My Reservations on Reservations!
The sudden and forced implementation of Quotas has attracted Supreme court's and common man's attention on certain basic questions.
Who, at the end of the day, are the politicians who have been at the forefront of reservations? HRD Minister Arjun Singh, is for all intents and purposes at the end of his political career. He came third the last time he contested from the Satna Lok sabha seat and is at the moment totally unelectable. Being projected as the new flagbearer of OBC politics is his last shot at political relevance. The fact though is that Mr Singh has ceased to have any stake in the future of India: in his cynical calculations, protesting medical students are not potential resources for India in the 21st century, they are merely electorally irrelevant upper castes whose votes he does not need, nor is the middle class a constituency he wants to cultivate.
Who is the other politician at the forefront of the demand for Reservations? Udit Raj, of the Indian Justice Party. What is Udit Raj's vision for India? Udit Raj is a marginal politician who has no larger agenda beyond advancing his own sectional interests. The PMK is another party vociferously taking up the reservations cause. Yet the PMK is a minuscule presence in the Lok Sabha and championing of the reservations cause is only meant to consolidate its base among its backward Vaniyar constituency in Tamil Nadu. As for the original faces of the pro-reservation movement - the Laloos, the Mulayams, the Mayawatis - these are politicians who have already won the battle in Mandal I and therefore feel no necessity to enter into another reasoned public debate. As for the official national party positions - be it the Congress , the BJP or the left - no one wants to be seen as "offending" the interests of the largest social group in the country.
Perhaps Manmohan Singh alone, given his own middle class constituency has been trying to achieve the much needed nuanced position on the reservation debate by refusing to make any statement that can be construed as partisan either by one or the other side. His silence has been misread as weakness but in fact Mandal II is exactly the right time to break free of the imprisoning labels such as "casteist", "elitist", "anti-merit" or "pro social justice." This is the time to aggressively pursue, indeed urgently pursue the idea of an equitable society which also rewards excellence. It is also the time to view India's young as a group crying out for innovative solutions from the state so that all their ambitions can be accommodated.
Social scientists have already come up with innovative thinking. Prof Yogendra Yadav and Prof Satish Deshpande, for example, have created a 80.20 weightage scheme of marks for student admissions. Abolish reservations they say, just award marks to student for social disability, be they disabilities of poverty, gender or region. JNU professor Purushottam Aggarwal has created an index of social disadvantage for all students. Dalitbahujan scholar Kancha Ilaiah has come up with ways to create mass English language primary schools in neighbourhoods.
- How many of the existing reserved seats have actually been utilised by SC/ST/OBC candidates?
- How many of them those who got in have actually managed to pass out from an IIT given the academic rigor of these institutions?
- How many crores that I, the Taxpayer, have paid through the 2% Education Cess has actually been used to build schools and not villas for the politicos?
- Is there an official definition of "OBC" and does our Government have basic data on the number of such people?
The Supreme Court is now asking the Government these questions. Its about time we got answers from the people who run this country.
Above all, I believe that NO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN INDIA SHOULD BE CASTE-BASED. There are economic and humanitarian bases that was well-accepted at creating an equal society.
I have blogged about this issue here too.
An excerpt from Rajdeep Sardesai's article on this issue:
Who, at the end of the day, are the politicians who have been at the forefront of reservations? HRD Minister Arjun Singh, is for all intents and purposes at the end of his political career. He came third the last time he contested from the Satna Lok sabha seat and is at the moment totally unelectable. Being projected as the new flagbearer of OBC politics is his last shot at political relevance. The fact though is that Mr Singh has ceased to have any stake in the future of India: in his cynical calculations, protesting medical students are not potential resources for India in the 21st century, they are merely electorally irrelevant upper castes whose votes he does not need, nor is the middle class a constituency he wants to cultivate.
Who is the other politician at the forefront of the demand for Reservations? Udit Raj, of the Indian Justice Party. What is Udit Raj's vision for India? Udit Raj is a marginal politician who has no larger agenda beyond advancing his own sectional interests. The PMK is another party vociferously taking up the reservations cause. Yet the PMK is a minuscule presence in the Lok Sabha and championing of the reservations cause is only meant to consolidate its base among its backward Vaniyar constituency in Tamil Nadu. As for the original faces of the pro-reservation movement - the Laloos, the Mulayams, the Mayawatis - these are politicians who have already won the battle in Mandal I and therefore feel no necessity to enter into another reasoned public debate. As for the official national party positions - be it the Congress , the BJP or the left - no one wants to be seen as "offending" the interests of the largest social group in the country.
Perhaps Manmohan Singh alone, given his own middle class constituency has been trying to achieve the much needed nuanced position on the reservation debate by refusing to make any statement that can be construed as partisan either by one or the other side. His silence has been misread as weakness but in fact Mandal II is exactly the right time to break free of the imprisoning labels such as "casteist", "elitist", "anti-merit" or "pro social justice." This is the time to aggressively pursue, indeed urgently pursue the idea of an equitable society which also rewards excellence. It is also the time to view India's young as a group crying out for innovative solutions from the state so that all their ambitions can be accommodated.
Social scientists have already come up with innovative thinking. Prof Yogendra Yadav and Prof Satish Deshpande, for example, have created a 80.20 weightage scheme of marks for student admissions. Abolish reservations they say, just award marks to student for social disability, be they disabilities of poverty, gender or region. JNU professor Purushottam Aggarwal has created an index of social disadvantage for all students. Dalitbahujan scholar Kancha Ilaiah has come up with ways to create mass English language primary schools in neighbourhoods.
posted by Starship Enterprise at 11:12 PM
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