Print

Comment

Email

Digg

Del.icio.us

Reddit

Twitter

The announcement of another 27% reservations in all education institutions, especially in IITs has caused uproar.

Personally, I do not believe in any form of reservation though my reasons are totally different. There should be no reservation in a technical or in any institution, organization, or company for that matter.

Enough is enough!
When Dr Ambedkar and the team who drafted the Indian constitution talked of reservation, they introduced it-the 22% for SC/ST with a mandated time period of 10 years after which they wanted it removed. Unfortunately, Ambedkar himself couldn't make it into a law. So it was laid down as one of the directive principles of state policy as the then Indian Parliament had to pass it to make it law. Strangely, this 10-year period for reservation for SC/ST disappeared when Prime Minister Nehru and his predominantly Congress Parliament passed it and made it into a law. The politicians saw the advantage of making reservation a political issue, which Dr Ambedkar, a non-politician and a scholar did not think of as he thought it would help one generation of people after which he assumed everyone would value work and make it on their own.

Now, after almost 60 years after Independence, we are not talking of reducing reservation, but increasing it with new categories and new minorities!

What Constitutes a Minority?
To understand what our 'enlightened' politicians are talking about, substitute caste with gender and see how you like it. Following the pro-reservation lobby logic, we should reserve seats for women and subcategorize it with Muslim, Christian, Parsi, and Sikh women, as Hindu women are the majority in India. Then we can also categorize the majority Hindu women on a caste basis and create further categories-SC, ST, MBC, OBC, FC, BC, etc and then create a subcategory to the already subcategorized category by adding 'economical status' making it poor OBC women, rural BC women, BPL FC women, etc. Thus, we can reserve up to 70% of the seats in educational institutions and companies for women. Men shouldn't object as they would all come in the 'open category' or 'merit' as we know women are the minority in Indian population and deserve help.

In India, everyone is a minority in some category or the other-rich, poor, class, caste, religion, gender, language, marital status, disability, rural, urban, region, race, taxpayer, politician, etc.

Wait! What about marks? Only few get top marks and logically that makes them a minority while the majority does not manage to score the same marks. It is true for the reverse – the ones who score the lowest marks. So should we reserve seats for them? What about those who fail? Very few fail and therefore, they constitute another minority. Should seats be reserved for them too? After all, everyone needs a shot at a technical education and especially, in the so-called 'top' institutions. Don't you think?

Merit as Guilt
No one is going to name it, as it would be politically incorrect to do so, so let me do it, as I never care about being politically correct. Reservation, under the guise of social justice basically says that if you are brilliant, you should be punished. If you are born into a particular community, you should be punished. It doesn't matter if you work hard, it presupposes that those born into the pro-reservation lobby definition of 'privileged' are automatically going to score high grades as they are born brilliant and never have to work or study as some 'tech' gene will automatically propel them to score high marks and be endowed with technical knowledge. Similarly, it also presupposes that those born into their definition of “oppressed” are automatically idiotic and stupid.

So throw away your books and don't go to school or college for by virtue of birth, some of you know engineering and are born geniuses in mathematics, technology, while others cannot even comprehend it, and therefore, they “need” an IIT education! 

What reservation does is perversely and legally punishes all those who work their asses off to score good marks. In short, all those who believe in merit or are meritorious are guilty of committing the cardinal sin of hard work.

Social Justice through Technology
The joke would be wickedly funny if the politicians and the self-designated “social justice” groups were not so deadly serious. The tragic part is some people and some politicians actually believe this will create a “more” equal society, whatever that means. Society can never be equal as the individuals who comprise the society are not equally talented or hardworking. The capacity of each individual differs like our fingerprints.

Just as one stereotypes women in technology, politicians are doing the same for communities because some constitute large vote banks in certain states. This is not new or unique to India, as politicians attempt this using different terminology, worldwide. It is called Equal Opportunity, which comes under Affirmative Action in the US (which deals with a plethora of issues including racial and sexual harassment), but the quota systems have never worked.

No one is talking about working or studying hard, as if it doesn't matter.  

Instead of these arguments, it would be less pretentious and less hypocritical if the government comes up with a politically incorrect legislation that guarantees all babies born in certain sections of Indian society with automatic entrances into IITs, NITs, IIMs, and jobs in all top institutions and companies, which are either government aided such as NITs or government owned such as BHEL. Why pretend that people actually have a choice and hard work will actually get them into educational institutions and jobs? Ban the Open Category instead and issue birth certificates that guarantee degrees. This might seem extreme to many but at least all children will know where they can apply and which institutions to target and what exams to study for as it would save a lot of trouble and be less deceitful.

It is ironical this is happening at a time when the President of our country is a scientist and his name is Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. He has defeated precisely what are defined as the 'multiple' odds by the pro-reservation lobby as he was from a rural area, poor family, and “minority community”, etc. He was able to come up and he never used any excuse to get into any technical institution. He didn't study in IIT, but at MIT, Madras. After the Pokhran tests, he was refused a job at IISc Bangalore, but given a job at Anna University. He was made scientific advisor to the PM and is now President. He never complained. So, he is not considered a good role model for the pro-reservation lobby as it doesn't help their arguments. So the head of the country is ignored despite succeeding against all odds!    

By talking about creating a “society of equals,” the pro-reservation lobby is actually arguing about creating a society of people with same fingerprints. We all know how far that is feasible or logical!

A Big Failure
Individuals who comprise our society are diverse and not equal when it comes to talent or work. There is no natural advantage at birth when it comes to talent, industriousness, and hard work as knowledge is not inherited and cannot be inherited. What reservation does is pretend to try to create a “society of equals.” Every time, laws were legislated to create a “society of equals,” it has failed. That is why communism failed though some profited by it such as Stalin. That is why reservation despite 60 years has not worked though politicians and “interest” groups continue to profit by it.

The logical thing to do would be remove reservations for all education institutions in India, especially technical institutions and give merit irrespective of “birth defects” a chance.

Deepa Kandaswamy
The author is the founder-moderator of the IndianWISE e-group
mail@dqindia.com

Page(s)   1