen.. :)
The truth in the second last paragraph troubles me the most. The protests are never well studied and result in very obscene behavior (boot polish in the mandal commission and sweeping this time).
Criticize the government only when your future is at stake is not something expected from the well educated class like us. And it's very difficult to stand the zeal and hipocracy of the protestors (protestants? :P).
And this decision though is a vote bank issue completely, it is a reaction of the massess whom the elite screwed very happily for the last 5000 years and never bothered about. You had your time, now they are having theirs.
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