The Anti Reservation Movement
The “Honourable” Union Minister Arjun Singh’s proposal of 27% reservation quota for Other Backward Castes [OBC’s] in Central Government institutions of higher education has been one of the major issues over the last couple of weeks. As a result, the total quota for reservation has risen to a staggering 49.5%, i.e. nearly half of the seats in the IITs, IIMs and the 113 Central Government run medical colleges will be occupied on the basis of factors other than merit. This issue has grabbed the attention of all and sundry, giving rise to a plethora of views that range across the entire spectrum of opinion.
So, in order to understand something about this, lets go back to the core issue here- RESERVATION. Sixty odd years ago, when our founding fathers drafted the Constitution, they felt that some sort of measures were required in order to uplift those sections of society who had been oppressed for centuries, and denied their basic rights. And they hit upon the solution- reservation. Laudable sentiments, but the burning question is: has reservation actually served its purpose??? The answer is NO- it has benefited a considerably narrow strata of the SC/ST community, which has been termed as the “creamy layer”. Certainly, reservation has not lived up to the promise of emancipating the people. Hence, we conclude that it is definitely NOT the solution. So increasing the reservation quota simply is pointless.
Furthermore, reservation was meant to be a temporary measure. Dr Ambedkar had specifically said,"Reservation is not a crutch for the scheduled castes and tribes" and had suggested a ten year timeframe, after which it was to be progressively decreased and ultimately eliminated. However, it hasn’t been done so by the Machiavellian politicians, who sensed the prospect to create vote banks, at the cost of national unity. Therefore, a further raise in reservation simply exacerbates the issue, further fragmenting Indian society. In fact, I would go on to say that the polarized situation today bears an eerie resemblance to that of the British Raj, when the concept of “communal electorates” was introduced, and special constituencies were reserved for Muslims.
Consider the irony- reservation was meant to create a sense of equality, but now it’s become a cause of inequality among the people. There is a popular misconception that the reservation quota is the only mode of entry for the backward castes, but it is not so- a considerable number of these students enter on the basis of merit too, further decreasing the chances of the students who belong to the general category. Is it right to ‘punish’ the so-called forward castes for crimes committed by their forefathers??? In my humble opinion, this is just one more opportunity for the political parties to play “divide and rule”. That this proposal came just before the elections is clear testament to the fact that Mr Arjun Singh’s statement was a carefully orchestrated event to grab maximum mileage.
Reservation of such a substantial number of seats will only decrease the level of excellence of the educational institutions. Rather than raising quotas in higher education, strengthening the primary and secondary tiers of education to prevent dropouts among the backward castes would be the more appropriate mode of action.
This matter is of extraordinary relevance for medical students, as more than 10,000 seats are at stake. Hence, the resolution taken by the medical students of New Delhi to vehemently protest against this proposal under the forum “Youth for Equality” ought to be appreciated. The students have been boycotting classes for several days and organizing peaceful demonstrations. The anti-reservation movement has spread to almost all parts of India, with similar protests occurring in places like Amritsar, Jalandhar, Jaipur, Rajkot, Kolkatta, Patna, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Mysore, etc… and more and more colleges are joining by the day.
And the movement has been brought into cyberspace too, with numerous online petitions arising that oppose reservations. The “Youth for Equality” forum has launched a site, where colleges can declare their support for the forum, and explain their stand on reservation. Its gonna be an uphill task, but the battle has just begun. We hope you’ll support our efforts to eliminate the ever increasing malignancy of reservation from our educational system.
