The issue is development of disadvantaged, those Indians who have been denied resources and exposure for and to their development. It is not a new issue. For last more than a decade India is facing this issue. Successive governments and political parties have succeeded in loosing sight of the issue. No body seem to be interested in solving the issue. Every body seem to be interested in taking benefit from the issue by taking only short term measures. These short term measures have divided the society in to various classes and groups. A very small percentage of targeted beneficiaries have been benefited. These benficiaries have formed their own group and worked for and succeeded in keeping all benefits of these measures to themselves. They have worked to retain the benefits to their future generations and have prevented new people joining the beneficiary club.
A very ineffective tool in the form of reservation has been used as short-term measure to solve age-old problems. No body is ready to learn lessons from implementation of reservation measures in last fifty plus years. Both pro-reservationists and anti-reservationists still looking at the problem as a new problem. More and more classes and groups are emerging making claims on reservation benefits. A problem which should have been solved much earlier has been converted in to a permanent problem.
It is unfortunate that Prime minister Manmohan Singh is also searching for short term measures. His search for a balancing act has proved that he sees this problem as a major conflict between pro and anti-reservationists. For political convenience he wants to take some short-term measures and postpone the problem to future. Every time it has happened. Manmohan Singh is also on the same path.
Increasing seats and/or by introducing quota for upper castes is no permanent solution to the problem. We must first identify it as a common problem of all humans and not restricted to various compartments, such as, SC, ST, OBCs, muslims, woman and...... This is essential or else this time also an opportunity would be lost and the issue will be pushed in future after taking some short-term measures.
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A news in GOI says that majority view in knowledge panel is aganinst quota.The National KNowledge Commission (NKC) has opposed extension of reservation as proposed by Arjun Singh. The majority view in NKC is - "untill such time as we have explored new and more effective avenues of affirmative action, status quo should be maintained and reservations should not be extended as proposed". NKC has recommended reengineering and modernizing government processes to change the country's basic governance pattern for simplicity, transparency, productivity and efficiency.
I fully support this view as it talks of long term measures to create a class-less, all-inclusive society.
Yes, I agree with what NKC says. Let us change the mind-set of looking for short-term gains. Any development should be sustainable and for this well-thought-out long-term measures should be taken.
Mr. Gurcharan Das in his weekly column in TOI has suggested scholarships in schools beginning in the first grade itself. This will create a way to create leaders from the low castes. I good article. I recommend that every body should read this article.
I have requested Mr. Gurcharan Das to send me a soft copy of his article. I have now received and post it here for the benefit of all.
"Scholarships, not quotas 7th May, 2006
When the cabinet meets to consider the proposal for raising caste reservations in institutions of higher learning from 22.5% to 49.5% it should imagine itself to be the admissions committee of one of the Indian Institutes of Technology. It has to choose whether to admit the son of a backward caste businessman from a posh South Delhi address who received low marks or the son of a poor brahmin schoolteacher in Muzaffarpur who got much higher marks. Under Arjun Singh’s proposal, the IITs will be forced to admit the privileged son of an OBC businessman and reject the high scoring schoolteacher’s son.
There are a number of lessons to be learned from this thought game. First, our innate sense of fairness accepts more easily reservations for the poor rather than for the low caste. Second, lowering admission standards for one group is unfair because it treats equals unequally and offends our idea of a just, merit based society. Third, it is unjust when beneficiaries of reservations are prosperous low caste persons, whom the Supreme Court called the ‘creamy layer’.
Why then should the government play this cruel, morally offensive joke? The reason is that there is a strong case for affirmative action, which has been made far more eloquently by the U.S. Supreme Court. While U.S. Courts has have always opposed quotas on grounds of reverse discrimination (meaning unequal treatment of equals), they have enthusiastically supported vigorous efforts to raise blacks and women on grounds of diversity and integration. Even in the recent Michigan University judgment, Justice O’Connor, wrote glowingly about the benefits of a diverse student body. The best reason for preferences (which she didn’t emphasize enough) is that a university’s role in society is to develop leaders from diverse communities. If India’s future leaders in commerce, arts and the professions come only from the 15 percent upper caste, the losers would not be the low caste alone, but the Indian people, who would have failed to create a healthy, integrated society.
The way to create leaders from the low castes is not through reservations but through scholarships, beginning in the first grade. Alas, most of our government schools, which were our greatest hope, are so rotten that there is no hope there for lifting anyone. Therefore, I would propose scholarships for 25 per cent of the seats in all private schools and colleges subject to these four conditions: one, scholarships should not be caste based, but economic. This preserves the idea that we are not for a casteist future; and it prevents the “creamy layer” from grabbing the rewards. Second, government must fully pay for these scholarships from the 2 percent education cess; it would be wrong to ask schools to bear it. Third, government must not interfere with a school’s autonomy. Finally, standards must not be allowed to fall. I would extend this scheme gradually, starting from below, thus giving institutions time to expand their facilities and the low caste to get acculturated. Enrollments for the disadvantaged would be additional; thus, merit candidates would not be deprived, as they would be with reservations.
When the cabinet meets, it might also remember how badly history treats the self-serving proponents of caste reservations. If there were glory or votes in reservations, VP Singh would have been a respected leader today, even a prime minister. And Janata Dal would have been a strong, vibrant party. Instead, both lie in the dust bin of history."
It is very sad that Prime Minister is keeping quiet when ani-quota protests are gaining momentum and spreading to other parts of the country. The elections are over, results have been nnounced, but India's anti-HRD minister is also keeping quiet. Are these people interested in creating serious law and order problems in the country? I can not vouch for Arjun Singh but this can not be expected from Mr. Manmohan Singh. Then why he is keeping quiet? Why he does not take Indian people in confidence about what he thinks about this problem?
In Delhi, protesting students have been facing police tear gas shells and water canons. In Mumbai students have been lathicharged. For what the government is waiting, some students killed by trigger-happy police? I am afraid that Indian sociey is moving towards a situation similar to 'Nero playing flute when Rome was burning'.
Indian history tells us that a large section of Indian society had been subjected to extreme cruelty (both mental and physical) by another section of the same society. These dalit and backward people deserve every support to bring them to national mainstream and make them a productive part of the society. But short-term help in the form of reservation has not and will not solve the problem. Reservations have their bad side-effects and have created a creamy layer at the cost of a large percentage of disadvantaged people. This creamy layer has become a new upper class and is blocking the benefits of reservation to reach the masses in disadvantaged category.
Reservation has also side-tracked the real issue. It should be substituted by better schemes of developing full potential of these disdantaged people. They are not inferior to anyone. It is only that they have not been provided necessary resources and exposure to develop and exploit their full potential. Any support measure should have long-term perspective in mind to help them to become a proud citizen of India.
Giving reservation to wipe off the guilt from the hands of our fore-fathers for their extreme cruelty is nothing compared to the measure of cruelty these people have been subjected to. These people should be assimilated in the society as water from one pot adds to water in another pot and then one can not distinguish between the water from either pots. Indian society should become a classless society having only one class that is Indian. For this long term measures should be identified and here each one of us has a job to do.
Anti-reservation students in Amritsar displayed a banner saying -
Brahmin ho ys SC Bhrat ek hai,
Problem to bas yeh hai ki hamara har Neta Fake hai.
How right they are. India is being ruled by fake netas.
A final year student, Shubhada Patil is more worried about the fact that despite her outstanding academic performance (90%in class XII) and hard work, her success will be attributed to reservation policy for OBCs. She entered the medical college through the open category. There are other OBC students like her who feel that reservation policy will do more harm than good to OBCs. They feel that while special assistance for backward class students is most needed in their early years, "advanced, specialized education should be based on merit". Priyanka Madur, another OBC student said if the government is concerned about promoting the OBCs, they should instead go to the rural areas and help in primary and secondary education.
To serve their political interests dirty Indian politicians have pushed the real issue to the background. The real need is development of disadvantaged in the society but to keep an easy tool for vote bank they have divided these disadvantaged people in many groups and put one against the other. A new upper caste has been created in the form of creamy layer from SC/ST category. Now they want to create another creamy layer from POBC category. The large percentage of SC/ST are still waiting for benefits of reservation, and a large section of OBC will continue to suffer inspite of this quota.
Pro-quota rally at Azad miadan in Mumbai on Tuesday, 16th May 2006, was organized by NCP Leader Chagan Bhujbal. Is it an indication of quota stir going to be hijacked by politicians and the real issue will go further out of sight.
Pro-quota doctors have their own point of view - "it is not as if us OBC students don't have to study. Merit determines admissions in reserved seats too.... There are so many who don't get the opportunities that we did, which is why quotas need to be increased". Merit here is overall merit or merit amongst reserved seats only which is much lower.
As per a news in today's TOI, anti-quota students have submitted a three-point memo to PM through Oscar Fernandes when he called on them yesterday. A student leader said "We gave him a three point memorandum, demanding a rollback of the proposal, setting up of a judicial commission to examine how effective the reservation policy has been, and a concrete statement from the PM on the issue".
While the government may have difficulty to meet the first demand due to political compulsions (this govt is prone to such compulsions to illogical limits) PM should take immediate action on other two demands. This is the part of an ethical governance expected from Mr. Manmohan Singh.
A TNS survey, as reported by TOI, has come out with following –
a) Will reservations promote social justice – NO (50%)
b) Do SC/ST/OBC lack merit – NO (61%)
c) Are quota in perpetuity a good idea – NO (60%)
d) Is the medical students’ strike justified – NO (53%)
What does it say – Reservation & quotas are no good and they should not be continued for ever. SC/ST/OBC do not lack merit but resources and exposure.
It calls for a review of reservation-quota policy. PM should immediately constitute a wide-representative review panel to review reservation and determine more effective alternatives to create a class-less, all-inclusive society.
Will Manmohan Singh act as PM of India should act or he will again try to loose sight of the issue?
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