Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Do we need increased reservations.......

It has been a real long break... a break of about 3 weeks since the last post. The post got published on jammag.com. n I had been really busy after tht. busy even by IIMA normal standards !!!! Loads of submissions, reports, assignments were always there, as usual. Then came the end term examinations n i got really stuck with the workload. On 5th my exams got over and I had to report to ITC in Banglore for the summer training on 7th morning. I had a flight to catch on 6th morning at 7:30 n there was no possible way tht i cud get up so early in the morning (I dont remember when i got up so early in the morning last time, though there hv been numerous occassions when i went to sleep at tht time) . So i decided to stay awake all night. Tht was nearly the fourth consecutive night out( slept very little during the 3 days in exams).

I reached Banglore on 6th and slept the whole day. I joined ITC the next day..... havent explored the city much till now.. so wud be posting my experiences regarding the city in later posts... moreover i dont hv a PC here, so i believe tht this blogging wud take a hit in coming days, though i wud try my best to remain regular

Recently, the issue which is catching all headlines is the reservation proposed in IIMs/IITs and other RECs. Out of nowhere, during the election time, the issue pops up and no political party seems to hv the guts to oppose the bill. n there is total silence from the highly respected and acclaimed PM. At this time when the whole world is sitting n taking notice of Indian talents in different sectors, there cud not hv been any worse way of tripping Indian juggernaut.

Reservation was introduced as a mean of amalgamating the deprived layers of society which suffered pain, humilliation, isolation and seclusion for a long time into mainstream. It was expected tht this wud help these classes to become a part of mainstream in a gradual flow of time. It was a real noble concept till the time some politicians realised the massive mileage tht cud be derived from this concept. So rather than addressing the failures of the system, they decided to manipulate it.

Now the bigger issue is - is this reservation going to help the cause of the needy ? i seriously doubt tht... first of all, i believe tht a certain 'creamy' layer of the backward classes is reaping all the benefits..... a person becomes an IAS owing to reservation, his son becomes an engg and this phenomenon is continuing across the generations. so rather than society getting benefitted as a whole, it is tht small section which is gaining. Also since the student has come on the basis of reservation rather than on merit, he wud find it difficult to compete with guys in his class who hv achieved their seat on merit. This phenomenon is happening in IITs and despite all efforts by educational instis, a lot of people are dropping out in the middle as they find themselves not gud enuf to compete. Probably the better way to do the same is to hv reservation at lower levels and help these guys to build a strong foundation, so tht they can compete on merit at UG & PG levels.

Then their is case of good students leaving India to study abroad... n once u spend 25lakh+ amount on ur studies abroad, it is useless to come back to India n work as u wud never be able to recoup tht investment here... so the good guys who wud hv done wonders to India's fortunes in the future ,given the increasing opportunities available here itself today, wud be forced to stay back in foreign locales and other countries r going to reap all the benefits.

Today industry is ready to pay a premium on the talent coming from these campuses. Everyday u wud find previous salary records getting broken. This is just because industry has continuously posed its faith in the current system and its ability to churn out brilliant people who hv regularly done well in the long run. Now if current system of merit is removed n newer system of 'free-riding' is going to be introduced, then there wud be erosion in standards of these instis... n also in the pay packages which lured govt to announce reservations.

Who would be real losers if this decision is to be implemented..... the students, industry n the nation as a whole. There cannot be more retrograde step taken today to hamper the growth of 'brand India'. Now tht Indians are looking confident to take on the world, we need no controversy to become an obstacle in the path of growth...n god forbids, I dont want to see any new scenes of self-immolation by students as we saw them during 1991 anti-mandal commotion. I just hope some sense prevails in the top echleons of power and this move is annuled.

13 Comments:

At 7:48 PM, Blogger Shriedhar said...

gud thinking.

even i was thinkin 2 write such a post.

all the reservations except PHC should be banished in the country.

They r n't needed at all except for the votebank politiTRIcks.

 
At 11:08 PM, Blogger R said...

arre yaar, pata karoh morning walk ka time.
simple as that!

 
At 7:58 PM, Blogger Ginni said...

Election Gimmicks buddy...better to leave this country...Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged Came to my mind,,,if 50% of seats are filled on the basis of caste & creed sure we r on verge of becoming nation of second-handers...cyber coolies is all india will b left with..

 
At 5:25 PM, Blogger Shekhar said...

I can't even begin to express the disgust that I have for Arjun Singh. It is one of the stupidest moves anybody could've made. What's even worse, I've only heard Rahul Bajaj and Narayana Murthy express their dissatisfaction..why isn't any other industrialist of repute speaking about it? Shouldn't they be more worried about whom they'll employ next rather than the people they may upset by speaking out loud now??

 
At 10:07 PM, Blogger amit said...

@ shriedhar: totally agree with u... let more n more people realise it

@ moonwalker: pata kar raha hoon... dekhta hoon ki kya fayda hota hai :)

@ginni: nahin yaar...leaving the country is not an option... this is ur country.. if u dont get respect in this country, who wud listen to u abroad... its better if we do our bit of reforming this country, rather than leaving this place to go fr dumps

@ shekhar: others wud be also soon be putting their views... everyone is on tenterhooks... n fr sure... everybdy is goin to speak...everybdy is waiting to see which way the tide is goin to turn

 
At 1:50 AM, Blogger Aj said...

Its all politically motivated.
I pity what all is happening even with so much educated minds running our country.

Aj

 
At 4:30 PM, Blogger Shekhar said...

I hope they make the message sound loud and clear to the powers-that-be soon enough.

 
At 2:11 PM, Blogger Abhishek Upadhyay said...

Our country needs one more Rajiv Goswami. Remember the young man who burned himself during implementation of mandal during V P singh regime. These politicians have not learned anything from that mistake.

 
At 9:54 AM, Blogger Bhavesh said...

this will be an old story once the elections r over... 2 weeks down d line, it will be a no issue..!!
expect arjun singh to do all such nonsense..!!
Like u told, I would love to hear d PM and PC express thrie views on it..!! they wouldnt be happy abt it, but guess they cant do much either.. or can they??

 
At 5:35 PM, Blogger Raghav said...

Always been a big fan. Ur the oldest PG IIM-A dude i remember! nice post..

 
At 3:59 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

can't the students themselves take up the matter..
The former students could pitch in..
By and large nothing seems happening on Tthe IIm front
John_shyam04@yahoo.com

 
At 2:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey there!! Very nice content here. In my opinion, India is one of the coolest places to vist.. it’s like taking a history lesson, with all the modern comforts 
I used this site called India Travel Route, which has travel packages to India..check it out.. total luxury packages!!

The URL is: http://www.indiatravelroute.com/?channel=rgxblog13&adgroup=enjoyingmyself.blogspot


Rock on!!

 
At 12:52 AM, Blogger PaRaG said...

I respect your remarks but it seems that in your long essay on problem of reservations in India on the basis of caste only the problem has been brought under discussion. I really don’t understand why people like you talk too much on merit.

Indeed, I don’t deny merit but the students from oppressed class when join the college, they have quota at their help.

But, but, but once the entry has been made in the insti, they have to go through killing competition there and only after that the student will join any company.
Now where does the question of not having the abilities like other students arise?This student like others got the same educations during his UG,isn't it?
So keeping quota for backward class students is perfectly justified.
Now, coming to the next point that ‘son of IAS becomes engg’, I must congratulate you. This is the problem. The benefits of reservation are not reaching to the correct people…………….
Solutions:
In this context we can keep reservations for those not yet got sound economically, say, a bar on income can be kept as is the case for OBC students.
More answers should be encouraged & the correct should be chosen from the pool of those. By doing this we’ll end on having quota-less system someday hopefully.
Thanks
paragvnit@gmail.com

 

Post a Comment

<< Home