Who Can You Blame?
on
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Posted by
Rajesh J Advani
Labels:
Thoughts
Update: Great. The BJP supports communalism, and the UPA supports casteism.
First there was the announcement of an increase in reservations in the premier educational institutes of our country.
Then there were students protesting the hike in reservations.
As it generally happens in our country, things didn't go very well.
And today there doesn't seem to be much of a solution in the offing.
I've been against reservation in principle, since 1990, which was when I stepped into this country as a student for the first time. My education until then had been in an Indian School in Kuwait, where I'd read the word "caste" only in Social Studies textbooks.
I've asked myself over the years whether pro-reservationists are really all that unreasonable, and whether reservation does achieve anything more than keeping caste-differentiation alive in the minds of our youth, who are the first ones to be affected by it in modern society.
Affirmative Action has good intentions, and reservations are an implementation of that idea, but is it the right implementation?
It has been my belief that Indians as a people, are intelligent. Maybe my belief is just a kind of patriotism. Who knows? Still, I have believed that even if we are not any more intelligent than the people of other nations, we are nonetheless intelligent. And if we are intelligent, then the people we vote to power must be intelligent too. (What are you laughing for?)
Still, more than 50 years after the provision for reservation was made in the constitution, why is it that only a tiny segment of SCs (Scheduled Castes), STs (Scheduled Tribes) and OBCs (Other Backward Castes) have benefited from it?
I'm sure that the number who've benefited can't be large enough, because if it were, that large number of people would be interested in getting rid of the "backward" tag, don't you think?
Going by surveys, at the very least, 29.8% of India's population are OBCs. At the most, the number is 52% - that means there are between 300 to 500 Million people in our country who are considered "Other Backward Castes". That's one in every 20 people on the planet. 50 years after our leaders wrote for us a constitution guaranteeing Equality, this huge number of people in our country are called "Backward".
Aren't our politicians intelligent enough to know when a solution to a problem isn't working? Or do they simply not care?
Who has been voting this chap to power over the years? It's not the first time that he's won an election, right?
The answer seems quite simple. The average Indian, is stupid.
That includes me, of course. And you.
First there was the announcement of an increase in reservations in the premier educational institutes of our country.
Then there were students protesting the hike in reservations.
As it generally happens in our country, things didn't go very well.
And today there doesn't seem to be much of a solution in the offing.
I've been against reservation in principle, since 1990, which was when I stepped into this country as a student for the first time. My education until then had been in an Indian School in Kuwait, where I'd read the word "caste" only in Social Studies textbooks.
I've asked myself over the years whether pro-reservationists are really all that unreasonable, and whether reservation does achieve anything more than keeping caste-differentiation alive in the minds of our youth, who are the first ones to be affected by it in modern society.
Affirmative Action has good intentions, and reservations are an implementation of that idea, but is it the right implementation?
It has been my belief that Indians as a people, are intelligent. Maybe my belief is just a kind of patriotism. Who knows? Still, I have believed that even if we are not any more intelligent than the people of other nations, we are nonetheless intelligent. And if we are intelligent, then the people we vote to power must be intelligent too. (What are you laughing for?)
Still, more than 50 years after the provision for reservation was made in the constitution, why is it that only a tiny segment of SCs (Scheduled Castes), STs (Scheduled Tribes) and OBCs (Other Backward Castes) have benefited from it?
I'm sure that the number who've benefited can't be large enough, because if it were, that large number of people would be interested in getting rid of the "backward" tag, don't you think?
Going by surveys, at the very least, 29.8% of India's population are OBCs. At the most, the number is 52% - that means there are between 300 to 500 Million people in our country who are considered "Other Backward Castes". That's one in every 20 people on the planet. 50 years after our leaders wrote for us a constitution guaranteeing Equality, this huge number of people in our country are called "Backward".
Aren't our politicians intelligent enough to know when a solution to a problem isn't working? Or do they simply not care?
Who has been voting this chap to power over the years? It's not the first time that he's won an election, right?
The answer seems quite simple. The average Indian, is stupid.
That includes me, of course. And you.
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times.
6 comments:
yeah, reservations are pretty lame....but they do provide part of the solution dont they?? and why castes in the first place??
http://naveenroy.blogspot.com
Ahh! very nice template..!
True and agree. But who will bell the cat? Esp. in states like TN the Pro group is more active than the Anti group. The reservations should be based on economic status of families at the primary levels. Not at higher studies, jobs, private concerns etc.
Don't agree with all that you've said. I used to hv similar views till a couple of years back. Realized why reservation was only fair (Yeah, that is right - I think it is FAIR) except that the implementation was totally botched up. Look at it this way. Someone who is disadvantaged, with parents who don't help him with homework, don't care abt his grades, don't know enough to guide him, don't know the value of education etc etc. Doesn't someone like this deserve a benefit just to level the playing field? Think of it like a golf handicap. As to why it benefits only a small section, that is because there is no cap on the no. of generations from a family that can benefit from reservation. So the same set of families benefit. Think that reservations should be allowed for just one generation per family. Anybody who has benefitted in the past is obviously at an advantage to someone who hasn't so far. And giving a leg up to the first set is def unfair - both to people who hvn't benefitted yet and to people who are competing for general seats.
Koutilya: And what if the dictator is someone like Arjun Singh?
Deaths Head Roy: They are one kind of solution, but they can only have limited effect, as can be seen in our country.
Ganty: Thank you!
Krishna & Ubergeek: I was going to write a long reply, but there is another blog which makes a good beginning at explaining why reservations have not worked. The explanation makes sense when you talk about reservations both for caste, or economic status. That post is here.
Reservations are required, but, only if they could be implemented properly. There is no point in giving reserved seat to a SC/ST guy, who would come to college sporting thick gold chins and bracelets and deny a seat for a forwards caste guy who cannot afford to pay fees, just because he belongs to forward caste.
When it comes to securing seats, people belonging to forward castes have to secure high percentages, and this mark is going up every years, thanks to our liberal education system thats ready to give 90%+ marks to those who dont even know basics of the subject. And then, there are those who gain seats with bare passmarks.
Imagine the plight if the reservations are implemented at private organizations also? We would no longer get projects from other countries
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