Since
the author has questioned the
reservation in "private sector", I
would keep the focus of my posting
only on "private sector" in the
context of it's social
responsibility (or lack of it). Let
me first reveal their true face,
their other face. Going by what have
appeared in media (print or
electronic), the reactions of almost
all industrialists and corporate
leaders are anti-reservation. In
fact, they all have conveyed
resentment of any sort of Govt.
interference in private sector. They
are throwing all sorts of tantrums
on the issue of reservation.
But, it may be interesting, in the
context of the reactions of
corporate leaders, to ask "how
private is their private sector?" It
is well known that the most
organized private sector companies
have small fraction, (which rarely
exceeds 20 %), of the equity from
the people who control it. The rest
is contributed by FI (financial
institutions) and the public. If one
reckons the fact that the capital
coming from financial institutions
and banks is after all public money,
the so called private enterprise
will no more appear as private.
Leave aside its capital structure;
do these private companies not
benefit from the State? Do they not
get land, utilities and
infrastructure at the throw away
price? Are they not given a plethora
of concessions in tax, duties etc.
in the name of investment
incentives. Do they share the cost
of education with the State when it
draws its human resources? It can be
easily found that the private sector
in India gets far more benefits from
the State than the Public sector.
The entire profitability of the
Reliance refinery, for example, is
based on the sales tax deferment it
received from the Gujarat government
for 16 years which none of the PSUs
has ever enjoyed. If it is so, then
with what face can the corporate
leaders throw tantrums over the
issue of reservation?
While working with the largest
public sector financial institution
(I left the organization in 1999), I
came across a very interesting
fact/term known as NPA
(Non-performing assets) of banks and
FIs. NPA (or more simply "bad
loans") is the money of banks, which
have been loaned, but not getting
any return. This is the best
indicator to tell you about the
health of a bank/FI. Less is the NPA,
better is the bank. At the end of
1998-99, the NPAs of the public
sector banks totaled over Rs. 50,000
crores (Rs. Fifty thousand crores,
yes!! you read it rightly)
indicating the massive drain of
public funds from public
institutions.
A task force of the Confederation of
Indian Industry (CII), was
constituted to study the issue of
NPA and to give it's recommendation.
The CII's Task Force on
Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) in the
Indian financial system, chaired by
K.V. Kamath, Managing Director and
Chief Executive Officer of the ICICI,
a leading private financial
institution, submitted its report to
then Union Finance Minister Yashwant
Sinha on December 13, 1999. It
recommended closure of three "weak"
banks, Indian Bank, United
Commercial (UCO) Bank and the United
Bank of India (UBI). The Task Force
suggested that the first wave of
privatisation should include the
Bank of Baroda, Corporation Bank,
Oriental Bank of Commerce and the
State Bank of India. The next lot of
candidates for privatisation
included the Industrial Development
Bank of India (IDBI), Industrial
Finance and Corporation of India
Ltd. (IFCI), the Small Industries
Development Bank of India (SIDBI)
and the Export-Import Bank of India.
But the most interesting aspect of
this NPA issue was that the CII had
conveniently ignored the very first
question "why high levels of NPAs
arose in the first place?, Who were
the culprit?" The answer is - the
problem was basically a creation of
industrial houses, some of them
members of the CII. The corporate
sector owed Rs. 45,000 crores (of
the NPA) to the public sector banks.
The banks' inability to recover dues
from powerful borrowers had
adversely affected their
performance. It came out that
although defaulters may number in
thousands, there is a high-level
concentration in the amount owed by
the top borrowers. Bank's employees
union pointed out to the fact that
such large borrowers are typically
industrial houses. For instance, in
the case of Indian Bank, the top 15
defaulters accounted for about
one-third of all NPAs of the bank.
In the Central Bank of India, 234
defaulting accounts, each amounting
to at least Rs.1 c rore, owed the
bank Rs.2,190 crores; the total NPA
level of the Central Bank of India
was at Rs.2,436 crores on March 31,
1999. Further consolidation of the
figures, indicated an even higher
degree of concentration. The top 20
defaulters owed a total of Rs.430
crores to the bank; the top
defaulters thus account for
one-fifth of the bank's NPAs. Many
critics say that big business wanted
to take over the public sector banks
after bleeding them to death. There
had also been demands that the
Government publish the list of
defaulters. Bankers have often said
that regulations protecting the
confidentiality of bank clients
provided large-scale defaulters an
opportunity to escape public
scrutiny. The unions have also
repeatedly asked the Reserve Bank of
India and the Union Finance Ministry
to publish the list of defaulters on
a regular basis. The demand for
greater transparency about
defaulting accounts is based on the
premise that there will be greater
"moral pressure" on borrowers of
public funds .
Now we know what happened. The CII
hurriedly backtracked from it's
recommendation and now they never
talk about closure and privatization
of public sector banks in India.
The real question about reservation
in the private sector is not whether
it is required or justified much so
whether they erode the so-called
merit and affect the prospects of
holy FDI (foreign direct investment)
into the country. Reservations do
not have any connection with foreign
direct investments. The foreign
investments do not flow by seeing
the caste of employees. Foreign
investors appear enamored with India
today because of its huge market,
its infrastructure, its trained
manpower available at paltry wages,
its high interest rates, its
political stability and consequently
expectation of high rate of returns.
Who has created this "market"; it is
not a handful of upper caste
'meritorious' people but evidently
the majority belonging to 'meritless'
lower castes.
The feudal outlook of the Indian
elites has hindered its
comprehension that it is in the
interest of capital to expand the
market to create demand; de-segmentise
labour market for getting
competitive wage rates. They should
reread the history of development of
capitalism in Europe. They should
revisit the rationale of political
economy behind the affirmative
actions operated in the capitalist
El Dorado of the world—the US of
America.
The discourse on reservation in the
private sector has begun with a
wrong implicit premise. The premise
behind reservation as a mechanism to
render a helping hand to the people
who were oppressed socially for
centuries is basically wrong. It
should have been projected as a
countervailing force against the
socio-cultural disability of Indian
society to treat people from the
untouchable/oppressed castes as its
own. It is a mechanism to ensure
that the "deserving people" from
these oppressed castes get their due
share because otherwise the deep
entrenched socio-cultural prejudice
will never let them have it as can
be seen in the sectors where this
mechanism does not exist. (Currently
private sector employs low caste
people at lower rungs only, see the
data given by the author in the
above original article). Reservation
being the antidote to the societal
disability; it should have been
applicable to all the sectors of
society (economy). There is
absolutely no logic for restricting
it to the governmental or public
sector or a few spheres like
education and employment within
them.
The right premise behind reservation
in private sector would necessarily
follow the re-articulation of the
basic premise behind Constitutional
reservation as stated above—that it
is a countervailing measure by the
state against the socio-cultural
disability of Indian society. Since
this disability pervades the entire
society, reservation is imperative
in all the spheres of its sectors.
The premise behind reservation in
the private sector thus should be
restored, as the belated correction
to the original premise behind
reservations as a mechanism with
which the rights of certain sections
of society are protected, because
left to itself society is incapable
of doing it. - Prabhat Sinha,
Noida - Apr. 26, 2006
In
welfare economics i.e. economics of
social development thoughts are
always and properly considered
rivals, yet they have much in common
that can be easily ignored if one
concentrates on the differences.
Both entail valuation in their
conduct.
All the post on PatnaDaily have
three levels of thought. One is that
of 'real' objects, persons (FC/OBC/SC/ST
or above all these), institutions
(IIT, IIM, Private Sector, Public
Sector) and events
(debates/discussion, friendly
bashing, hate and love).
The second (i.e. to say
INSTITUTIONS) is the logical or
mathematical construct or machine, a
piece of pure reasoning, almost of
'pure mathematics,' a system of mere
relations amongst undefined
thought-entities.
The third (Events
(debates/discussion, friendly
bashing)) is the world of names,
linking the real-world elements with
the undefined entities.
The categories of theory - the first
level of thought (those opposing
reservation) - i.e. to say those who
are asking "Why Reservation?" are
fundamentally, if not exclusively
conceptual; they are empty, devoid
of substantive content.
To understand why reservation in
private sector we have to understand
THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL
ECONOMY/ECONOMICS.
THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL
ECONOMY/ECONOMICS is replete with
analyses of or views on the economic
role of government and the manner by
which the appropriate economic role
of government is to be established.
Within this history, two approaches
to analyzing the economic role of
government may be contrasted.
One is the technical and the other
is the ideological. These are two
polar extremes.
THE NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF
ECONOMIC POLICY, and the making of
that policy, must be understood
against the background of certain
conditions. It is these conditions
which generate the human meaning of
economic policy. The conditions,
briefly stated, are as follows:
1. The economy is a product, a
changing product, of human social
construction.
2. Coupled with the actions and
choices of individuals and
subgroups, the legal-economic nexus
is the complex and recondite source
of both legal rights of economic
significance and their change.
3. No unique optimal solution
exists. Rather, a set of optimal
solutions exists, each solution more
or less specific to initial
structures of
power/rights/entitlements.
4. Institutions matter. Institutions
represent the means of organized
living; the definitions of reality
in terms of which we think and form
personal and social interests, and
the ways in which individuals are
both constrained and enhanced
through collective action. In
particular, institutions are both
the source and the consequence of
the rights which take place in the
legal-economic nexus and are, inter
alia, the basis on which the
actually realized and solutions are
achieved.
5. Society is a vast valuational
process. It is a process in which
the articulation, juxtaposition,
assessment and effective choice of
values takes place.
6. Society, especially the
legal-economic nexus, is a process.
Although individual participants
contribute their own more or less
socialized values and judgments,
often as if these were conclusively
correct, society as a process is a
process of working things out. The
result may appear odd and awkward as
well as inconsistent and incoherent
from the perspective of any
particular participant or line of
reasoning; the result represents a
temporary balancing of interests,
perceptions and sentiments.
If we study among other things,
whether "... a household head moved
from a reservation area to a
non-reservation area or to the
another state, or from the village
to town/city/metro ", it becomes
very important to stress that the
"dependent" variables in the our
studies at the micro level. One
would certainly expect the more
educated parties to have greater
mobility and job opportunities and
less educated to be more and more
into same old same old dysfunctional
activates .These dysfunctional
activities in long run destroys the
semantics of demand and supply
equations . ONE time-tested
principle of economic theory is
diminishing marginal utility, and
economics itself is no exception to
this general rule. That’s why
Government want reservation in
Private sector.
Let us for the simplicity sake say
that present Government is no
foolish utopian who thinks that
markets (Stock Market, 10% GDP,
Bulls and Bears) will instantly
propel us into the best of all
possible worlds. In line with
Government, we need to understand
the face of poverty, deprivation and
patience. Politicians will always
seize the moment to consolidate
power, and to them there is little
to do, for they know what they are
about. They judge each major piece
of social engineering by its
laudable objectives. They look only
to stage one, that is, to the
short-term effects of their
proposal.
But if think coolly, single discrete
actions have single discrete
consequences. Find any passed bill
by the Government to overcome the
problem we can identify that their
approach is like: If revenues are
too low, raise taxes. If housing is
too shoddy, then regulate minimum
quality. Political control of
decisions on the creation and
allocation of goods and services
puts the power in the hands of
individuals who do not have to bear
the direct consequences of their own
poor judgment, while depriving
ordinary individuals, who have a
great stake in the outcome, of the
control of their own destiny.
Here's another example: say we want
price controls. Tell doctors that
they can charge only Rs 10 per
visit, and they'll comply with the
law by shortening the visit. Before
the regulation, the visit lasted for
20 minutes, and covered multiple
conditions; now, magically, visits
get truncated, and each is
restricted to a single topic or a
single shot. In the old system, when
markets determined the mix between
price and quality, doctors had no
incentive to court patient
dissatisfaction by stringing out
visits. Now, of course, they do, and
the lesson is that both physicians
and patients are worse off under
regulation than they were before.
The patient may pay as much for the
longer course of treatment, but
receives less effective care. The
moral: Regulate one side of an
ordinary contract and you make both
sides to the deal worse off .
Similarly, job reservation becomes
the issue of quality versus
quantity. As in example above if the
things are not regulated properly
quality will suffer but then medical
facility has been made affordable
for all. Unlike the example above,
we all know even if you are IIT/IIM,
you have to undergo rigorous
training as per the needs of the
organisation . Say my organistaion
is in France and I will only take
those IIT'ians who can speak french
is also a form of reservation or we
can say we will teach people French
after they join the organisations.
So , saying that reservation will
hamper the quality of organisation
is wrong.
We cannot ignore the ills of
humankind can be legislated away
with the stroke of a pen or making
law. Some undocumented form of law
still exists due to our historical
caste system. But in the long run we
are tending towards more equitable
society. - Narayan Prasad - Apr.
27, 2006
Prabhat ji, All your arguments are
genuine and logical. I agree that a
lot needs to be done to remove the
"socio-cultural disability of Indian
Society". But the question is
whether reservations (that too in
their current form) are an efficient
way to deal with it. Or do they
simply perpetuate the caste system?
Should we try and find (and
implement) better ways to achieve
the same goal. - Ravi Kirti -
Apr. 27, 2006
Private or public sector, government
or semi-government - reservation
should not be allowed in any form.
As I have already mentioned in my
previous comments the term
'reservation ' itself declares that
there was a compromise on merit. You
can keep twisting your tongue and
come out with arguments like merit
is a relative term etc. but the fact
remains that reservation in
educational institutions or for
employment purposes is eroding our
credibility even at the
international forum. Today you are
asking for reservation for OBCs.
Tomorrow Muslims, and then
Christians, then Parsis, then women
organisations - all of them will
start asking for reservation in IIT
and IIMs. And believe me some
amongst them will be prolific
writers who can put their points
across the table with their rich
vocabulary.
On a lighter note can somebody ask
Mr Pramod Mahajan's family if they
want to be treated by the 'best'
doctor or will they go for someone
from an OBC category. I am sure they
will say merit, ability and
experience should be the sole
criteria. That is the reason why a
leader of a so called Hindutva Party
is getting expert opinion from a
doctor from minority community who
was specially flown form London.
Then why cant we make merit and
ability the criteria for educational
institutions as well?
Nobody is against scholarships and
educational grants for OBCs. With
this help those who can attain a
certain level and compete with their
colleagues will be and should be
allowed to progress. - Dr. Pankaj
Kumar Mishra, UK - Apr. 27, 2006
The heated debate on reservations
for backward casts in private sector
job market would not be a right
step. At a time when we are thinking
global and acting local in India,
this would deescalate the factual
aspiration of becoming economic
superpower by year in few decades.
The essence of the panic situations
caused by over expectation and undue
demand of reservations in almost
every sector in Government
employment opportunities is nothing
but the sheer failure of our social
system. Why not government spread
the role of equal opportunity
employer based on merit and caliber?
Needless to mention, the protest
would come from every nook and
corner of the society, as they are
addicted to the habit of readymade
service. It would have been an ideal
situation if the government would
pursue the policy of equal
opportunity employer since
independence from British rule.
I am personally not against any
reservation for really needy and
under-privileged members of the
society, nevertheless, there should
be restrictions in the arena of
application of this policy. What is
the meaning of giving reservation to
a student of Kindergarten standard,
this would not solve the purpose, as
this would merely make such students
addicted to pampering by mother
reservation.
There should be special incentives,
programs and policies to encourage
the members of under-privileged
groups to take active part in
education like subsidized fees, free
books and materials etc. to bring
them into mainstream of society. And
this is the only step opt make them
self dependent rather than making
them crippled and handicapped that
they can tread into ways of life
without proper quotas and
reservations.
At the same time, the pseudo-elite
class of Indian society should also
not have acrimonious feelings and
try to fill the gap of the two ends
of groups by more social
interactions, public meeting and
gathering. What would be the better
interaction than educational
institutions and workplace where we
can understand each others and find
the adoptable qualities in each
other? - Iqbal Azim - Apr. 27,
2006
Having a large proportion of NPAs is
definitely a case of bad strategy on
part of the banks but how does it
justify reservation in private
companies is something I fail to
comprehend. Going by same logic,
most of the public sector companies
personify poor efficiency while they
have been pioneers in implementing
the reservation system. Well, we can
go on and on and cite examples
proving each other's point but all I
want to say is that meritocracy
generates a very fair and healthy
competition and that is the way to
go forward to develop both
economically and socially.
The government should focus on
establishing more and more efficient
academic institutions and provide
financial aid to the needy students,
implement programs to increase
awareness at the grass root level
etc. etc. In a nutshell, government
should try and help the students to
reach a position from where they can
assess their capabilities, look for
opportunities available and make
their career decisions. This looks
easier said than done but at least
has the potential to take everybody
together. Hope it happens like that.
- Ravindra Shahi - Apr. 27, 2006
It seems my letter on reservation
has gone for pretty good debate on
the subject. I have some questions
that I ask myself quite often as an
old man.
What has been the net gain to the
so-called oppressed class with the
reservations provided in last so
many years?
Does the reservation not create
clevises in mind and heart of people
belonging to different castes?
When can the expansion of the list
of reserve class of castes stop, as
the incoming governments have been
expanding the list for getting
favours of some castes?
Will the menace of casteism remain
forever in our country that we all
wish to see grow great and fast,
preferably in next 10 years (with a
selfish interest of perhaps seeing
it myself)?
Is not the reservation getting
perpetuated forever?
Why the have-nots of the so-called
upper castes be penalized for no
fault of theirs? - Indra - Apr. 27, 2006
I think we should have job
reservations in all the fields. I
completely support the PM and all
the politicians for promoting this.
Let's start the reservation with our
cricket team. We should have 10
percent reservation for Muslims. 30
percent for OBC, SC/ST like that.
Cricket rules should be modified
accordingly. The boundary circle
should be reduced for an SC/ST
player. The four hit by an OBC
player should be considered as a six
and a six hit by a OBC player should
be counted as 8 runs. An OBC player
scoring 60 runs should be declared
as a century.
We should influence ICC and make
rules so that the pace bowlers like
Shoaib Akhtar should not bowl fast
balls to our OBC player. Bowlers
should bowl maximum speed of 80
kilometer per hour to an OBC player.
Any delivery above this speed should
be made illegal.
Also we should have reservation in
Olympics. In the 100 meters race, an
OBC player should be given a gold
medal if he runs 80 meters.
There can be reservation in
Government jobs also. Let's recruit
SC/ST and OBC pilots for aircrafts
which are carrying the ministers and
politicians (that can really help
the country.. )
Ensure that only SC/ST and OBC
doctors do the operations for the
ministers and other politicians.
(Another way of saving the
country..)
Let's be creative and think of ways
and means to guide INDIA forward...
Let's show the world that INDIA is a
GREAT country. Let's be proud of
being an INDIAN..
May the good breed of politicians
like ARJUN SINGH long live... -
Ameet Kumar Srivastava - Apr. 27, 2006
I am taking opportunity to answer
the following questions.
What has been the net gain to the
so-called oppressed class with the
reservations provided in last so
many years?
In India, unsociability of
untouchables is completely eroded
because of law and because of
reservation more and more people
from SC/ST have joined upstream.
Reservation had been a issue in
developed world also. But after
Civil rights legislation in the
1960s and abolishment of what were
called Jim Crow laws, that had long
disenfranchised, blacks’ situation
changed. After that, affirmative
action became a social movement more
than a legal requirement. Throughout
the US, colleges started having
implicit or explicit quotas for
blacks, without legal compulsion.
Mayors and local governments began
giving preference to black
contractors in issuing local
contracts. Even the armed forces
went out of their way to attract
blacks at all levels. Harvard,
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology , London School of
Economics, Stanford University,
Cambridge University, Oxford of UK
and US should have come down by now
with affirmation action providing
place for blacks and ethnic
minorities for many years.
In other countries, the policy of
reservation has been adopted against
the discrimination on the bases of
caste, race, color, ethnicity,
nation and social origin. Racial
discrimination is rampant in UK
despite a law, Roman Catholic is
targeted in Ireland by Protestants
and in Pakistan there is Punjabi
discrimination against the Baluchis
and the Sindhis. USA calls it the
Quota System to target and numerical
balance.
Any reservation policy, by any
country is just an affirmative
action to provide a fair access to
the discriminated.
In Malaysia, they reserved large
tracts of land for the Malays, Jews
have been given compensation. In our
country, Mahars in Maharashtra, who
were considered untouchables, were
given entire regiment in the army,
Mahar Regiment, and they have
produced best of heroes for Indian
Army, whose war cry is "BOLO
HINDUSTAN KI JAY". This regiment is
truly an honor to Mahars of
Maharashtra. Mahar Regiment is pride
of India, who has won till date, 1
Param Vir Chakra, 4 Maha Vir Chakra,
29 Vir Chakra, 1 Kirti Chakra, 12
Shaurya Chakra, 22 Vishisht Seva
Medals and 63 Sena Medals.
Does the reservation not create
clevises in mind and heart of people
belonging to different castes?
Not exactly. Only people who are
facing the issue of reservations in
educational institutes and workplace
are middle class as it is based on
economics indicators and not on
caste lines.
Most of the arguments against
reservations are centered on the
concept of appreciation of the
talented and meritorious individuals
in society. By definition, these
ideologies categorize every
individual as equal and refuse to
draw distinction between people
based on their abilities. Therefore,
all the arguments about who is more
eligible than the rest is
meretricious i.e. to say we are
tending towards the old theory of
“Survival for the Fittest” and we
have come long way to know that this
theory creates more clevises in mind
and heart of people . This theory if
re implemented will recreate Jungles
and will make us animals again.
We have also come long way now and
know that none of us have seen a
true meritocracy in this world.
Working towards a meritocracy is as
much a utopia as working towards
classless society. There are lots of
factors other than merit that is
responsible for the success of
individual in society-family
background, religious background,
social networking etc. etc.
Job reservations in government
service and educational institutions
are subject to minimum cut-off
marks. If a Dalit candidate does not
get the minimum marks needed to
qualify for admission to the civil
service or an engineering college,
he will be rejected even if the
reserved quota is unfilled. Then why
we are worrying ?
Of course, all this would not have
been required if the Government of
India had tried to create a level
playing field for all the students
irrespective of geography, caste, or
class by providing quality basic
school education to at least a
significant percentage of the
children in India. It takes
persistence and objectivity to do
this.
When can the expansion of the
list of reserve class of castes
stop, as the incoming governments
have been expanding the list for
getting favours of some castes?
It will stop when the society will
become more equitable and more and
more people will franchise the power
of electoral changes and give their
mandate on the basis of development
and progress.
See what happened in Bihar, people
realized that voting for Muscle
power on the basis of caste and
religion is not going to help them
any more and this time they voted
for change, development and
progress. In politics, FC and OBC
are equally powerful in Bihar and
the same thing will happen in
education, economy. Education and
economic independence are the
solutions of major problems.
Will the menace of casteism
remain forever in our country that
we all wish to see grow great and
fast, preferably in next 10 years
(with a selfish interest of perhaps
seeing it myself)? Is not the
reservation getting perpetuated
forever?
The menace of castes is going to
stay. Though I have written that “If
every Indian gets proper education,
we will never require reservations
as every one of them will have equal
chance, but that will take two or
three life time. Till then, the
"lower caste" should be protected at
any cost, till they are able to find
their way up the socio-economic
ladder."
What scares me is, if we do not
uplift them, some one else will take
contract from across the border to
do that. you would appreciate my
fear once you realize that it is not
only the external enemy we are
fighting right now, but totally 14
states are marred by Naxal activists
(in the name of downtrodden and
dalits), who are already trying to
take the country towards civil war
with their movements, might be
successful soon. Yes, I shedder to
think of that scenario. It has no
longer remained a north-east
problem. It is already knocking our
door. - Narayan Prasad - Apr. 28,
2006
Intention behind reservation is/was
to uplift the under privilege class
of society. It has lost its purpose
and meaning the way it is being
implemented. Today scenario is there
is privilege class inside the class
of Backward/downtrodden people. This
empowered class among the class of
Backward/downtrodden people will
never allow to reach the benefit of
reservation to the needy and
intended people.
Let us take example of claimed
leaders of backward and downtrodden
people like Ram Vilas Paswan,
Mayavati, Mulayam Singh Yadav,
Sharad Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Lalu
Yadav etc. They and their sons and
daughters are eligible to reap the
benefit of reservation. Do they
really need reservation in order to
compete along with general category
people? They should and can compete
with anyone and anywhere. This can
be extended to MLA'S, MP'S, civil
servants and others officers
category. This privileged class
enjoying the benefits of reservation
at the cost of other people of their
class. Until and unless there is
mechanism to filter out the CREAMY
LAYER among backward and downtrodden
people reservation will not serve
its purpose in letter and sprit.
What is required today is not the
reservation but to increase the
intake of pupils at primary level
and to make sure hassle free and
quality education during schooling.
All these so called great leaders
irrespective of their affiliation
are afraid or failed to do so.
Necessary is to strict
implementation program like free
meal in school, scholarship for
backward and downtrodden people. It
would help to improve the quality of
people coming out of school and they
they won't need any reservation to
compete in knowledge economy. There
is scarcity of qualified and trained
manpower in India as well as in
world. India's BPO and service
sector are struggling to get the
skilled people and Reservation will
worsen the situation. Need of the
hour is to produce more and more
quality manpower not to deteriorate
the quality .
World is looking towards India as
Knowledge Hub and reservation will
be a retrograde step in that
direction. - Niraj Singh - Apr.
28, 2006
It seems that the entire country is
reeling under severe wave of
reservation. Reservation in private
sector, reservation for OBCs in
central universities and
institutions, reservation for
minorities in Aligarh Muslim
University, reservation for Muslims
in government jobs and admissions as
announced by Andhra Pradesh
government (the case has been
referred to the Supreme Court) etc
are a few examples to mention.
It is unfortunate that reservation
has become the nucleus of policy
formulations of successive
governments. Our policy makers are
unable to look beyond reservations.
Everything else has been relegated
to give space to reservation. The
latest buzz is reservation in the
private sector. I believe that there
is no need for any type of
reservation in the private sector.
The quota system is doing more harm
than good to both the general and
reserved category people. It is
making the reserved category people
complacent. They don’t want to face
the reality of competition. They
want the shelter of reservation in
every aspect of life and for all
time to come. This in turn is
adversely affecting their
competence.
Their level of incompetence is
evident from the fact that several
posts reserved for SCs/STs are lying
vacant because of non-availability
of qualified candidates. Recently
the Higher Education Services
Commission, Allahabad invited
applications for 44 posts of
lecturers in English. Since it was a
special recruitment drive for SCs,
all posts were reserved for SC
category. The Commission received
only three applications against 44
vacant posts. Only three candidates
applied because enough qualified
candidates were not available. This
is not the rarest of rare case.
Non-availability of qualified
candidates (reserved category) is
slowly and gradually becoming a
trend.
Now, my question to the proponents
of reservation is why enough
qualified SC/ST candidates are not
available despite there being
reservations for them since
independence? If enough qualified
SC/ST ( of course ,with relaxed
standard) candidates are not
available for the post of lecturers,
how can they expect reservations for
themselves in private sector that
demands high level of cognitive,
managerial and communication skill?
Why do they want to bleed the
private sector which has been, of
late, attracting attentions of
international community for its
vibrancy and efficiency?
Our experience with reservations
during the last sixty years has
proved that the quota system has
succeeded only in creating an elite
section among the SCs and STs. The
same set of people have been taking
advantage of reservation generation
after generation at the cost of poor
and needy. It has been found that
the incomes of SC/ST students in
IITs/IIMs are twice that of general
category students. By no stretch of
imagination they can be placed in
the category of deprived section.
But we must accept them as socially
and educationally backward because
the Constitution does so. -
Sanjay P. Dubey, Noida - Apr. 28,
2006
Reservations cannot be justified, be
it Public Sector or Private Sector.
How can the disqualification of more
laborious and qualification of less
laborious people be justified?
1. People speaking for reservation
talk about the upliftment of
backward castes. That is all well
and good but that does not mean it
should happen at the cost of
deserving people.
2. Reservation does discriminate on
the basis of castes. One does not
even need to speak about it.
3. Reservations should be eradicated
NOW. It is just a weapon to create a
vote bank and I am surprised
pro-reservationists do not
understand this and even if they
understand it they choose to ignore
it.
4. Reservation encourages not to
work hard. It is simply a
certificate to backward caste (how
ridiculous) saying you don't need to
work hard since you are son/daughter
of backward caste people. At the
same time,it is a punishment to
upper caste people saying you won't
succeed until you are exceptional.
5. If people from different caste
work together, caste system can very
well be eradicated. It only requires
little bit of common sense to
understand that castes are
meaningless. But I guess common
sense is not common amongst
pro-reservationists. - Jitesh
Sinha, USA - Apr. 29, 2006
From the comments on my letter about
reservations, it appears it has
created a furore. The whole country
today is divided on the issue of
latest political onslaught on the
society through reservations of tow
different types but mainly meant for
minority community, particularly
Muslims and historically
under-privileged castes – OBC, SC,
and ST.
Recently introduced reservation for
OBCs taking the percentage of
reservations in central institutes
of higher education to about 50% is
getting debated and even protests
are being organized. I have some
more observations to make.
Our country has given opportunities
to people of all castes. We are not
sure about the caste of Ashoka, The
Great or his grandfather. Perhaps as
many say they belonged to lower
caste as per the present definition.
For that matter many other reputed
kings in India were even ‘sudras’.
The society gave equal respects to
them.
Why should in this 21st century the
nation face this fuss? Perhaps, it
proves that India lives
simultaneously in different ages of
development. The modern science
doesn’t provide any firm answer if
the intelligence level of a
historically underprivileged is
lower because of its pedigree.
Students of all castes can compete
equally well for any examination. If
it would not have been so, Eklavya a
tribal could have been so good an
archer nor Baba Ambedkar could
become the father of Indian
constitution. So it is possible if
the parents just don’t create
hindrance in the education of their
children and encourage them if they
look for. Finances can certainly be
arranged for their schooling,
special coaching, boarding and food.
Even history has ample proof that
the caste system that started with
perhaps 4 varnas (based on color of
skin) proliferated based on
professions people adopted for
living. Why should then we not
transform or evolve accordingly even
today. The other day when I called
an electrician, he happened to be
Brahmin. Many teachers are of SC/ST,
so they are Brahmin by profession,
and their pupils of traditionally
higher castes must respect them. The
company that I served was of Vaishya.
Could I, based on my caste, stop
saluting the boss?
Perhaps one solution may be a new
way of the identification of one’s
caste, something like Parsi
community using suffix of ‘tobacowalla’,
‘engineer’, and ‘baltiwala’. Hindus
must also use new suffixes based on
their current professions such as
‘mason’, ‘carpenter’, ‘plumber’,
‘engineer’, ‘manager’, and ‘CA’. Why
should they stick to the traditional
castes?
Reservations based on history will
not take the nation anywhere. It
appears to be dividing the nation,
and creating cleavages between
people of different castes. Let the
younger generation think about it
seriously. - Indra - Apr. 29,
2006
I am in favor of reservation in
engineering schools, management
schools, IAS, IPS, judiciary, public
sector and many private businesses.
On the other hand I oppose
reservation in the medical schools,
army and the professionally managed
private sector businesses.
There are so many private donation
based engineering colleges that
reservation or not does not matter.
People can get a loan and get an
engineering degree. Once they have
the degree how they use is their
choice. The Indian industry is
mostly made up of family businesses
and most of the top notch business
houses send their sons to schools in
US and Europe so the reservation
does not matter. A person with an
excellent business acumen does not
need a degree anyway, almost all the
first generation business men in
India, the actual business founders
usually have poor education but they
still set up big business houses.
Regarding the IAS, the IPS, the
judiciary and the public sector
their inefficiency is mind-boggling
so reservation or not does not
matter. Most private businesses in
India do not even pay income taxes
or pay enough living wages so the
workers can elk out a decent living
so reservation or not will not
matter.
The land owning class in India has
sacrificed in the past by the way of
land ceilings, Naxal activities and
government taking over private land
for development. Now it's time for
the educated class to sacrifice in
their area which is service sector
jobs and government paid education
to bring about the representation of
the masses in the Indian nation.
When India got freedom from the
British the business houses unlike
the rajas were allowed to keep their
wealth. It's time for them to make a
sacrifice for the nation too. People
making sacrifices for the overall
good of the nation is not a unique
phenomena and is a very noble thing
to do.
On the other hand I am against
reservation in the medical schools,
army and the professionally operated
private businesses since they have
made tangible contributions to India
and their interests and positive
contributions need to be respected.
- Rajendra Kumar - May 1, 2006 |
