The Indian Supreme Court ordered a stay on the controversial plans to implement a 27% reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) at the IITs, IIMs, AIIMS and other institutions of higher education today. This is in addition to the 22.5% reservation already established for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SCSTs).
The latter quota was adopted approximately 50 years ago at the time of India's independence. Then in 1979, the Mangal Commission was set up by the then Prime Minister, Morarji Desai, to determine what classes/castes should be included in the OBC group, what criteria should be used to formulate this list and finally what their quota should be. The commission then compiled a list based on socio-economic status and education levels and determined that a further 27% of seats in government institutions would be reserved for the OBCs. When the PM at the time, Mr. V.P. Singh tried to implement these recommendations, there were nationwide protests. The quotas were enforced nonetheless.
Until recently, however, institutions of higher education like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and medical colleges like the All India Institute of Medical Scienced (AIIMS) were exempt from this law. In 2006, Human Resource Development minister Arjun Singh announced that he wanted this law to apply to the aforementioned institutions and gradually to colleges and companies in the private sector. This immediately sparked a series of student protests. At one point, medical students were joined by doctors and health care in certain hospitals actually came to a standstill. This was followed by a spate of suspensions of the doctors, and more rallies and hunger strikes by the protesters. Eventually, the Supreme Court was forced to intervene and directed the doctors to resume their work. In the last few months, the government established various committees and commission to prove to the Supreme Court that this affirmative action is required. Finally, today, the Supreme Court ordered a stay on the additional reservations and mandated the government to provide them with numbers based on a more recent population census.
The Mangal Commission came under a lot of fire because of various discrepancies in their population figures and those of the National Sample Survey. Furthermore, according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandal_commission), the commission has used some dubious methods to determine the number of people who fall in the OBC category. For instance, they seem to have counted those who fall under the SCST category but who have a slight change in the spelling of their names. They also seem to have included certain sub-castes even though the caste as a whole is an SC.
Personally, I think the whole affair is just a stunt employed by our vote-mongering politicians, especially the likes of Arjun Singh. It is an uncomfortable but irrefutable fact that the lower classes and castes have been discriminated against in the past and the despicable practice continues even today. They also may not have the resources necessary to ameliorate their situation in life. In such cases, the government does have an obligation to assist them in their endeavors. However, perpetuating the caste system is only going to stoke more inter-caste resentment and discrimination, thereby defeating the purpose of the reservations in the first place.
For example, I know that the IITs already have a quota for SCSTs and more often than not, despite relaxed standards for them (2/3 the score of the last General Category applicant accepted), many of these seats are not filled. They are not opened up for other students either. Instead, SCST students who don't make the cut are offered a one-year preparatory course and then if they clear the exams, are given an SCST seat. Obviously, the numbers don't always match, and there are often some seats that remain unfilled. So to return to my earlier point, some students who were just barely on the wrong side of the cut-off might resent the fact that despite scoring higher than the SCST students and that open seats were still available, they still didn't make it.
In addition to antagonizing the students against each other, the quality of the graduates of these institutions is going to be severely compromised. The purpose of the IITs, IIMs and so on is to train professionals who will be able to work at the top companies of the world and hold their own in that environment. To achieve this, each incoming class has to be of a certain caliber so that they can take maximum advantage of what their university has to offer them. Ultimately, by admitting students with sub-standard academic qualifications, the institutions are going to jeopardize their own reputations and therefore their graduates.
If Arjun Singh et al really wanted to make a difference, they would immediately realize that this is a problem that requires the changing of people's attitudes about each other and about education in general, and therefore does not have any short-term solutions. In my opinion, one of the most effective ways to go about it would be promote education among lower castes/classes. Providing a solid foundation in primary and secondary education to EVERYONE should be one of the top priorities of the government. This would, of course, mean investing in infrastructure, quality teachers and financial assistance. By ensuring equal educational opportunities for all students, we can enable them to compete at the same level and have a truly meritocratic system of education.
Clearly, though, such measures take a long time, and will not help the current powers-that-be to garner more votes in the upcoming elections. I have a sinking feeling in my stomach that our incompetent, venal and stupid politicians will simply not see the issue in a sensible light and what we are going to have on our hands is unprecedented Brain Drain. What are we going to do then?
I would like to end this rather long post on a "hhmmm" note - I seem to remember that ex-Prime Minister Mr. Singh used to (and perhaps still does) run off to doctors in London at the first sign of a sniffle. Even as one of the loudest proponents of the reservation laws, he does not trust Indian doctors, OBC or otherwise, to provide him with the best health care possible.
