Reservations Reminded

Today’s breaking news: SC Upholds OBC quota of 27% in higher education.

My first reactions- this is sheer nonsense. This is insane, its not justice for general category, how can you sacrifice merit to quota, (and as I was also one of the aspirants for MBA, I know the fierce competition we have to face to win this rat race or shall I say CAT race, the haunting ghost of cut-offs and then long wait for whole process to take its due time to finally come to any decision on admissions and yes I know how to face failures also).

Thoughts revisited:
Then I started rethinking of my first reaction. Also I happen to read many reactions of aspiring candidates like me on Paraguay.com (which is, I think, one of the biggest community of India helping students who aspire to become tomorrow’s management Guru). And let me be frank, some of the reactions were totally nonsense and were just given when person gets excited and starts blurting without any facts or without any sense of reality.
So what is this row about reservations? Anyone who has closely followed the news and who knows or at least who can imagine Indian social scenario would welcome this decision. Main points of Supreme Court’s verdict are
- Creamy layer will not be benefited
- Children of MPs and MLAs are excluded from this category
- Five judge panel has explicitly stated that Reservation can not be perpetuity and it will be examined and reexamined every five years.
- Also SC has told government to come up with new list of OBC and existing list can not be taken granted.
- Last but not the least one of the judges has said that if quota seats remain vacant then those seats are open for general category. And government has also said that they will increase the number of sets.

So any sensitive Indian will welcome this verdict. So reservation reaches to 49+ % in higher education including 22.5% reservation for Schedule Casts and Schedule Tribes. Now one of the most frequently asked question: is it fair?
But what is this ‘fair’?
In a country like India, that has seen social stratification since ages, that has witnessed bloodied history of social suppression, this is inevitable. Agreed this is not going to solve the problem of imparting education, which is one of the fundamental Human Rights. But to be very honest no one has exact cure for this.
People who question about fairness of the system, tend to forget deliberately or otherwise, other forms of ‘non-fairness’
Is it fair for a candidate from rural part of the country that has no road connectivity, no electricity or if its their power is gone for more than 10 to 12 hours, to judge on the same line that other candidates from some well-to-do part?
Is it not the reality in that many parts of this country, that has abandoned Caste System on paper, still infected with class hierarchy? Also is it not true that many people who were down the ladder in the social system, are still far from any touch by our Economic Growth?

Indeed this move of introducing Reservations is politically motivated but here we should not forget that its Politics and questioning to politicians about this is like questioning industrialists for earning profits. Also we are responsible for these politicians.
What we require is more government institutions that will impart higher education. Also as everyone knows ‘India passes on paper when it comes to policy but fails in implementing it’, the reservation policies should be implemented so that it will help real needy person rather to serve well-to-do people irrespective of their Castes. Also reservation policies can be subject to rethinking as to go more benefits for rural poor (irrespective of caste) over urban people. (I am strongly against people who get benefits of reservation and enjoy higher positions in government jobs just because they can produce caste certificates)

Again I am not fully for reservation. I have my share of disappointment but when I see the verdict given by SC I am satisfied to say the least. ( I hope that parliament will not come up with amendment that will extend quota for children of MPs and MLAs).