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Background
Recently Ministry has proposed 49.5% reservation in central institutes. Reservation
in IITs, IIMs and central universities will go up to 49.5% as HRD
minister Arjun Singh continues to stand firm on the 27% additional
quota for other backward classes (OBCs) in central institutions. Read
full news - Universities may have to reserve 49.5%.
Ofcourse, I am vehemently opposed to Reservation System but I want to keep www.svtechie.com kind of technical & professional site. So before venturing into any controversial topics, I want to keep this site as neutral as possible. As expected I wanted to look at different view point on this debate and not surprizing, I found multiple places having good discussion..
This is similar to affirmative action in USA and there is very good discussion on Affermative Action @ Stanford.
Bottom Line
The legitimacy of racial preferences was to
be measured by how fast using them moves us toward a society where race
doesn't matter.
Yes, we need reservation system but with following amendments (and pinch of salt). First of all , anything as high as 49.5% is not reservation but exploitation. We still need cast based reservation (~10-20%) but system should be more encompassing in terms of social structure and economics of the day. Okay, don't give advantage to poor high class citizen but atleast do not let soembody exploit the system as well. Anything on the line of Affermative Action will be very good and hopefully acceptable to all segments of society and nation.
Also, why Dr. BR Ambedkar
proposed only small % (~10%) for reservation and that too for small
time (10 Years)? Yes, action is required
to correct a wrong, but it has to be gradual and more inline to social realities. Any fool knows that you do not kill family of
a murderer to correct action of the murderer. Today's >50% reservation quota is akin to using sword to stitch fabric (social fabric)... Somehow I found Affermative Action more balanced and thoughtful against Indian Vote Bank Politics.
However, sometime you have to see the motive behind the action. (If motive is not right, even good deeds result in bad Karma).
Reality is that reservation system has become tool of votebank politics in India. Simple political play to have short term gain over long term benefits... A worst kind of VOTE-BANK politics!! And we should OPPOSE current form of reservation.
For Rebuttals, read full blog entry
Rebuttals
Q. Why should a poor Brahmin not get reservations too?
Why should reservations be caste based and not income-based?
A. The answer
to that is that the policy of reservations is not a poverty alleviation
programme. Its sole purpose is to increase the representation and
presence of deprived castes in Shining India. The idea of reservations
has more to do with social diversity and integration than economic
upliftement, which merely becomes a corollary.
It is wrong to intreprete reservation system in such narrow context. It can and should have both, social and economic diversity.
Some say that US-style affirmative action is preferable to reservations. Abi answers this here. I don’t mind, but I don’t see the two as mutually exclusive. Reservations are a type of affirmative action.
Only indian form of reservation talks about 50% quota while affirmative action is more flexible and encompassing.
Arguably the country’s finest public intellectual, Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes:
“The government’s announcement that it will implement up to 49 per cent
reservation in IITs, IIMs and central universities is yet another
example of the grotesque manner in which the state is destroying
institutions of higher education.”
…to which Jamia Milia Islamia’s Vice-Chancellor Mushirul Hasan responds: “If 50-55 years of reservation hasn’t stopped people like Pratap Bhanu Mehta from coming forward how will it do it now?
I believe that Reservation Quota is necessary but in what form is the
question for all of us. High quota could have been Okay in 1950s but
today, it is not when social integration is already on its
way. Also amount of reservation plays a big role. Today's 50% is akin to using sword to stitch fabric (social fabric)...
50-55 years of reservation hasn’t stopped people like Pratap Bhanu Mehta from coming forward because quota was not as insane, as it is now!!
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