Thursday, April 10, 2008

"Quota System"

Supreme Court of India ruled for reservation of seats for higher education for Other Backward Classes. It is an unfortunate situation. I belong to the OBC. How do I feel that I am labeled socially and educationally backward? I feel like crap from the get go. I do not see myself socially and educationally backward. It is determined at birth. So somebody decided that I belong to a class at birth, it is discriminatory at the least.

There are pros and cons of reservation. The cons outnumber the pros. It is not evident and nobody has conducted any kind of study to determine that reservations help the cause of people who used reservation more than people who do not. Reservation is nothing less than a charity and I do not believe charity helps in many cases.

How can we say that reservation helps or not? Just look at who is getting rich and who is not. Almost all of our Prime Ministers came from the forward class. Many of the intellectuals came from the forward class. Many of the leaders in the private industry are from forward class. Reservations just does not make sense. It is actually working against the reserved classes. The motivation to be best is not encouraged within the reserved classes. If you are so-so you will get in, because the so-so is working for you to get in an IIT or an IIM. Fortunately when somebody is taking an exam in physics at IIT, that exam is same for a student from OBC or SC or ST or from FC. Only the best get out of that class with flying colors. Reservation in India just makes the people more divisive. The FC people are crying on this verdict. They should be the ones jumping up and down, because they are held to higher standards in society by the highest judicial authority in India. Everybody else in OBC and SC/ST classes are held to lower standards. What else is left to say other than "it is a sad day for India and myself"

The basic reservation which nobody talks about is within ourselves. We put ourself in a class all the time. Be it based on caste, race or religion or something else. We should start looking within ourselves to find answers to this very important question of reservation.

We should stop being hypocrites about this and free our minds of this act of discrimination. Then only we will see self progress and our mother lands progress.