BCs being uplifted or pampered?
The ‘common good’ of a collective – a race, a class, a state – was the claim and justification of every tyranny ever established over men.
I came across this in Naren's blog today. How true this statement is in light of today's situation...Me and my brother had a heated argument over reservation today after reading Swaminomics on TOI today.Both of us did our engineering from the 'great' state of Tamil Nadu and both have been victims of the Draconian 69% reservation policy.
My Brother's contention is that irrespective of caste/religion, every community has people who have the ability to get into top institutes of the country.Although I do agree with what he says, I dont agree that caste based reservation is the only solution to this problem.Whenever you say anything against reservation, pro-reservationists show the example of TN , which is one of the better developed states of India.I have a question to these people.What determines the well being of a state?Is it dependent upon 2000-3000 engineers/doctors coming out of the state or is it dependent upon the quality of life crores of other people lead?Obviously it is the latter.
If reservation can bring backward castes people on par with so called upper castes, then why is that the reservation being extended for PG and even Jobs? Even after availing of reservation in UG these people do not want to compete with General category people after that. Who would not want to take an easier route to success?I don't mind reservation being extended to really deserving people.But not to those who had the same quality of education in schools as I did and who couldn't get a seat on merit because they just were not capable enough!!!Reservation has spoiled some of the best colleges of Tamil Nadu beyond repair.Even you have quotas for lecturers in Government colleges.If you do not have quality teachers teaching the students, how do you expect the students to learn anything at all?
The data the pro-reservationists show as support for their argument is the pass-percentage which I feel is one of the most skewed up data you could ever find.Pass percentage is not reflective of the quality of education being provided.The professors themselves are not qualified enough to teach the students.Then how do you expect quality?
One of the 'Qualified' Professors in my college used to say that there are two types of teachers-'Inspite of' and 'Because of'.You either pass 'because of' the teacher or you pass 'inspite of' the teacher.And he added that because of reservation for faculty positions, TN is full of 'Inspite of' teachers.I guess this sums it up all.
I dunno what is the measure of backwardness.If some particular community is not being adequately represented in an IIM for a PG course and you term the community 'Backward' because of this, then I would prefer that community to remain backward.I don't think every community in India can ever be represented adequately in an elite institute.
All said and done,IITs,IIMs and other central institutes are all set to go down the drain in the coming years.But I guess fortunate forward caste people like me can afford to go to other foreign countries and pursue our dreams.My brother and sister have already started having doubts about bringing up their kids in India.
But for the not-so-fortunate ones, God knows what will happen to them...
I came across this in Naren's blog today. How true this statement is in light of today's situation...Me and my brother had a heated argument over reservation today after reading Swaminomics on TOI today.Both of us did our engineering from the 'great' state of Tamil Nadu and both have been victims of the Draconian 69% reservation policy.
My Brother's contention is that irrespective of caste/religion, every community has people who have the ability to get into top institutes of the country.Although I do agree with what he says, I dont agree that caste based reservation is the only solution to this problem.Whenever you say anything against reservation, pro-reservationists show the example of TN , which is one of the better developed states of India.I have a question to these people.What determines the well being of a state?Is it dependent upon 2000-3000 engineers/doctors coming out of the state or is it dependent upon the quality of life crores of other people lead?Obviously it is the latter.
If reservation can bring backward castes people on par with so called upper castes, then why is that the reservation being extended for PG and even Jobs? Even after availing of reservation in UG these people do not want to compete with General category people after that. Who would not want to take an easier route to success?I don't mind reservation being extended to really deserving people.But not to those who had the same quality of education in schools as I did and who couldn't get a seat on merit because they just were not capable enough!!!Reservation has spoiled some of the best colleges of Tamil Nadu beyond repair.Even you have quotas for lecturers in Government colleges.If you do not have quality teachers teaching the students, how do you expect the students to learn anything at all?
The data the pro-reservationists show as support for their argument is the pass-percentage which I feel is one of the most skewed up data you could ever find.Pass percentage is not reflective of the quality of education being provided.The professors themselves are not qualified enough to teach the students.Then how do you expect quality?
One of the 'Qualified' Professors in my college used to say that there are two types of teachers-'Inspite of' and 'Because of'.You either pass 'because of' the teacher or you pass 'inspite of' the teacher.And he added that because of reservation for faculty positions, TN is full of 'Inspite of' teachers.I guess this sums it up all.
I dunno what is the measure of backwardness.If some particular community is not being adequately represented in an IIM for a PG course and you term the community 'Backward' because of this, then I would prefer that community to remain backward.I don't think every community in India can ever be represented adequately in an elite institute.
All said and done,IITs,IIMs and other central institutes are all set to go down the drain in the coming years.But I guess fortunate forward caste people like me can afford to go to other foreign countries and pursue our dreams.My brother and sister have already started having doubts about bringing up their kids in India.
But for the not-so-fortunate ones, God knows what will happen to them...
posted by Fervid Blogger @ 6:14 pm
2 Comments:
At May 29, 2006 7:51 pm,
Naren said…
I think the real intention of reservations is to pull down the "forward" classes rather than to bring-up the "backward" classes!
& yes, pass percentage is No indicator of progress!
At June 06, 2006 7:08 am,
Anonymous said…
I guess in this debate on reservation, an important element - affirmative action - is being sidelined completely. Very few folks, like Yogendra Yadav talk about that.
affirmative action is important - no one can deny that. Adding an economic element with a time-bound implementation would be the solution.
Another question that IIMs need to have an internal debate on is the question as to why they seem to lock horns with every HRD ministry. Seems a bit strange... Aping the US colleges in publishing Highest salaries (that too astronomical ones), foreign offers and all those stupidly manipulated statistics definitely points to something.
In a country where 36% of the population is BPL, I guess it is time to think. Otherwise the infamous predictions of Civil war due to increasing Social divide may become true... and yes... the pro/anti-quota protests definitely point to something in this direction...unfortunately
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