SlashIndia - Reservation

In Focus - Reservations

Mon, 01 May 2006 08:16:56 -0600

Read all about how India is fighting back the divisive, populist and regressionist agenda of the Congress-I which is bent upon promoting reservations in industry and academia, supposedly as a means to promote social justice but in reality just another round of dirty vote bank politics.

Contact below to coordinate the protests:

Youth4Equality
Website: www.Youth4Equality.org
Blog: youthforequality.blogspot.com
E-mail: youth4equality@gmail.com
Phone: 9871441919, 9810754510, 9818650242, 9871011415, 9899194084, 9810141853, 9899657532

Delhi University
E-mail: youth4justice@gmail.com , kapil.socialwork@gmail.com
Phone: 09818066041

Pukar - corporates against reservation
Website: corporate.pukar.googlepages.com

Government turns to policing reservation protests.

Tue, 06 Jun 2006 01:35:03 -0600

The government has now started to actively stop protests against reservations using police force. The most recently targetted where the JNU students trying to take out a protest march.

The walk that was supposed to go from JNU's North Gate to PVR Priya Complex was blocked at JNU's North Gate by Police Force.

It is a shame that the same government not only allowed but also protected pro-reservation sloganeers a day before- that too at India Gate!!!!!

Interestingly, the protest by Pukar was also stopped by the police on the grounds that the Chief Minister of Gurgaon was visiting.

Read more at Youth for Equality, JNU blog.

My case against reservation.

Sun, 04 Jun 2006 12:44:09 -0600

1. Most people from reserved categories passing out of IITs have lower competencies than their general category counterparts. Most of them perform badly in the internal exams and as a result when they pass out they neither have the confidence nor the skills to create or help build world class technology companies. When we talk about reservation we forget the 'social cost' of reserving that seat and just look at the single individual who gains through reservation. The 'social cost' of reserving a single seat in an IIT is that it compromises the ability of the country to create another Infosys or Wipro which in the long run would have generated hundreds of jobs many of which would have gone to people from the OBC sector itself. A similar argument can be made about how a more competent doctor can save more lives than a lesser competent one. Reservation benefits only a handful on individuals at the cost of hundreds of others, which is definitely wrong as a national policy.

The next exodus will be of teachers

Sun, 04 Jun 2006 11:12:58 -0600

The biggest consequence of the increase in the number of seats in IITs, IIMs and other educational institutes will be the increased burden on the existing faculty.

T V R Shenoy gives a detailed analysis on the current state of teachers in our best educational institutes and why many of them will leave once reservation is bought in.

Did anyone in the Manmohan Singh ministry actually talk to the teachers in the IITs, IIMs, or AIIMS before deciding to increase numbers wholesale? If you don't consult teachers in decision that directly affect them aren't you treating them as lackeys who must do as they are ordered? And why should someone labour away in a job that is not respected when there are greener pastures -- and Green Cards -- to be had?

Read the entire article on Rediff here.

Pukar - a corporate initiative against reservations.

Sat, 03 Jun 2006 09:17:48 -0600

Pukar is the corporate arm of the national movement against reservation, and is holding its first rally in Gurgaon on 5th of June, Monday.

Pukar is non-political organization formed by a large number of corporate employees in NCR and beyond to mobilize the opinion of the employees & management in the Indian corporate sector against the issue of caste based reservations for OBC’s in educational institutions.

Find more details about Pukar and the rally on their website corporate.pukar.googlepages.com.

Medicos suspend anti-reservation strike.

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 12:38:19 -0600

Heeding to Supreme Courts threat, doctors and medical students in Delhi have called of the strike. Even though the medicos will resume work, but the protest is still on and engineering students are pitching in.

In another related development, the UPA has gone ahead at further pandering of 'lower caste' votes by hinting at the inevitability of reservation in private sector.

Supreme court steps in.

Tue, 30 May 2006 13:11:30 -0600

Supreme Court has issued notices to the government asking a detailed explanation of the rationale behind reservations for OBC's.

The court’s order came on the basis of petitions filed by advocate Ashoka Kumar Thakur and Shiv Khera challenging the validity of the Constitution 93rd amendment extending reservation for OBCs.

However, the supreme court has given the government 8 weeks to reply, and has also warned medicos to end strike.

...the court has now made clear it was taking the matter very seriously and that the doctors would face contempt charges if the agitation is not immediately called off.

YouthForEquality faces a difficult choice - if the strike is called of now, it will be very difficult to bring it back to its current status after a gap of 8 weeks. Going by past conflicts between the parliament and the judiciary, there is little reason to believe that the SC would be of any help in winning the war on reservation. On the contrary it might play a part in weakening the students movement.

For now however, the agitation is still on.

Anti-Quota stir in Delhi sees massive response

Sat, 27 May 2006 13:54:52 -0600

At least 50,000 people converged on Ram Lila grounds (New Delhi) today, the 27th of May, to protest against the quota (reservation) policy of the government.

Opposing governments decision to implement 27% OBC quota in all educational institutions, the protestors struck a defiant note and threatened to continue the struggle if the government does not roll back the proposal. Representatives of people who came from different parts of the country voiced their concerns against what might turn out to be the next partition of the country. Almost all of them voiced support for quota based on economic status rather than a caste based one.

The struggle against reservations was started by medical students at AIIMS (All India Student of Medical Sciences) and has rapidly spread throughout the length and breath of the country and is gaining momentum everyday.

Today we fight.

Fri, 26 May 2006 18:00:01 -0600

Under the aegis of Youth for Equality a huge rally is planned in Delhi on 27th May protesting against the impending division of the country along caste lines.

Titled 'DELHI AAO, DESH BACHAO', this is a call to all concerned people of the country to come together and fight for what we believe to be right.

To all our countrymen who fought for freedom and equality, in our glorious struggle for independence, and to all those who laid down their lives protecting our borders, today we pay our homage.

Let us stand together and speak in one voice - we won't back down, we won't give up, we won't stop, this time we fight back, and we fight with all our might.

If today we don't stand our ground, there will be no stopping the government from unleashing more populist measures which have the potential to do great harm to our country.

If you are concerned and you believe that what the government is doing vis-a-vis reservations in educational institutes is wrong, do join in. Find more details about the event here.

The Next Partition of India

Wed, 24 May 2006 06:20:48 -0600

Subhash Kak writes an emotional piece on Rediff revealing the true nature of the struggle against reservations.

It seems such an unequal struggle: the cold apparatus of the government on the one hand, and the passion of the students on the other. The students appear to echo the words of the Hindi poet, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar:

Man ki bandhi umange asahaaya jal rahi hain
Armaan aarazoo ki laashen nikal rahi hain
inake liye kahin se nirbheek tej laa de
pighale hue anala kaa inako amrit pilaa de

(Our mental aspirations are burning
desires and wishes have become dead
let the light of fearlessness be brought
let us drink the nectar of molten fire)

....perhaps the agitating doctors in India are crying out for something much more than just the reservation of seats in colleges. They are fighting against the impending partitioning of India's soul.

Read the entire piece here.

Arjun Singh's take on Reservations

Tue, 23 May 2006 03:50:16 -0600

CNN IBN interviewed Arjun Singh in Devil's Advocate. The text of the interview is available here.

"Karan Thapar: It says, that looking at the Delhi University, between 1995 and 2000, just half the seats for under-graduates at the Scheduled Castes level and just one-third of the seats for under-graduates at the Scheduled Tribes level were filled. All the others went empty, unfilled. So, again, even in Delhi University, reservations are not working.

Arjun Singh: If they are not working, it does not mean that for that reason we don't need them. There must be some other reason why they are not working and that can be certainly probed and examined. But to say that for this reason, 'no reservations need to be done' is not correct."

This clearly shows the homework our honourable minister did before making a law. In the entire interview he has not been able to justify the case for reservation and asserts that it is a decision taken by parliament. So he is not even ready to take any responsibilty for this. He is not at all concerned with the solution working or even figuring out if this is a solution after all.

National Knowledge Commission member quit over Quota

Tue, 23 May 2006 00:22:25 -0600

Two members of the National Knowledge Commission (set up by the Prime Minister to promote excellence in education and knowledge creation), have quit due to the governments persistence over implementing quotas.

Political scientist Pratap Bhanu Mehta and sociologist Andre Beteille said they were disillusioned with the government’s policies, which they saw as a betrayal of the principles on which the commission was founded.

In his quit letter, Beteille wrote to Manmohan, who had handpicked the commission’s eight members: “I have always made a distinction between numerical quota and affirmative action. What is happening now is dangerous.”

Mehta’s letter said, “The government has revealed that it cares about tokenism more than social justice. We are not doing enough to genuinely empower marginalised groups but are offering condescending palliatives like quotas as substitute.”

The Telegraph has more.

The real impact of reservations

Sun, 21 May 2006 14:46:57 -0600

Copied below are the views of Prof. M Balakrishnan, a computer science professor at IIT Delhi as expressed at the iit4equality yahoo group.

Nearly six decades after independence, this country is planning to announce that majority of its population is backward and does not have equal opportunity to pursue education and employment. Along with this, it is going to open up a Pandora's Box by various caste groups to be classified as "backward". What an interesting way to begin the 21st century when finally India was beginning to emerge as a serious player in the new knowledge economy! The major carrot that is being doled out is the seats in the elite medical, engineering and management Institutes. What bothers me is no one is interested in even consulting the people who have built these institutions and brought them to this stature. I have strong views on efficacy of reservations in general but here I would confine myself to the issues concerning IITs. At least here with my three decade long association, I can claim to know something. Many of these arguments may be applicable to the other elite Institutions in medical and management disciplines as well.

Anti-Quota rally in Delhi sees massive turnout.

Sat, 20 May 2006 06:10:05 -0600

The anti-quota rally, organised by medical students in Delhi, saw a massive turnout where thousands of people from all sections of the society turned up to lend support.

The gathering congregated near Jantar Mantar at about 10 A.M. in the morning and was largely peaceful. Medical students from all over the country joined the rally as also hundreds of Engineers, some from major software firms.

The atmosphere reverberated with chants ranging from 'Arjun Singh Hai Hai' to a more RDB'esque 'Inquilab Zindabad'. Motivational speaker Shiv Khera and cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Sidhu also turned up to deliver fiery speeches which was received by the gathering with much applause.

Reservation fire engulfs India.

Sat, 13 May 2006 13:45:15 -0600

The protests against reservations initiated by medical students in Delhi is now spreading throughout the country.

A group of 200 medical students was lathicharged in Mumbai on Saturday when they blocked a road to the Raj Bhavan to protest against the government’s reservation proposal.

Services at three government medical colleges in Cuttack, Burla and Berhampur cities of Orissa were affected when about 1,200 house surgeons and junior doctors in government medical colleges went on strike...