49.5% Reservation in Central Universities

The decision of the MHRD to reserve additional 27% seats in all government aided central universities ,IITs,IIMs,DU,IIFT,Jamia and now AIIMS and all Medical schools over and above the already existing 22.5 % quota for SC/ST/OBC category students has created a wave of panic in the minds of the students across the length and breadth of the country.While some oppose it aggresively, others remain muted. This also reminds us of the backlash of the implementation of the Mandal Commision report way back in late eighties and also of the late goswami, who set himself on fire.

At a time when the economy is opening up, disseminating new vistas and opportunities for its stakeholders like never before, when exports are at an all time high, when the economy is booming at 8% , when Stock Markets are rallying crazily, this decision seems in direct conflict with the very idea of progress.

Progress, has always been a function of meritocracy. Bypassing merit in order to obtain a much desired seat in a premier institute, which can later fetch a plum job in a top MNC has been eyed by the politicians for a long time,the evidence being the Re-Mandalization of Education recently and the difficulty faced by these premier institutes to obtain greater autonomy on a beurocratic level.

While in a diverse country like ours ,reservation was initiaed with a serious intent to bring up the economically backward classes with the creamy 'upper' layers , it's actual implementation has always been tempered and it has now become a solid vote-gathering machine for any political party.Over the years it has been observed that no political party has ever dared to reduce the percentage of seats reserved or do anything against the minority quotas.

The basic purpose of reservation should have been to act as a special vehicle, which supported the disadvantaged to a level and a time , when they came at par with the so called 'creamy' layers of the Indian Society. While nothing significant was done fulfilling the socialist-ideals as promulgated then, this pseudo-gap between the upper and lower classes has widened in the last 55 years.

Now taking into account that quite comfortably,nothing extraordinary has been done in order to lift the economically disadvantaged , reservation is required in our country.Sarath Babu, who is paasing out of IIM Ahmedabd this year is an excellent example of meritocarcy.He used to sell idlis on the streets of Chennai before he got in to BITS Pilani, a premier engineering college and then IIM A. In a country of 110 crore people is it hard to find such 70 odd people(approximately the no. reserved seats in IIMA), who may not be a backward class socially, but meritorious, hard working while being economically backward.The answer is NO...only if reservation is done on the basis of meritocracy despite economic backwardness .

While the MHRD has reserved 49.5% seats , NO further increase in the number of seats has been done in Central Universities, AIIMS and medical schools and only a few have been increased in the IITs and the IIMs , the Congress led UPA government is fully advocating job reservation in private sector.

This is a clear cut conspiracy on the part of this government which wants to (a.) Gain total control over the premier institutes (b). Create additional jobs for this extra manpower from these institutions and therefore (c). Leverage the entire issue for playing vote bank politics in the name of backward classes.The doubts over the intent of this political regime,if any, linger away when the attitude of the Hon. Minster of HRD , Arjun Singh is noted. He is very cleverly avoiding all the media questions by brushing the matters under the carpet by giving indirect responses and giving credit to the parliament to have passed it and the PM having proposed this bill and himself only doing his 'duty'. Strangely , even BJP has not opposed this move as it cannot upset the serious vote bank , which will now get undue advantages. Anyone with little political understanding will understand what is happening.

What will be the possible outcomes? The IITs IIMs, AIIMS etc. which only could boast of being world class in India will start losing the reputation and the credibility they have built through the superior quality professional manpower they have supplied to the industry and society for the last few decades. This will lead to a loss of morale for the hard-working Indian student. A state which does not value meritocracy is bound to lose the intellectuals it does not value. A state without intellectuals is like a body without a soul. When the very incentive to outperform others is snatched away, it will naturally lead to mediocracy taking a lead role in nation building. The problem of brain drain will aggravate further, as if there were not many reasons for the best minds to flock to greener pastures before.

The coup d' grace will be delivered when the highly experienced faculty (20 years work experience)at the IITs and IIMs which, only for the passion of teaching works for a salary, which a student twenty five years younger and with nil work experience earns as his first salary , start leaving these institutes and the teaching profession per se. These professionals will be instantly absorbed by top MNCs, consulting firms in a matter of hours and this will result in a severe crunch of teaching staff at these institutes , which is a serious issue even now.The result will be hasty recruitment of second and third class faculty in order to keep the system moving.

What is indeed funny that only a few days earlier the PM ,aka Sardarji,had given the medical professionals across the contry a shot in the arm during one of his speeches and also talked elaborately of increasing the money spent on improving basic health services,he has gone bonkers and now he is happily putting sub-standard people for this purpose. Sardarji, who also professes equal opprtunities for all, to make India a technology superpower, a biotechnology hub is indeed a kathputli at the hands of a shrewd lady. Its a shame that such a bright academician is being put in his gutter politics.

Though saying outwardly that merit is not linked to people belonging to the reserved classes would be a mistake, but it has been generally observed that except a few bright candidates, most others in these categories are undeserving ones, many of whom hail from rich and some from politically well connected families as well. This I am writing from my personal experience.

To say that the IIT/IIM/AIIMS will now be out of reach would be totally wrong.Admission to these institutes has always been through strict merit and will continue to be and only those who study very hard to produce excellent grades in the competetive examinations will succeed today as well.Those general category students who now cry fou lover this issue claiming that it would be even more difficult for them to make it to these institutes is meaningless.While this move affects not only these institutions of national pride and a few thousand students associated to them, but also top universities like Jamia,Delhi University , etc.which are a mecca for more than a lakh students.

The purpose I repeat is not cutting down on the reserved category seats , but making sure that only deserving epeople like Sarath Babu get them and at the same time increaing capacity .

What must be done? The first answer is improve the level of education at the primary level and increasing the intake /capacity at all levels of education.When you make these students competitive enough to face the real exams, reservation would be unnecessary. This is can be done in more than one ways, the first choice being improvement of infrastructure at the primary and secondary school level through effective public private partnership and bringing in effective teaching staff at competitive salary. The motivation to work has to be created, otherwise all efforts shal go down the drain.The second option is to nationalize all schools across India, like the US , which is highly impractical as neither the goverment has the money nor the expertise in doing this. The third and a viable option again is reserving say 20% seats for economically disadvantaged in public schools, which has already been done in Delhi.

After all, in this part of the world, what matters is not what you are or what you have achieved or what you do, but what is your religion and where you are born.