Reservations: OBC View

A wonderful post by an OBC in an IIT and his take on reservations.

True Mandal

This article from ChandraBhan Prasad is eye-opening and shows the true Mandal. I agree with him that if powerful OBCs are removed from the list, the anti-sentiment will cool-off. However, ecnomonic considerations should be part of it to be acceptable to me as a short term solution.

Misuse of Reservation System

Well, as I was reading the articles, I found the misuse of reservations system in India is not in isolation. We, Indians, can get an OBC or SC/ST certificate so easily that the main purpose is lost anyway. But here, I found that Americans are using DNA tests and technology to claim certain rights. E.g. a white person undergoing DNA tests to claim that she is 2% Asian and gets into college (after claiming she is Asian) and gets a scholarship too!

I should also undergo DNA test to find out that how much % of me is OBC! That alone can ensure some future to my offspring. Where have we come?

Reservation hurts

As if killing IITs and IIMs are not enough, they want to kill private sector now. Our vulture government is adamant now on introducing reservations in jobs in private sector too. If I own a company, I decide who I employ. That’s none of government business. I pay taxes for you to set-up whatever you want to. Keep out of my company.

I think India is heading for a long civil war. Slowly but steadily.

I thought of various alternative reservation mechanisms to follow up my earlier post. I still think we don’t need the reservations but owing to current state of affairs with respect to primary and secondary education, I propose following alternatives:

A. Government is given 25 years to get primary and secondary education systems in shape. Let there be reservations for economically backward classes (people below 50% of per capita income) in all institutes. Let this be pegged at 30% from year 1 and reducing in one percentage point every year for next 25 years (29% in year 2, 28% in year 3 and so on... till 5% is left in year 26). Then let 5% continue for another 25 years period and probably forever. Allow vacant seats be filled by general category.

B. Identify what people actually need reservation. Analyse their demographics. Install a point scale from 1-10 for these people. Award them that many % extra marks. That’s the way it is done for NCC cadets, War Widows and like. No reservations, just plain, pure and simple affirmative action.

C. Same point scale as in B and gradually decreasing reservation as in A. And the cut-off of reserved category be set at 10% below (at 90% of marks of) last general category student admitted. Again, allow vacant seats be filled by general category.

None of my alternatives are based on castes (scrape the SC/ST quota too), as I don’t like discrimination and don’t want to divide based on caste. I remember an OBC leader saying that they have suffered 2000 years of oppression. Are we supposed to pay for (claimed) sins of our ancestors? Where are the facts? Didn’t Muslims invade India in last 1500 years? Should we throw them out? Those same Muslims now want reservation too! The same leader also said that OBC in India are worse off that Slaves were in USA. Also the reason he says that since upper caste people get coaching for entrance, OBC need reservation. I say that coaching system favours people based on their economic status not caste. So he should instead be arguing for economically backward not socially backward. Another argument he made that % of OBC population is more even more that it was when decided by Mandal commission. Well, so population control goes against you. People are being rewarded for multiplying faster!

See where it is heading? Why don’t the government reserve everything in this country to everybody in their share of population? OBCs drive on road in OBC lanes. SC/ST in SC/ST lanes. Let’s reserve seats in airlines, railways, buses, and all public and private transport. Let’s designate half of country’s lakes as OBC lakes. OBC and other backwards take east shore of any river and general category the west shore. 50% of “sulabh” toilets are reserved for OBC. So are 50% of hospital beds. And, 50% of all cars sold. And, 50% of all two-wheelers sold. And while are at it, 50% of parliament seats and 50% of cremation grounds, too. To hell with it, why doesn’t the government divide India into two equal parts? A general category India and a backward India (consisting of all self proclaimed backwards – SC/ST/OBC). Give us our country back. Let us progress. We will create new IITs and IIMs. We don’t need Congress or UPA. You go head the Backward Republic of India. Leave us in peace.

I hate being unable to do anything about it. That’s where I don’t like democracy. You own the cow and neighbours decide who gets the milk. Democracy probably depends too much on average IQ of the population below the median IQ.

Education and Reservation System In India

I have always had a simple opinion on reservations - "we don't need them". By we I mean Indians of all varieties, shapes and sizes. 12 yrs of primary and secondary education is enough to train kids to be competitive. If you can't do it in 12 most productive years, as far as learning is concerned, you can never do it. I also strongly advocate that education upto 12th should be free and compulsory. We should learn from Japanese what they did after WW-II. But making education free means money, and India is left without any with growing tax breaks, inefficient tax nets, tax evations bigger than economy of Pakistan, and richer, fatter and power-hungry politicians. Our politicians are busy making law to get more "offices of profit" when they should be making "12 yrs of education" into law.

People say we are poor country. A miniscule percentage of Indian public, who invest in primary markets and who are into "retail" segment with less than $2000 each to invest, coughed up more than Rs 200,000 crores or more than $ 4.5 billion. This excludes high-networth investors and financial institutions.

I think government should setup "Basic Education Fund" which has tax exemption of 200%. So if you have income of 10 million, donate 5 million to this fund and pay no tax. I'm sure this will lead to decent corpse. But the execution also counts a lot. We need to maintain public account of this fund to see how much goes where.

With so many politicians, incl. Arjun Singh and Left, saying that so-called backward castes need reservation, I challenge them to donate all the money they have for the cause of upliftment of their caste-brothers. No. They won't do that. They want middle-class to suffer and pay for their cause, reducing their right to education at the same time. I have never seen worse arguement that this. Kill the golden goose. Kill the middle-class. Kill the India. They never think of middle-class fellows who study 16-hr a day for their right to quality education. Rich will escape to foreign education. What about your bank-clerk's daughter? What mistake has she made in her life, apart from being born in India, that deny her birth-right to fair competition to quality education.

Also, those same politicians say merit will not suffer. I received a wonderful suggestion in email, that I would to share. How about reservation in Parliament? Let all doctors that treat MPs, MLAs be from backward classes. Let all aids be that. This will ensure jobs for them and provide good oppurtunities to growth. Let all government jobs for unskilled labour be reserved for backward classes. But ensure free and fair competition for skilled jobs.

I also don't like the concept of pre-nursery, nursery, LKG and UKG before getting into 1st. Poor kids. Give them a break. Let them enjoy atleast first 5-6 yrs. After that, its competition for the rest of life.

On the same note, I found this article from Rahul Phondke interesting from my alumni site. I can't link that here but here is how it goes (quoting verbatim)

<quote>
In a significant move today, Congress announced 50 % reservation for all Left Handed people in IITs/IIMs. Said a congress spokesman , "In 60 years of independence there has not been a single left handed CEO. It is time to set the system right " . This reservation will be over and above the existing reservations taking the total reservation to 99.73 %. In order to take care of the fractions, the government also announced an increase in the number of seats taking the total IIM seats to 1000.

The official bill would be signed soon by the PM's office ....with his left hand ...
</quote>