Whenever the issue of reservation comes up for public debate, the entire Dalit and backward community is painted as devoid of any merit without caring about the fact that a majority of them survive without reservation.
On the other hand, the debate declares the so-called upper castes as meritorious. Therefore at this juncture when the debate on reservation is rife, let us gauge merit on both sides. The merit of upper castes can be evaluated by assessing their performance on the basis of the traditional social structure. Looking at history the Varnas-Brahman, Kshatriya and Vaishyas were assigned with particular functions.
The Brahman had the privilege of teaching, the Kshatriya of protecting all creatures and the Vaishya living by commerce. The Dalits could ask the Brahmans if they were so meritorious why then half of the country's population is illiterate.
If the Kshatriyas were so meritorious then why could they not defend our borders? The Shaka, Huns, Tartars, Mughals, Dutch, British etc. all defeated them and subjugated us. Similarly, if the Vaishyas were so meritorious then why is trade and commerce of India in shambles?
In the same vein, if Arjuna of Mahabharata was so meritorious then why did Dronacharya demand Eklavya's thumb. In contemporary times, look at the low Human Develop Index (HDI). India is placed at 127 in the group of 174 countries.
In the Corruption Perception Index for the year 2004, India ranked 90 in the group of 146 countries (Transparency International India report 2004). Above all, the external debt of India is at a whopping Rs 5,11,861 crore (Economic Survey 2003-4: p.128). If meritorious economists and administrators are managing the affairs of the country without any reservation, why are we so economically poor? Why are farmers committing suicide as if it is rural India's ritual? Why do we have hundreds and thousands of legal cases pending at higher levels of our meritorious judiciary? Science and technology is considered the realm of super specialty and hence kept out of the bounds of reservation in India.

Hi!

Why only education.....I have one more suggestion......which has the potential to solve all problems of reservation....

Let there be a 50% reservation in the union and state council of
ministers, houses of Parliament and state legislatures too. 50% of the
key portfolios like finance, defence, external affairs, home and HRD
should be reserved too. This will empower the SC, ST and OBC in true
sense.

Anyway India stands for uplifiting of non-meritorious either by
favoritism, corruption or by reservation.

regards

Neel

It's an absolute shame that institutions like IIT's and IIM's which are pretty much the only few world class insitutions we have are being used as pawns in a game of political scheming.

The govt should provide more educational opportunities to our underprivileged citizens through primary education, and through more opportunities and resources that will train them to compete at the level of IIT / IIM. They simply cannot circumvent that process and make reservations to the tune of a whopping 50% in these insitutions. It smacks of stupidity and downright ignorance.

If there is a brand that India has today it is the IIT's and other premier institutions like IIM , AIMS and such. Anyone who is involved in the silicon valley can attest to the value created by IIT alumni and. I would even go to the extent of saying that part of India's economic transformation that is taking place today is due to those bright minds who are doing everything to bring the benefits of globalization to India. That includes people like Sam Pitroda who did not cry foul because he grew up in a tribal region of Orissa.

If this reservation bill goes through I probaly will lose my interest in seeing my country progressing because if politicians like Arjun Singh can bring down an entire institution and if there is nobody to stop it...well..There is nothing worth being proud of anyway.

Read this article - That man was the Telecom minister (though the only thing he probably might know about Telecom is listening to the dialtone)
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1029662&catid=19

There should be a fund raising program to have the resorces to stop this at any cost.

DR AMBEDKAR AND THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION ENVISAGED THE RESERVATION PROVISION FOR TEN YEARS, SO THAT THE SOCIETY IS SYNCHRONISED. INSTEAD OF PURSUING THE SPIRIT , THE RULING ELITE USED IT AS A TOOL, POLITICAL WEAPON, AND KEEP THE NATIONAL HABITAT DIVIDED. IF , WE HAVE TO RESORT TO IT AFTER 60 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE, IT IS A CERTIFICATE THAT OUR POLITICAL WILL WAS NEVER TO DO AWAY WITH THE MENACE , RATHER KEEP IT AS A BLOT ON THE NATION'S FACE. THE POLITY MUST PASS A RESOLUTION IN BOTH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT CONDEMNING THEMSELVES FOR THE SAME. SHALL RESERVATION BE PERPETUAL ( LIKE TERRORISM, INSURGENCY, CORRUPTION, COMMUNALISM AND OTHER MENACE). A DETAILED ANALYSIS IS REQUIRED TO STUDY THE WAYS TO STRENGTHEN THE WEAK BASICALLY( DEVELOPING A FACULTY TO COMPETE IN TANDEM . NOT IN ISOLATION). RESERVATION CONCEPTUALLY MEANS A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF WHOLE NOT OTHERWISE ( MAKING THE RESIDUARY, RESERVED). THE RESERVATION HAS BEEN USED BY HAVES AMONG THE SC/ ST AT THE HUGE COST OF THE REALLY NEEDY PEOPLE. THE PRESENT INDIA IS DIVIDED ONLY IN HAVES AND HAVES NOT, NOT OTHERWISE. IT SHALL BE PROPER TO HAVE RESERVATION A SENSIBLE PROPORTION FOR THESE HAVES-NOT AS A WHOLE, NOT DIVIDING THEM (HAVES NOT) IN CASTE, CREED , SEX, RELIGION- THE TRUE SPIRIT ENVISAGED BY THE FRAMERS OF CONSTITUTION. STUDY DR B R AMBEDKAR IN TOTALITY NOT IN ISOLATION WHO STOOD FOR NATIONAL INTEGRATION , NOT ITS FRAGMENTATION. THE PRESENT STATE OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS HAVE FORCED THE NATIONAL MARTYRS( BHAGAT SINGH, SUKHDEV, RAJGURU, ASHFAQULLAH KHAN, SUBHASH BOSE, SARDAR PATEL AND THE LIKE) TO BE TEARFUL IN ABODE. DID WE FOUGHT FOR FREEDOM AS INDIAN OR A DIVIDED LOT. LET ALL (NOT AS SC/ ST/ GENERALIST/ MINORITY) MUST RISE TO THE OCCASION , LEST IT BE TOO LATE . THE OTHERWISE POLITY HAVE A VESTED/PERPETUAL INTEREST IN KEEPING THE PEOPLE DIVIDED. I PERSONALLY FEEL THAT "K A ABBAS NOVEL -SAAT HINDUSTANI " HAS TO BE MADE A PART OF TEXT AT SENIOR SECONDARY LEVEL-AN ANSWER TO THE NATION'S ILLS. PRAMOD KUMAR GUPTA

May be its time that all sections of the society come together and ask the screwed up political system to get its act straigtened up. This is like rubbing salts on the wounds of the people who have been vexed up with the crooked political system, who goes all out for minorities and so called underprivelaged. We started with a 10 year reservation system which was expanded every 10 years for another 10 years. Questions we need to ask the politicians.
Why isnt the prime minister and central ministers have reservation of 49.5%?
First let them impliment among themself and then come to the education system.

Political system is a better system to come up(Loot people) than being educated.

Time is coming up for the people to get together with the support of priate companies who are being asked to impliment the reservation system in their own businesses.

Govt doesnt have a right to tell anyone whom to hire or whom not to hire. These companies are build by people who put stheir money, their efforts and their skills to get profitable and pay taxes to the govt for themself and their employees.

People rise up. Its time for younth to come up with a party which safe gaurds the imterests of Indian people with one rule for the land and I hope every NRI who has been effected by these stupid political system, private companies (who can put in a lot of money if needed to organise the anti reservation propoganda to safe gaurd their interests in the future) would support such a party to take on these political idiots.

Keeping in view the reservation policies and vote bank politics in India, I think we may even not press the govt or judicial authorities for any favour or action.

As under right to information act it is a conferred right on the part of those not availing and not enjoying the reserved quota category admissions or in jobs thereafter to write the word (GC) after each and every professional qualification so obtained as it is right of the Public at large to know the caliber of the person they are interacting with so as to distinguish if he belongs to meritorious lot or from the reserved quota.

For this i think u the antireservations the so called youth 4 equality infact need no discvussion much less a favour from Government and what you have to do is to intimate the affilliated institute to allow u to use a suffix in the degrees much like the steream as in practice.
eg. Dr. X Y Z BSc.(GC) MBBS (Gyne) (GC) etc.

after adopting such a resolution u need not have to beg even the Justice from any one infuture.
please think of this and call off the strike which may be against the national interest if indefinately continued.

As this issue would not be solved by the Govt. it is required to be left to public at large to accept or reject the implementation methods of the govt. policy of reservations with a fair motive to uplift the backward section of society which infact does not mean caste based politics but a need based policy.

If such an attempt is made it might serve as an acceptable solution to the problem since the reserved category persons enjoying the benefits can not write the suffix (GC) and if they so desire and do not feel shy of accepting the charity they should write Q or R as suffix as a clear demarcation and distinction between the two lots.
This amicable solution if arrived at in negotians or at court would be good for nation

A well wisher of the nation

G K Mathur
Gkmathur123@yahoo.co.in

Whenever upper caste people talk about reservation they say that the beneficiaries of reservation are totally devoid of any competence and are the cause of the downfall of India, but consider this:

1. For the last 60 years upper castes have had almost total control of the national politics. Vast majority of politicians in position of power have belonged to upper caste. Politicians who took out rath yatras and got thousands killed in the name of religion were all upper caste folks, those who led the killings of thousands of sikhs in delhi where all upper caste folks, those who led and covered the massacre of muslims in gujrat where primarily upper caste folks, everybody involved in tehelka scandal was upper caste, the leadership who gave away hundreds of thousands of acres of land to China and pakistan in the wars were upper caste (by the way the don't forget that defense minister who led the highly successful bangladesh war opertion was a dalit, Jagjivan Lal), all politicians involved in bofors scam were upper caste folks. Now tell me how can anybody say that upper caste people have been more competent than the beneficiaries of reservation. Have the dalit politicians like Mayawati been flawless ? absolutely not. But they are still a minority in India. Can someone tell me how the meritorious upper caste politicians have performed any better ?

2.Till this date majority of judiciary positions in Higher/Lower Courts as well as the Supreme Court in India are held by upper caste folks. But there are millions of cases pending in those courts. It is a nightmare, to seek justice in India. So how can anybody claim that the upper caste folks have managed the judiciary any better than the beneficiaries of reservation?

4. Till this date majority of the leadership positions in police and other law and order agencies are occupied by upper caste folks. But hundreds of rapes, murders, abductions and other crimes occur every hour in India. And the crime conviction rate in India is less than 10%. People are afraid to seek help from police. So who can say that those upper caste officers have shown higher competence?

5.Give me the names or relevant data that shows that low caste doctors have hurt patients much more than the upper caste doctors. I can bet that if data were gathered, majority of doctors who do illegal abortions or those who have so far been leaving the instruments in patient's bellies would turn out to be upper caste people.

6.Public health care system in India is in shambles. And who are the managers? Majority of them belong to upper caste. Who has ever pointed out a finger towards those upper caste folks during the anti-reservation demonstrations?

7.There is no reservation in sports in India and upper caste folks manage all sports agencies. So where are the Olympic gold medals folks? Would some one tell me?

8.India was in total control of upper caste rulers when invaders like the mughals and the british came. If the upper castes where so competent then how come they always suffered defeat in the hands of such invaders.

9. Give me the data, which shows that the structures built by lower caste engineers were bad than those build by upper caste engineers. And I come from a family of civil engineers and I can for sure provide data, at least from my state, that the structures build by upper caste engineers fell down more often than those built under the supervision of lower caste engineers.

So those pointing fingers at the dalits should first examine the big picture of how their own community has performed in the last 60 years.Nobody has any right to say that the beneficiaries of reservation are incompetent. Such statements are absolutely baseless.

The media is controlled by the upper caste folks and is totally biased against the pro reservation voice. While everybody does hear about the upper caste candidates who couldn't get into post-graduate schools, nobody hears about the sons of cobblers who have become engineers and doctors because of reservation and are performing as good, if not better, than the upper caste people. And media never ever showcases such people, now do they?

Those who are anti-reservation, forget that their great grandfathers were able to walk with self respect and do business in the Indian society when the dalits were forced to live outside the villages and towns and when dalits were banned from every temple, school and business. And this discrimination is still alive and kicking. It takes generations to gain a footing in the society.Let the dalits gain a footing in the society for another couple of hundred years and then make comments about equality.

I totally support the anti-reservation protest for the better future of our country. To save our country, we need get rid of foolish politicians, by working in planned way, see my blog: http://o3.indiatimes.com/indiareserved

Dear all friends who are protesting against reservation.

I strongly support you all for the same. I wish All T.S Chanakya cadets to join IIT Mumbai Boys for hunger strike.

I just would like to ask govt why Laloo Prasad yadav's family do not trust his Dr Daughter (reason are obvious).Why politician get Doctors from abroad (e.g. Parmod Mahajan).If reservation wl come all no technical line wl believe Indians.

ALSO IF GOVT OF INDIA DO NOT AGREE THAN I SUGGEST ALL FORWARD CLASS DOCTOR TO TREAT ONLY FORWARD CLASS PERSONS AND BACKWARD CLASS SHOULD GET THEIR TREATMENT WITHY ONLY SC ST AND OBC DOCTORS.

THANKS AND REGARDS TO ALL

I WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT YOU PHISICALY AND ECONOMICALY TO ALL STRIKE STUDENTS

This is a cynical world. It assumes that politicians care for nothing but their votes. It believes that all protestors against reservation are those whose only interest is preservation of their hegemony. It characterizes all supporters of reservation as advocates of mediocrity.

This article takes a contrarian view. It believes that there are statesmen among politicians. That those who protest against reservation are not opposed to affirmative action to help those left behind. That supporters of reservation are not against meritocracy.

This new approach to reservation is based on the recognition of the following:
1) That by and large educated Indians agree that sections of our society who have been left behind need to be supported to catch up. This is not just our moral responsibility but a self-preservation need. If we do not take affirmative action we shall do so at our own peril, since no society can advance when a substantial portion of its people are left behind.
2) However this 'upliftment movement' need not degenerate to a 'revenge solution' - my growth need not be pre-saged on your fall.
3) While any reservation will divide people into two groups, those who are favoured and those who are not, it should not divide people permanently into irreconcilable categories like the present caste based reservation does. In other words social harmony should not be a casualty to social upliftment.
4) The reservation solution should carry within itself the seeds of its dissolution so that future generations of Indians are not subjected to the divisive pressures we are. Stated differently, the solution should not transfer the problem to a future generation.
5) The benefits of reservation should be clearly measurable so that at a later date we can conclude if it worked or not.

Based on the above I suggest that literacy should be the basis of reservation. All children of illiterate parents should get the benefits of reservation in education and training all through their lives. The parents of such children should immediately be recruited into an adult literacy programme.

Now how will this reservation work?

Children of illiterate parents are easily the most under-privileged. By and large they will be found in rural areas. They will be very poor and belong mostly to the scheduled tribes, scheduled castes and the most backward castes. There will be much more of them in low growth states like the BIMARU - Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. So while this reservation will help the poorest of the poor, living in villages in the least developed states of India and belonging to the most disadvantaged castes, it will identify them by none of these divisive criteria.

The reservation will begin with the first day schooling and go all the way through all their life. If at some stage the person is found to lag then special attention will be paid to him/her. For instance, if a child gets poor mark in class-10 he or she will be put through a special remedial course at the government's expense so that he/she is fit to join class-11. Similarly if a person wanting to join Medicine or Engineering is found wanting he will be given a special remedial course so that he is fit enough to pursue the course of his dreams. If a person drops after class-12, takes up a job and later wants to go back to study he will get the same reservation privileges again. In other words children of unlettered parents will be cheered-on throughout their lives so that they may shining examples of society's role in helping its under-privileged.

This reservation will continue in jobs too, both in the public and private sectors. Children of illiterate parents will get first preference for every job - from peon to president! Corporate organisations could be incentivised to give special training to these people so that they may climb the corporate ladder. The government will be responsible to ensure that every child of this reservation policy finds employment. In that it goes well beyond "Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan" which only seeks to provide basic education for all kids. The focus of the new reservation will not just be quantity but also quality. Not just basic education but quality education throught life. And not just education but also employment.

The best thing about this system of reservation is that it will apply only to one generation of kids. Once a child gets educated his children will no more be eligible for the benefits under this scheme. What's more! The parents of the first generation kids getting the reservation will perforce go to adult literacy classes. So in a few decades we can expect illiteracy to be a thing of the past!

The other good part is who can't get this reservation. Children of politicians, anybody employed in government or in the corporate world, anyone with a bank account etc will all be disqualified. Children from upper castes, children from middle or rich class and almost everyone from the cities is likely to be ineligible. Only the most under-privileged will benefit.

No honourable person can object to this reservation. It does not divide people into antagonistic groups. It is morally satisfying since it'll help only the truly under privileged and has the potential to wipe out illiteracy. It will not carry on beyond one generation. The benefits are easily measurable in terms of literacy and social upliftment. Above all it is reservation system that all of society can take pride in. So it'll unite society rather than divide it.

Shouldn't literacy be the basis of a new approach to reservation?