I have been trying to read newspaper daily for sometime now. And I have come to realize that reading the full newspaper can make you dislike your country. Every page is filled with such filthy stories and loads of crap from our (mostly)useless politicians that I feel sorry that I was born here sometimes. The line may have come out more strongly than how I wanted it to, but the basic feeling is the same. The critics may say that we are better off than a lot of other places, but we never count the people below us but look at the people above us. I thought of bringing one such topic to the light here.
Elections in the states of Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Goa and Manipur are due. The campaigning for the same is on in full swing. The spotlight is naturally on the largest state of India, Uttar Pradesh. Traditional heavyweights SP and BSP are leaving no stones unturned in their efforts to get to power. National parties BJP and Congress are also busy designing strategies to win the UP polls.
I find the politics at UP very weird. It is completely caste and religion based. The vote bank for Mayawati, the BSP supremo and the current CM Jarawas, her native tribe. Not that Mulayam Singh, SP chief is far behind. He has his own following of Yadavs.
When politicians campaign in UP, there agenda is not to please the public of UP but to appease their vote banks. The latest group to be targeted is the Muslims. While Congress promised a quota of 4.5% within OBC quota for muslims in education and job sectors, the SP went one step ahead and promised them 9%. It leaves me astounded. I mean, in India everyone wants reservation for their caste/ religion. The women want a 33% reservation in parliament. The SC/ST/OBC want reservation in higher education and jobs. The Gujjars were up in arms demanding reservation for their community a while back. Now, the muslims want a reservation too. And a couple of months back, Mayawati was seen asking for reservation for Jats too. Every freaking minority wants that it should be represented in proportion to its population.
I gave my MBA admission exams this winter. I learned that in the last 4 years IIMs have increased their seats from a little over 2000 to 3000. But the seats for general category remain almost same. Why? Because of 275 reservation for OBCs. When I check out forums and see a 92%ile OBC getting the nod above a 99.8%ile general category student it makes my blood boil. What has this OBC done to deserve the seat more than the other guy. Clearly he is less intelligent and less deserving. Why then should this guy get a seat? Because he is an OBC? Does that give him the right to snatch the seat from a more deserving candidate? Even in our college, when we started we had 60 seats. For general there were only 34. That means a lot of deserving general category candidates lost out to a lot of undeserving reserved seats candidates. If someone among them reads it and is offended, then be my guest. That guy has reached here because of his caste and not because of his capabilities.
The problem is that the reserved seats now form 49.5% of total seats in higher education. Only 50.5% seats are available for general category. If this number goes below 50%, and with the lousy and pathetic political system that we have I am sure it will, then the definition of general would fail. Because then we all would fall under the minorities too as we will have less than half of the total share. Sounds bizzare? Such is our system.
The reservation for muslims is even more bewildering. Suppose a general category guy goes for a job and is rejected because of lack of seats. Next day, he converts to become a muslim. If he now applies, would he get the job? It is totally eccentric.
The case of DU is even more pathetic. The seats reserved are sometimes not even filled. And neither are they changed to the general category. Another occasion when a lot of bright minds are unable to get into a college they deserve.
I am not saying that we should completely eradicate the system. I believe reservation on basis of economic stability is a better approach. A poor hindu boy deserved a seat more than a rich OBC candidate. If our system is able to get him a seat using this system, then I believe that is the correct use of reservation. I know that coming up with procedures for such a system is very tough and ambiguous but I think that such a system will benefit all (except the highly undeserving caste based candidates!).
As I see politicians openly and shamelessly trying to woo the voters on basis of caste/ religion and create newer vote banks, my heart cringes at the fact that the innocent will continue to miss opportunities due to our flawed reservation laws.
The laws which had been created for equality are now a chief source of inequality.
Elections in the states of Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Goa and Manipur are due. The campaigning for the same is on in full swing. The spotlight is naturally on the largest state of India, Uttar Pradesh. Traditional heavyweights SP and BSP are leaving no stones unturned in their efforts to get to power. National parties BJP and Congress are also busy designing strategies to win the UP polls.
I find the politics at UP very weird. It is completely caste and religion based. The vote bank for Mayawati, the BSP supremo and the current CM Jarawas, her native tribe. Not that Mulayam Singh, SP chief is far behind. He has his own following of Yadavs.
When politicians campaign in UP, there agenda is not to please the public of UP but to appease their vote banks. The latest group to be targeted is the Muslims. While Congress promised a quota of 4.5% within OBC quota for muslims in education and job sectors, the SP went one step ahead and promised them 9%. It leaves me astounded. I mean, in India everyone wants reservation for their caste/ religion. The women want a 33% reservation in parliament. The SC/ST/OBC want reservation in higher education and jobs. The Gujjars were up in arms demanding reservation for their community a while back. Now, the muslims want a reservation too. And a couple of months back, Mayawati was seen asking for reservation for Jats too. Every freaking minority wants that it should be represented in proportion to its population.
I gave my MBA admission exams this winter. I learned that in the last 4 years IIMs have increased their seats from a little over 2000 to 3000. But the seats for general category remain almost same. Why? Because of 275 reservation for OBCs. When I check out forums and see a 92%ile OBC getting the nod above a 99.8%ile general category student it makes my blood boil. What has this OBC done to deserve the seat more than the other guy. Clearly he is less intelligent and less deserving. Why then should this guy get a seat? Because he is an OBC? Does that give him the right to snatch the seat from a more deserving candidate? Even in our college, when we started we had 60 seats. For general there were only 34. That means a lot of deserving general category candidates lost out to a lot of undeserving reserved seats candidates. If someone among them reads it and is offended, then be my guest. That guy has reached here because of his caste and not because of his capabilities.
The problem is that the reserved seats now form 49.5% of total seats in higher education. Only 50.5% seats are available for general category. If this number goes below 50%, and with the lousy and pathetic political system that we have I am sure it will, then the definition of general would fail. Because then we all would fall under the minorities too as we will have less than half of the total share. Sounds bizzare? Such is our system.
The reservation for muslims is even more bewildering. Suppose a general category guy goes for a job and is rejected because of lack of seats. Next day, he converts to become a muslim. If he now applies, would he get the job? It is totally eccentric.
The case of DU is even more pathetic. The seats reserved are sometimes not even filled. And neither are they changed to the general category. Another occasion when a lot of bright minds are unable to get into a college they deserve.
I am not saying that we should completely eradicate the system. I believe reservation on basis of economic stability is a better approach. A poor hindu boy deserved a seat more than a rich OBC candidate. If our system is able to get him a seat using this system, then I believe that is the correct use of reservation. I know that coming up with procedures for such a system is very tough and ambiguous but I think that such a system will benefit all (except the highly undeserving caste based candidates!).
As I see politicians openly and shamelessly trying to woo the voters on basis of caste/ religion and create newer vote banks, my heart cringes at the fact that the innocent will continue to miss opportunities due to our flawed reservation laws.
The laws which had been created for equality are now a chief source of inequality.
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