Dear President of my country.
We know you are the nominal head of the nation and not the executive head. Sadly, none of these two heads are raising their head in a matter that bows the head of the nation in shame.
Jaati - this word implies nature. When it is said that the ‘jaati’ of a person should dictate his chooice of job, shouldn’t it be taken to mean that a person must choose his job according to his nature, his passion? Where does the birth of a person become significant in this?
I don’t know which forefather of mine discriminated against whom and I don’t think I should be held responsible for that. I also doubt how many of those who want reservations actually know which forefather of theirs faced discrimination.
When were the OBCs discriminated against? By their very definition, ‘other’ backward castes carry the tag ‘other’. It implies they were never really that backward. There is also no question of discrimination against OBCs. For instance, we all need milk. How can we discriminate against the Yadav? We all need foodgrain. How can farmers be discriminated against? The OBCs are essentially those castes that did not fall within the purview of ‘brahman’ or ‘kshatriya’ or ‘Waishya’ (now even waishyas are considered OBCs - how silly) and yet were not dalits / achhoots. They have been in a position that entailed regular interaction with the rest of soceity.
In the present context, the OBCs are the most powerful political entity. Laloo’s grasp was so strong that he could not be uninstated from Bihar even after 15 years of misrule. I am from Bihar and have seen the state stalled since 1990 as everything stopped happening then. Take the case of UP or Karnataka or Haryana or TN - the OBCs are powerful, forward entities. On the contrary, I have not seen many Brahmins with a commanding presence in soceity - be it with money or power.
Discrimination today continues in the name of languages. Maharashtrian, Bengali, Kannada. So, should there not be reservation of seats for south Indians in the north and north Indians in the south? Non Maharashtrians in Maharashtra, non Bengalis in West Bengal, North Eastern students in the rest of India? Since the British also discriminated against us, should we ask the UK to have reservations for Indians? Since the mahmud of Ghazni looted us, should we have reservations in Afghanistan as well? And Iran because of its Shah? Oh what a ‘nadir’ we are trying to reach? This way, we should have reservations in Portugal, France and Mongolia as well. Will these reservations be further broken up according to castes?
Even if we agree on that discrimination still exists in remote villages, will reserving seats in an IIT or a city college or job end that discrimination? How? If a zamindar does not let a dalit drink water from his well, how will the dalit or his child reach IIT or the city college to better their lives? The poor man in a village or city is likely to send his child to work rather than the school so that the child doesn’t die of hunger. Knowledge comes much later in their list of needs. Even if there is a seat reserved for this child of a poor man (whatever his caste) in a village school, how will he benefit from it?
I would like my President to have an opinion on this and convey the same in an address to the Nation.
Reservations - letter to the President
Posted in Politics.
– May 24, 2006
7 Responses
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Fanaa »
And by the way, I did my engineering using a loan, that I am still paying for (after 4 years of earning). So, you see, I am not rich, either.
Note that I have tried not to say SC/ST/OBC but am sticking to the word ”quota” people. That is because I know as well as you do that everybody with the right resources has merit. That is why no one deserved to get reservations. Now, who doesn”t have the resources? The poor, whatever the caste. Thus, the problem is income-related and not caste-related at all.
Remember, we had 8 questions (20 marks) of which 5 were to be answered (total 100). I know some FC people who attempted ALL 8. Most of us would study for 5 and attempt 5 or 4. The thing is - we still passed and with relatively good marks. The quota people could not even get the minimum marks (in our university, 30+ was unofficially graced to 35). For quota students, this was further lowered. Thus, you see, they could not even study 2 questions out of 8 (25%) properly.
I am an engineer. We know how engineers study (last moment studies). In spite of that, we passed our exams in first class with a few hours of study and the quota candidates I knew (I didn”t ask the castes of all classmates as it is immaterial) found it difficult to pass even with lower standards. They would pass in 9 or 10 semesters what we did in 8 semesters. Same with campus placements. Nobody asks the castes. Yet, they don”t succeed (except a few who are good students and don”t need quotas anyway). So, where does the problem lie? basic education. If a person did not get a good maths coaching/practice, it is really difficult for him to carry on in engineering. I myself had left a few parts in my 12th and found things difficult when a topic was taught with those basics assumed. So, the answer again is primary education. You cannot teach a person 4*4=16 until he understands 2+2=4.
Your point seems to be against the way merit is measured. But you still didn”t counter my point. Why aren”t you shouting for correcting the way merit is measured (individual cut-offs)? Why quotas? With quotas, the only difefrence is that the SC/ST/OBC candidate will pass medicine entrance without knowledge of biology instead of the general caste doing so. Further, he will do it with even lesser cut-offs. How are they going to be meritorious then? And by the way, although I was not into biology, my friends were. I know one who reached AIIMS with a good rank. The AIIMS exam is different.
Coming back to the point, merit IS an issue. Don”t you understand that there is something called the queue that ”everyone”. irrespective of caste, needs to follow?
Maya, if you are so talented that you don”t need a quota, WHY are you supporting quotas? As it is, it is difficult to find a non-freeluncher like you. And you come out supporting free lunches??? That’’s disappointing and frustrating. The answer lies in my question that I asked you: Given that you are ill, which doctor would you prefer? One who has passed his entrance as well as degree exams thorugh lowered standards or one who has passed it through the minimum standards???
Kaushik, I have the guts to challenge u,I was the 9th rank holder in the 10th standard exams, the highest index mark holder (maths, phy & chem.) for the 12th IN KERALA for that year.& qualified for both the medicine & eng entrances without quota.now i am doing my PG again without a quota.I challenge u to prove me wrong.Merit is being made into such a big issue by all.I AM STILL SAYING IT IS NOT.Not only in Kerala but in any entrance u can qualify for MBBS by being excellent in physics & chemistry & trying ur luck with biology.similarily for the PG entrance,u might be working in a speciality for which u scored a BIG Zero for the entrance. the method of assessing merit thru entrance is partly flawed.so except for the 1st few ranks the others are all on a level playing field.eg; rank 1000 -1500 in an all india PG entrance (for which there are 3000 seats) may have the same entrance mark but they cannot be allotted the same rank.I think u r not a doctor otherwise u