I was absolutely appalled this morning when I saw a news item this morning about the Supreme Court upholding the OBC Quota. To borrow the words of Glenn Beck, I am no expert when it comes to determining if it violates the basic structure of Constitution but I am a thinker. Reservations being successful in uplifting the OBCs chances of obtaining better education has the same probability of a double date between Karunanidhi/ Jayalalitha and Sonia Gandhi and Advani in the lovely locales of Bermuda. Who are we kidding here?
I have to make it very clear that I am not against OBCs (or anyone for that matter) having the right and opportunity for education. (I have a lot of friends who come from different backgrounds including BCs/SCs/STs.-Its funny isn’t it anybody who clarifies any comment about Caste and race always play this card). The logical solution for their upliftment is to provide financial aid ensure that most kids take up education. The new legislation should be implemented in such a way that it will be applicable only to primary education or worse case secondary education. We are only diluting the quality of professionals by having quota systems in esteemed institutions like the IIT and IIMs. Anything other than merit determining this is an absolute sacrilege.
Another important issue is that, the whole premise for Mandal Commission’s recommendation seems flawed. They are estimating the % of OBCs of the Indian population to be around 50% while popular govt statistics places this figure somewhere around the 30%. If they are uncertain about this elementary detail how can they be right about determining what is the right percentage?
Why should somebody be penalized for being born in a particular caste? I have never been a huge fan of the argument that somebody was suppressed for a certain number of years and hence they should be unfairly rewarded. By the same argument the Jews should be killing the Germans for the next 10 years and almost every country should invade England and plunder their livelihood. Somebody made a mistake in the past and it should be rectified by making sure that “ALL ARE TREATED EQUALLY” from now on. Are reservations being made with the intention of helping the OBC’s are out of spite for the other caste?
The fact that all political party including the BJP (who are supposed to be championing for the needs of the so called “Forward Caste”) are keeping quite about this whole thing further establishes this as an election stunt. They would not want their stand on this issue affect the outcomes in the upcoming election. I am pretty sure that the lovely politicians will use every possible resource to misuse this whole system. I am really certain that this will reward more undeserving candidates than it does rewarding the deserving OBCs. It’s such a shame that Meritocracy has become a myth in India!
Whilst we are on this subject, I have a quick suggestion-Why don’t we talk to the likes of Sharad Pawar and ensure that 27% of the Indian cricket team be made up of people from BCs/SCs. Also let that bloke KPS Gill who claims to be running the show for Indian hockey know about this proposal. I am sure given his wonderful contribution to the sport he would lap this idea. It would be hugely inappropriate if I don’t make a mention about the 2 good souls in Arjun Singh and VP Singh for their contribution to this wonderful new legislature.
Here’s hoping somebody in the system sees the flaw takes some corrective action.
Cheers
S
P S : Charlie Langeveldt pulled out of the South African touring party to India because he knew that he has been picked because of his colour and not because of his credentials. You sir are an absolute legend and I bow to you!
Statistics in the above piece have been taken from CNN IBN.
That's Me
- Sharath
- I love my sport. I can keep watching or discussing football and cricket all day. I work with the sole objective of making enough money to retire when I am 40. I have a sense of humour which has to be my most distinguishing feature. I can laugh at myself and I style myself as the king of self-depreciating humour.
9 comments:
Disgusting!!! was my first impression. It all boils down to "Vote Bank". Whatever the % of eth OBCs, thats the % they are attracting by these reservations.
Reservations were meant for a purpose and that purpose has outlived itself - 60+ yrs after independance, and here we are still living with it. From a common mans perspective, its the easy way out - win-win as they see it, not realising that it will take the country to doomsday!!!!
He... He. U have to figure out which is more entertaining, our politics or our Cricket/Movies. There is no point trying to rationalize as we all know the answer why this is done. BTW, Karnataka politicians have taken a leaf out of TN by promising free TVs.
Caste system should not be there at all! The whole problem will be solved. I am against caste system.
Appalling to say the least....
I always believed that there should be income/wealth criteria which should be used in determining the eligibility for quota system. But in India you even get false caste certificates quite easily (that’s another topic altogether). I have seen numerous instances were rich people use quota system to get into colleges which is disgusting whereas other people bust their....s to get into such colleges...
Take CA for example it is one of the cheapest professional courses offered in INDIA , why don’t they give money to people to enroll into the course and see how many people clear that course instead of giving admission into IITs and IIMs where getting in is so tough????
By upholding the OBC Quota we are only going to degrade the image and quality of IITs and IIMs to the entire world.
Well.. I have not lived in India for almost 16 years and as such am not in a position to comment on the state of affairs..
But i know one thing...
There is no purpose of reserving seats for anyone because of their caste or background from..
Encouraging mediocrity to proceed because of a quota system will encourage exactly that "MEDIOCRITY".
If someone gets into a university or college because they are from a OBC but truly are not capable or deserving of the seat due to their inferior intellect, we are going to build a future work force that is mediocre and truly not of the best quality. (note that i am not implying that OBCs are less intelligent or hard working).
I have always advocated that students should be granted places in schools based on their educational grades and inteligence quotient..
That said there is possibly a flip side to this whole thing...
Maybe:
forward caste individuals who learn various trades at these institutions are all reluctant to go into the grass routes to ply their trades and develop the rural areas...
Maybe the government is hoping that by encouraging the OBCs to take up medicine and engineering and things, they can possibly return to the community and build the rural areas and stuff... (My assumption is that OBC people are from under previliged rural areas?? Please do correct me if i am wrong)
This more or less boils down to the blog i had written abt this issue long back.
http://freeyavudu.blogspot.com/2006/04/reserved-against-reservations.html
Check it out if u can
I think financial aid or finance based reservations to be the way forward. It is elementary that when someone is poor he cannot afford the quality of education that money can buy. So either raise the mark of government institutions (Not all - Most higher ecucation government institutions are a class apart) or give a financial state based reservation. Maybe diffucult to implement but things can be smooth. The change in quality of education should be from the root level and hence primary schools should be first priority. May take a few years but worth due to the issues it can solve
Also, reservation should be only for one generation. U spend people's money to educate one generation of a family. If he/she cannot support the family, well then sorry tough luck! the world is more competitive than that!! Dont give the same family 20 generation of support and they F still need it. My great great grand father was a narcist does not mean my child needs to burn himself/ herself to score 99% and get into second rung univs coz some OBC/ST/SC who score 60% was downtrodden!!! Am not an oppresser either! The amount of successful people from minority does make any oppresser stop and take notice!!
Good to see u discuss a spectrum of issues! Way to go!
I think most of the people visiting and commenting on this blog are no longer in India (correct me if I am wrong!)...I think issues like this only vindicates our decision to move out of India...its a pity that a country that has so much going for it in terms of economic development is still stuck in the past when it comes down to reservations etc. Although I love India, when I see things like this, it only makes my decision clearer in terms of whether I would like to raise kids there!
Dear All,
Have you guys noticed that almost every single guy with whom we disucss this issue seems to agree with our point of view..(at work/bar everywhere) yet the new legislation seems to be getting a lot of praises from all political corners. Maybe the average educated Indian is no longer able to relate to the problems in India. Just a thought!
Cheers
S
Maybe because most of the guys here are Brahmins, who are directly affected by these reservations!
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