Lets raise our voice against the policy of Indian Government to raise the reservation in public institutions for OBC/SC/ST to 50%. This is a community which is against reservation based on Religion, Cast.. etc. But favouring reservation on economical basic.Please act fast before it is late. Lets wage this VAR.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
MASS HUNGER STRIKE on 24th [YFE]
The Supreme Court is yet to give their verdict on the issue, but it seems that Mr Arjun Singh pays no heed to that fact. Why make Laws when u can’t follow the Highest Law Implementing agency yourself??? The Govt has not taken into account the Veerappa Moily committee report, ostensibly formed by them to introduce changes in the Bill. The much debated Creamy Layer issue does not even get a mention in the Bill. There simply is no limit upto which these politicians can go for their Pesky Vote Bank Politics.
YFE is battling it all out in the Courts.For long its been a Battle for Our Rights and The Country, but now its sheer Injustice. All of this leaves u Feeling Cheated.Stand for Your Rights, if you won't then who will? Don’t let the Politicians make a Fool out of you..
Calling all Warriors Back to the Front. Let us show this Government what we got...There is a General Body Meeting scheduled on the 22nd Dec(Friday) at 3:00 PM, IP University. Everybody is invited. And then on the 24th Dec, YFE (IP) along with Engineers from across the Country goes on MASS HUNGER STRIKE in front of Rashtrapati Bhawan, Delhi. The last time YFE (IP) protested, there were around 500 people, we have to look at no less than 1000 this time. Spread the Word amongst your Friends. E mail and SMS as many people as u can.Lastly, please change your Orkut and Yahoo Status to " YFE's Back: MASS HUNGER STRIKE on 24th”Be a part of YFE, be a part of History..
Mera Bharat Samaan
Jai Hind
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Why we should protest Reservation policy
This is a never ending debate, beacause the other side has different motives.
What we got after having reservation for the last 56 years. We got nothing. The society more or less is the same.
Now there are two classes among SC/ST, the elite SC/ST and the down torn SC/ST. Since in a family a person can take advantage of reservation more than a single time, Son of a father (who have taken this benefit) also eligible to take the benefit so this heinous cycle continues and the drift between (elite SC/ST and down torn SC/ST ) will go on increasing.
Now this will replicate in case of OBCs as well. And we will have various classes among OBCs.
I have one real life incident.
I cleared IITJEE got AIR 1074, got IT-BHU. In my class there were 8 seats reserved for SC/ST only 5 SC/ST seats got filled, their JEE ranks were also dismissal. Out of these 5 only 2 were able to get the final degree. One student was expelled (he failed thrice in his first year). The other two are still studying. These 5 people never tried to study because they never knew then what was the worth of their seat.
Although this can not be generalized but in IITS and other institute of higher learning the picture is usually the same.
All people are not equal. If they are then there would not be any Alexander, any Einstein, any Socrates, any Gandhi, etc born on this earth. If a person is making unequal things equal then he is killing the inner instincts with which the person is born.
My final point:
Give free and quality education till 12th to all the deprived and poor sections of the society (any caste, creed or religion) and even give full scholarship to all those the deprived and poor sections if they are able to get selected in IIT or any institute. But don’t reserve the seats. Now its government duty to improve the quality of basic education, If you want to remove the disease of caste you have to find its roots.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Protest rally in Bangalore, 20th May (Saturday)
Time: 9:30 AM
Location: Chiclalbagh (Near Majestic Bus stand)
City: Bangalore
details:
Our friends in Delhi are on indefinite hunger strike, into the 5th day now. 94 out of 100 have collapsed since and are admit in the ICU. They are fighting for our cause, let us all show our solidarity with them!
About the Protest:
20th May 2006 (Saturday),
starts at 9:30 AM,
ends before 12 noon
"Death of Meritocracy": Peaceful march with theatrics, banners/placards/slogans with police protection
Origin: ChicLalbagh (near Majestic);
visit http://www.savebrandindia.org/ for route map
Destination: Banappa Park (near KR Market)
Concludes with a public addressing at Banappa Park
Participants: Working people in Bangalore, medical and engineering students
Why we oppose reservation?
1) It is going to kill meritocracy, and hence will destroy India's growing image as a technology hub.
2) It is dividing India into caste lines which our freedom fighters and social reformers fought so hard to eliminate.
3) It is against the fundamental right to equality as safeguarded by the Constitution of India.
4) The benefits of reservation have been denied to really deserving people by the rich and powerful in their own classes.
5) Reservation is just a populist measure used by politicians for electoral gains.
News Links about our 14th May protest:
ibnlive
timesnow
More details at: http://www.savebrandindia.org/ and
http://www.youth4equality.org/
Contact Persons: Subodh Kumar (9342104597), Kumar Gaurav(9341018993), Anurag (9844140125)- Jai Hind!
What Young To be docs have to say
No ways I wanted to write this post about what a Young to be doc have to say about this. He scrapped on my orkut. He is kind of sweet, ambitious, nahani se jaan in 1st year.
"5 din ho gaye hain...log bhukhe baithe hain...I'm not one of them though....But seriously, feel like killing these Politician class...I've already taken a pledge not to treat any politician in my life....or better still kill any that comes to me...."
I dont know how long he will be able to keep upto these words, cuz best of the best doctors are supposed to treat these politicians.
With this i do not need to conclude anything from this post.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Is Arjun waiting for a Rajeev Goswami?
Just when the anti-reservation agitation needed to be handled with patience and subtlety, police thrashed medical students in Mumbai. Before that, medical students in Delhi were attacked with water cannons and dragged away during protest marches. And all this was on camera.
Baton-wielding policemen chasing and beating up young, apron-clad boys, an innocent-looking Kolkata girl braving police water cannons and students being dragged out of a blockade to be beaten up black and blue in Mumbai — these have been some of the abiding images of the agitation, which is now fast taking the shape of Mandal II.
With Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh still playing hide and seek and the Manmohan Singh government observing an ominous silence on the reservation issue, it's both surprising and intriguing to see the police going all-out to stall a popular and growing protest.
Do we really need such strong-arm police tactics to stall a protest?
Where do we go from here? Is the Manmohan Singh government waiting for the protest to get more widespread and turn a far bigger issue so that it can derive the maximum political benefit out of it?
In 1990, it took Rajeev Goswami's self-immolation to shock the VP Singh government out of its acquiescence.
From the look of things — the way Arjun Singh is still trying to slug it out with his own Cabinet colleagues and the Knowledge Commission — it still appears that the issue is still at the discussion stage.
There is also a fair chance that more than anything else, the whole quota debate might just turn out to be just another gambit in the Congress' inside struggle for one upmanship.
Why then is the government letting things go this far? Couldn't this much have been avoided?
Why is Arjun Singh fiddling while the flames of protest have engulfed almost all of India?
Perhaps he is waiting for another Rajeev Goswami to make him understand the gravity of the situation.
Courtesy : ibnLive
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Of calamitous laws and impending revolutions
Manmohan Singh is a Phd and rose to the top of this country's governing body from a poor, rural background. He of all people should know the importance of merit. It is indeed disheartening so see someone like him bow his head to the pressures and games of politics. If this law goes ahead in its current form; his and Arjun Singh's names would be forever associated in the pages of history with this turgid blunder.
There are countless such names on either side of the political divide: AB Vajpayee, Arun Jaitley, Somnath Chatterjee and so many others. Not a single voice rose; not a single stance was taken. In that reference, I've discovered newfound respect for Kapil Sibal, India's Science and Technology Minister, for standing up and at least uttering a word, before party management shut him up.
This time in our history is one of dynamics and changes; we're like this complex-self governing system; something of an ant-hill. Our growth and success comes, unlike many other systems of the world; from the bottom up: The middle class. The tremendous faith and devotion Indian Middle class has towards education has played an instrumental role in propelling India as a knowledge powerhouse. India's success is not limited today to the billionaire businessman: Its visible in the vegetable vendor who sets up a logistics business; the paan-walah who invests in stocks; or the farmer who digs his own canal network. It's evident in the multi-digit pay packages of IIM and IIT grads and the multitude of Indian faculty at the Harvards and Stanfords of the world. It shines through in the annual results of Indian Entrepreneurial ventures, and stares you in the face in the form the thousands of young executives who go to work every day dreaming big. It is so powerful and so diverse that the occasional external disturbances in the form of staggeringly absurd decisions by the Government of the Nation hardly seem to stem the flow.
This law would not stem India's growth. The Government should not be worried about that. Yes, it will make things harder for the man with merit. But the hardy character of the middle rung population of this country is used to hardships. If any of us today thinks that this is the only such decision an Indian Government has ever made; we just have to look at the past, maybe talk the older generations; and we'd see decisions wrapped in the dark blanket of misery; laws that have promised to rip apart the fundamental fabric of our growth; laws so disastrously bad that they questioned the purpose of a Democracy itself. Yet none of them lived up to their promise, and the ever-flowing fluid of the Nation's success trickled through.
What the Government of India should really be worried about, is how they are going to enforce it after charging up the 75% of India's population on whose shoulders the country moves forward every day: The 75% which is more vocal, more aware and more successful than it was ever before, the 75% that is the Indian youth.
If Mandal-I was painful lesson in enforcement; it takes only a meek mind to fathom what Mandal-II might be.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Indian - Public Grievance and Pension
Lets try if it works.. Our Voice is heard
http://darpg-grievance.nic.in/
Wonder If Our Politicians Use internet 4 Work
For example if I want to know about something new happening related to my field I do search on googol. I wonder if any of politicians have reached this blog. (Our Page rank is fairly good at google (don't know about other search engines)) .
This Voice against reservation should reach to the place where it matters the most but when tried the cops drive these peaceful protests with tear gas and lathi charge. I guess Doctors or Engineers protesting from these top institute are sensible enough that they wont turn physical and would use means of peaceful protest n talks.
Coming back to what I was talking about. Another question that strikes me is : If the politicians have time to surf web at all. I guess the top most and busiest business man to a small company owner everyone tries to search n gather more information about the domain they are working on. Every CEO to Software Engg to Pharmist to Doctor to Electrical/Mech/Civil Engg to Staticians to Analysts to HR to MBA everyone surf web to improve his/her performance. So these politicians are on a job to improve this country I guess this complicated Internet has got some meaning to them.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
IF want to make reservations
ET has opened a debate on “Is Premji right to go against job quotas in Wipro?”As expected most of the posts agree with him... here is someone who put his pt in a v diff way.. :))
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I think we should have job reservations in all the fields. I completely support the PM and all the politicians for promoting this. Let's start the reservation with our cricket team. We should have 10 percent reservation for muslims. 30 percent for OBC, SC/ST like that. Cricket rules should be modified accordingly. The boundary circle should be reduced for an SC/ST player. The four hit by an OBC player should be considered as a six and a six hit by a OBC player should be counted as 8 runs. An OBC player scoring 60 runs should be declared as a century.
We should influence ICC and make rules so that the pace bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar should not bowl fast balls to our OBC player. Bowlers should bowl maximum speed of 80 kilometer per hour to an OBC player. Any delivery above this speed should be made illegal.
Also we should have reservation in Olympics. In the 100 meters race, an OBC player should be given a gold medal if he runs 80 meters.
There can be reservation in Government jobs also. Let's recruit SC/ST and OBC pilots for aircrafts which are carrying the ministers and politicians (that can really help the country.. ) Ensure that only SC/ST and OBC doctors do the operations for the ministers and other politicians. (Another way of saving the country..)
Let's be creative and think of ways and means to guide INDIA forward... Let's show the world that INDIA is a GREAT country. Let's be proud of being an INDIAN.. May the good breed of politicans like ARJUN SINGH long live...
Friday, April 21, 2006
Govt needs another Mandal stir
Late President Zakir Hussain said, “There is too much politics in education and too little education in politics.” The truth of his statement is unfolding before us through the proposal of 27 per cent reservation quota for OBCs in central universities, IIMs and IITs. That this academically detrimental proposal is reeking of political overtures, is easy to see. With the upcoming state assembly elections, this is a move to capture votes.
Educational institutions already provide 22.5 per cent reservations to students from the SC and ST classes. Increase of quota in institutions like the IIMs and IITs from 22.5 per cent to 49 per cent would mean a drastic decrease in seats for open category students. The government doesn’t seem to care, as they aren’t big vote banks.
We have the minority quota, the SC and the ST quota and now the 27 per cent OBC quota. The reservation mania seems to be doing little good, even to those for whom it is meant. Even after 60 years of reservation policy, they seem to have progressed very little. This led an anguished Delhi University Pro Vice Chancellor SK Tandon to say, “This way, one half of the country will be nurtured not on merit, but on other considerations. If quotas for OBCs have to be introduced, the overall number of seats should be increased so that meritorious students are not denied a good education.”
Instead of motivating the SCs, STs and the OBCs to rise through merit, the government is implementing a policy which will create animosity between the general category and quota students. Does the government want a replay of the Mandal agitation? Why can't it formulate a wholistic, indiscriminatory policy for the student community?
The public sector in India is already ailing because jobs are given on the basis of caste and not merit. Now, the government wants reservations in the private sector too. The reservation policy, whether in academic institutions or job sector, is lopsided and undermines quality and talent. It's high time the government realises that the quota system is playing with student's academic careers and even their lives.
courtesy : DNA speak up
Thursday, April 13, 2006
I'm against the whole concept of reservation
Some of them argue that there must be reservation atleast based on economic levels, sex or physical ability. Even I was tempted by this seemingly convincing argument. After all, I'm highly sentimental and particularly I'm very sympathetic towards physcially diabled people. So, should I make an exception?? After, thinking logically, I feel the answer is NO. There should not be any reservation of any kind. Why?
Suppose, our reservation practice is ideal and we really find a downtrodden person and want to elevate him. Say, we give him a position of a civil engineer. Since, he was not qualified in the first place, he might not be able to compete in the exams. Ok, lets make further concession and allow him to pass, seeing his pitiable conditions. Since, he was not qualified in the first place, he might not get jobs that his peers would get. Again, we make concessions and give him a job and so on. This process continues for life and we made that guy a slave to our whims. He becomes forever dependent on us and all his self-respect is gone. what would be left of him?
But, worse, what if that guy designs a bridge? Since, he never came by meritorious means there is a high probability that his designs will be sub-standard. Thus, there is a greater chance for its collapse and if it collapses what happens? We 'uplifted' one guy and pushed down a whole group of people in the form of accidents and death. For his upliftment, the entire society gets punished!!! This is not an hypothetical story... It happens in everyday INDIA.
Thus, after his admission
1. If he is not allowed to pass - both the instituion and his resources and time are wasted
2. If he is allowed to pass and doesnt get a job, the instituion's recruitment standards get lowered and he is doomed
3. If he gets a job, the entire society is put in a danger
Whatever be the case, his admission is a lose-lose situation for everyone.
If s/he were a doctor, s/he could put so many life's in danger through improper medication and inability to stop diseases. If s/he is a teacher s/he could put the career of so many students in peril. If s/he is a researcher, nation's R&D gets impaired.... Now can you begin to see why we have so many problems around us.
Now, ironically the backward sections of the society are more in danger, because of their lack of choices. The economically forward people have a choice of good doctors, good teachers and sometimes even good road (like the Mumbai-Pune expressway). Or they can even leave the country. But, the poor and downtrodden have to deal with all these sub-standard doctors, engineers, teachers, administrators and their lives are doomed.
Thus, reservation is one of the cause for India's rural in-development. If people really care about the poor, downtrodden and the illiterate, we should work really hard to remove the whole concept of reservation.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Reservation a thorn in India's Flesh
Respected Sir/Madam,
Well I respected your decision of giving reservation (for a period of 10 years) to the most backward people in the country known as India. All the governments extended this period due to vote bank politics. Mr. Prime Minister in 1989 implemented Mandal commission report to give a major chunks of quality indian seat of learning and jobs to the most backward people of india, many people died in then erupted violence.
Through out my entire life i never accepted the caste system as it had adulterated the great Aryan Vedic Civilisation of our beloved India. As i belong to very high caste Rajput family but that never stopped me from talking to SC's/OBC's in my village. I always give them full respect iirespective of what my Purohit tells me. This often brought some scolding from my elders. But i never bothered to take them seriously.
But the new recommendation saying that 49.5 % reservation in all the premier colleges including IIT's IIM's gave a bad taste. How can i see a person having a fraction of mine capability sitting besides me or even higher than me. There are many ways to improve the socio-economic conditions of the backward section of our society but how can one choose a path which does nothing except dividing country in to fractions. Now some times i feel that i will not give the same respect to those people. Although i know that this is wrong.
Next time we can see the same thing happenning in Our armed forces and to be very sporty in saying, one can see the same thing hapenning in our Cricket team in near future.
There are two options left for me either to accept a second class citizen ship in the native country or leave my own mother land. Time will unfold the secret.
May you all live in peace, we will make sure that this place will be a living hell. This is all frustation. What i think may be a solution of this poblem. Its basically a two phase solution:
Governmnet should take care of all the expenditure if a person from that section(SC/ST/OBC) got selected in IIT or IIM.
1.Give free and quality education to all the pple belonging to SC/ST/OBC till 12th.
2. Give free education to all the pple belonging to SC/ST/OBC when they get selected in any premier institute of national importance.
The problem with so called our leaders are that they dont want to rectify the caste problem, they just want to keep it. If they had seriously tried for past 50 years all these things would have become extinct.
Jai Hind,
Neeraj Kumar Jadaun
CSE ITBHU 2005
Reservation is not different from Communism and Racism
There are intelligent guys in every community and every walk of life. They have different economic and social backgrounds and so I agree that there is no equal competition. But, the purpose of this life is its competition and the struggle.
There was story about a scientific experiment involving a caterpiller turning into a butterfly. As the students watched the butterfly struggling to come out of the coccon, a student took pity and helped the butterfly out and after a few minutes it died, because it was denied the opportunity to struggle and develop strong wings (Strory paraphrased from "You can win", pp.46)
From animals to humans to everything in life, the purpose is in its struggle. The greatest of human stories lie in this. This is one reason, why some of the great rich men came from poor backgrounds, inventors came from not-so-educated backgrounds. Guys like HEnry Ford, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Edison, Hellen Keller.... fought against all odds.
So, even if its conducted ideally, reservation removes the whole purposes of lives of backward communities. It kills their motivation and inspiration. But, the problem gets infinitely larger due to corruption and despotism. So-called forward communities get punished and face India's version of genocide. It also continues the caste system (people are decided by birth) and produces a cycle of guilt on those who use the reservation system. Even after 60 years of Independence, I'm called forward caste and is it not unconstitutional...
Reservation, like Communism and Racism, are from the rotten ideas of 20th century. They are conceived, produced and practised by fools, despots and psychotics who had bitter experiences in their childhoods. Let us not continue it in the 21st Century. Even if it practised in a lower scale, a holocaust is a holocaust and even if the criteria for selection is different a genocide is a genocide. Reservation falls in the same category - whether we practice in a lesser scale or whether we use different criterion, we are doin grave injustice to the future generations.
A letter to the Indian President on reservation
Dear Mr. President,
I read in the press that your excellency have shown a sense of approval for the reservation polity in elite institutions, by arguing for an increase in the seats of IITs and IIMs and giving them for the backward castes. I feel it is disturbing, for the following reasons.
1. Can those institutions increase intake without affecting teaching and research quality?
2. If intake could be increased, why is it not done now and released into mainstream merit?
3. What about the brand image of IITs and IIMs? So far, they represented the elite Indian students and this brought all their prestige much above any other Indian institution.
4. How do we address the issue of brain drain? We overseas Indians would like to come back to India and teach, research and start great educational and commercial institutions. But, now we fear to come in. Similarly many of the IIT-JEE passouts would be readily recruited by American Universities and IITs would lose our cream right from undergrad.
The main arguemnt is Merit. Your excellency has shown as an great inspiration by fighting hard from a poor rural boy to grow into the most loved President. But, if we introduce reservation we would lose such people, as those who use reservation can never come out of guilt, forever.
Any person of any background can grow up in the present India, by just using his/her brain. There are so many institutions and eventually we would recognize such talent. Such heroic struggles would become a great pride for that person. But, now these people are going to be deprived of the most basic essence of human life: competition.
I would request your excellency to seriously reconsider your position on reservation. The upbringing of handful of backward caste students should not be at the cost of India's institutions of pride. If our national institutions get diluted we face a very grave risk of economic collapse, in this highly competitive world environment.
Reservation is a crime against humanity
I wrote my previous post on the draconian proposals to introduce the concept called 'Reservation' (which literally means, specific sections of society should be entitiled to a minimum number of positions in an institution regardless of how poor r they for the slated position) in India's elite institutions. The article was quoted in Times of India. Few people wrote me back. From their opinion and from what I found on other news sources, so many people favored reservation should be based on economic or dwelling place background (people from rural places should get a preference). The biggest problem in this approach is the concept of reservation itself. I'm not saying that reservation should not be based on caste, etc. I'm saying that there should nothing called reservation itself - be it based on caste, sex, economic level, etc.
I believe that institutions should be based on performance, just as how the sports are based on pure performance. If someone doesnt have a skill to score century, forget becoming a Tendulkar. U cant become a Tendulkar or Agassi or Schumi unless u perform like them. Simple!!! It nurtures competition, inspiration and motivation. It also helps the society know who is a TEndulkar differentiated from some poor batsman. Tendulkar is Tendulkar, Einstein is Einstein, a donkey is a donkey and A is A.
If suppose Indian cricket board decides that 20% of Indian team should be from rural places, or should go to poor or lower castes, or if olympic committe decides that 30% of olympic medals should go to underprivileged wont you consider the proposal bullshit? Or suppose, if the Nobel committee decides that some poor scientist X's work is better than Einstein's Relativity just because X is poor or from underprieveleged sex or community, wont you feel the committee is doing injustice to science?
Reservation is not just illogical and stupid, but it is a crime against humanity. By giving the undeserved a place, you r denying the life for a deserving candidate. Whenever you reserve specific portions in an institution you kill the hopes and aspirations of those young guys, whose life is destroyed by denying him/her a place. You are also belittling the good performers from those underprivileged sections, who would have won positions on merit. By providing reservation for seats for poor performers in their community, the entire society would see even that good performer as someone who is unworthy of merit. This cycle of guilt and inferiority complex would run ad-infinitum. Thus, there wont be any motivation for persons from those communities to perform and only this can bring down their community, and not the absence of their people in the big institutions.
Reservation based on any criteria - caste, creed, background, economy, sex... denies a good performer a chance, in the society. You are unjustly punishing him/her for the sole act of good performance. Once a society punishes a performer for good performance, the society loses its right to E X I S T.... (In case of Germany, millions were dead and Europe was transformed, for Russia it collapsed and disintegrated and Sri Lanka has plunged into an everlasting crisis. Which one of these paths, do you desire for INDIA?)
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Reservation in Indian Universities
News Came to a shock.. 49.5% reservation in indian universities(IIT/IIM). Is Govt talking s**t or wat. I would never have thought this much of reservation for categories, a.k.a ST/SC/OBC. If this happens i wonder future of india in research, decision and strategy side. Ignoring the best brains of country and relying on non merit basis even develop hate for the indian education standards for majority students. Those who has big dreams and confidence to do things and a little money to support will never be able to work out in situation. Already in this merit selection basis there is very fine line that u get to a college or miss by a margin.
As far as my knowledge goes I cant recall a incident where reservation for ST/SC/OBC is decreased. So one thing is far sure once this happens it will not revert. There will be 100 more political pressure for not doing it and it STAYS FOREVER.
This further inviting more Brain Drain. A person would love his/her own country to a limit where atleast country policies are not against his aspirations n goals. Present scenario is where i read about IIT/IIM grads not accepting offers abroad(This might also get affected). Infact most of parents in order to make there children have best of education will put everything on stake they saved so far. Panic Situations. Performance pressure will be much much more.
Take a scenario - Indian cricket or Hockey Team having 49.5% reservations. Atleast 49.5% should play in International Cricket or Hockey Matches. Why players are chosen on basis of merit(performance). I sports is pretty much a education.
I do not see any reason when i myself have seen IAS son n daughters getting into engineering college throught Quota n coming by Ford Ikon.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Lets send this message across
We can write directly to the Prime Minister at http://pmindia.nic.in/write.htm
and to the President at http://presidentofindia.nic.in/scripts/writetopresident.jsp
Please ensure that we do our bit to see to it that this proposal does not go through. Show your discontent using these links. The reservations, if enacted, have the ability to affect each and every one of us.
Mandal II - Some random thoughts
I guess the hot news now is the govt.'s proposed
reservation bill seeking to add 27% reservation for
OBCs which would lead to the total reservation coming
to nearly 50%.
Now with all due respect to any SCs/STs/OBCs etc. etc.
blah blah out there, in my opinion this is simply
bulls**t! Why don't they increase reservations to 100%
while they're at it? Why do it piece by piece when
they're gonna reach 100% anyway?
I'll tell you why - it's because if this govt.
increases reservations to 100% (and don't think for
one moment it can't), then forthcoming govts. will not
know what to do to get more votes. After all, it's all
about cheap and petty vote-bank politics, nothing
else. All this talk about affirmative action is simply
an eyewash to fool people.
How else do you explain the fact that while all
parties in the parliament can *never* agree on any
issue and lakhs are spent on the tables and chairs
broken everyday in protests by one party or the other,
on this one issue there were *NO* objections by
*anyone*?
Obviously, because no party wants to lose the votes of
the minorities. It's a simple case of "you scratch my
back, and I'll scratch yours".
All I can say is that I'm saddened, bemused and
sickened all at the same time. When merit takes a
back-seat to politics, then India for sure is being
pushed down the abyss of destruction.
'India Shining' is the govt.'s cry. What rubbish! The
shine, if ever there was any, has fast been replaced
by the rust and degradation of avarice and greed.
India is a name to be reckoned with in the Silicon
Valley and all over the world solely due to the best
and brightest of our minds having contributed so much
to the industry. And after years of 'brain drain'
which saw us lose our best minds to the US and others,
there was some amount of 'reverse brain drain'
happening which saw those people return to their
motherland and contribute to the institutions here
that made them what they are today.
But now where is the incentive for any young and
talented person, especially of the General category,
to stay here anymore? No appreciation for hard work or
merit and fighting day after day with literally
thousands and millions for a few seats here and there
in educational institutions. I have myself given exams
where we were all competing like crazy for maybe 5 or
10 seats that were open to us out of the total. Won't
people go crazy in this situation after a while? It
pains me to say it 'cos I love my country, but who
wants to stay in such a place for long?
Even the few available seats are filled by people
through back-door means like bribery, nepotism etc.
What is a normal, average to above-average student
from a poor or middle-class background to do if he
belongs to the General category? If he can't afford to
go abroad and can't get a seat to study here, where
does he go? No wonder we have so many highly qualified
people working as chaprasis and what not. What a
waste!
I have seen with my own eyes my very own classmate
from school walking into IIT Kanpur and joining the
Computer Science BTech course (you all know only top
rankers in JEE get it) just because he was an SC or an
ST. I'm not sure which as I never asked him. In fact,
before he got into IIT, all through school I never
even knew he was an SC/ST. And why should I? I never
treated him any differently from the others. We were
all alike and there was no discrimination. In fact,
his family was distinctly in the higher economic
bracket as his father was a highly paid executive.
Now can someone tell me why this guy needed a seat
reserved for him? Was he discriminated against? Not
that I could tell. Was he poor? No way! Then how come
he got a seat that should have gone to some other
deserving candidate? Don't get me wrong, he probably
did have enough brains to get into some other course
at IIT but certainly not enough to get into the Comp.
Sc. course.
Today's paper says that 60% of IIT students whose
performance is reviewed and who're thrown out (yes! it
does happen in IIT too! Not everyone who gets in is a
genius, mugging can and often does suffice) are
SCs/STs. The tragedy being that deserving candidates
are turned away and such students are allowed in only
for them to be thrown out and seats remaining vacant
at the end! After all, even IIT doesn't want its
placement figures ruined. So better remove beforehand
those students who're useless.
Question - why did they allow those supposedly useless
people to get in in the first place?
This is what happens when you have reservations to the
tune of 50% and more. First it was govt.-aided
educational institutions, soon it might be in private
institutions, schools and even companies (they tried
this recently) too.
Now tell me - if you were told that you would have an
assured seat in school (do you know how tough school
admissions are nowadays?), then in college, then for
PG, then have an assured job - would you study hard?
Where is the incentive? Everything's free so why sweat
it out, right?
Let me clarify one major point here - I am *not at
all* against SCs/STs/OBCs etc. and I'm not totally
against reservation. But it should be MERIT cum MEANS
*ONLY*. If someone's got talent but is from a poor
background and can't pay for his education, by all
means it should be subsidised for him, whichever
caste/creed etc. he belongs to. But there should be
*no blanket reservations* for anybody who brandishes a
caste certificate saying he's an SC or an ST or
whatever.
People laugh and joke about one-room 'colleges' and
'universities' all over India giving degrees in any
and all subjects under the sun. But has anyone thought
of why they've mushroomed and how come they thrive?
It's because as a society we Indians are driven
towards gaining knowledge as a means to improve our
status in life. But if a person even with percentage
marks in the high 90s can't get a college seat in the
good universities like DU etc. (some courses, even
97-98 is not enough!), where will he go? And what of
the 50 and 60 percenters?
Every year the number of school students committing
suicides increases. It's obvious isn't it? They feel
that with their 'ordinary' marks they'll never make it
to any decent college and as they've ruined their
lives anyway, why not end it all. It makes me so sad
to read such news items - each one is a potential gem
lost to the country forever. And why? Because there
aren't enough seats for them. Why? Because of
reservations, of course.
The worst part is, no govt. will have the guts to
decrease reservations, ever. So like I said earlier,
with every govt. the ratio will increase till it
touches 100%.
My final opinion? First, for all prospective parents -
get a fake caste certificate made ASAP for your kid!
He'll appreciate it a lot when he grows up and needs
to go to college or during a job interview!
Second, I wish reservation touches 100% soon, for then
the only way out will be to start reserving seats for
us General category students. So govt., do it quick!
Already there's gonna be a massive shortage of trained
manpower and teachers in India in the IT sector within
a few years. For all it's flaws, China will soon
overtake us in the IT software sector too and we'll be
left licking our wounds yet again.
Great. When Manmohan Singh, an academic himself can
take such stupid decisions, what hope is there from
the rest?
So I ask you all, if you support this cause, then at
the very least raise your voice against this madness.
Write letters to the newspapers or mail them to let
them know how you, the youth and future of this
country, feel. Don't just sit back and think that
someone else will fight your battles for you. And yes,
it does affect you, whether directly or indirectly.
We can make a difference. Let us all shout together so
that the govt.'s foundations shake and totter. let
them know that enough is enough!
I know this was a loooong rant from my side but it was
just something I had to get off my chest. It may be
incoherent at times and not make total sense to you,
but if you read even part of it, you'd have surely got
an idea of what I was talking about. So do let me know
what *you* feel about it all? Do you think I'm right
about something or wrong about something else? What's
*your* opinion?
Friday, April 07, 2006
Lets make our voice heard
Lets make our ideas passed,
Lets make our vision visualized,
Lets Start this VAR.
I urge each and every blogizen from India to participate in this VAR, yes the war. You can too contribute to this blog. To do so just email your details and Bog site address to sainathkm@gmail.com and you will be receiving an invitation to join VAR soon.