WE WANT EDUCATION, NOT RESERVATION

Letter to the Media

2006-04-14T08:09:00.000+05:30

13th April 2006

Respected Sir

SUB: The recently proposed reservations in the IIT’s and IIM’s

This memorandum is from more than 1 lakh people in Bangalore whose views we have collected from all over the city about the recently proposed reservation for Other Backward Classes in the IIT’s and IIM’s. On analysing these views we find that the proposition of Mandal II to provide for 49.5% reservations in the IIT’s and IIM’s will have innumerable un-rectifiable repercussions oh the country as a whole, especially in Educational, Social and Political fields.

The following are the disastrous consequences of this decision.

1) For decades, the IIT’s and the IIM’s have been considered as one of the top institutions world over, but with these reservations the high quality output of the IIT’s and IIM’s will drastically reduce.
This will also bring back the caste system, since the first question an interviewer will ask is whether the candidate got into the institution through reservation or merit.
Moreover the cream of meritorious students will be driven abroad of the country due to the lack of good education resulting in a brain drain, something that is already plaguing our country.

2) Today, India finds itself in a race for development, and has dreams of becoming a superpower. China also finds itself in a similar situation but the manner in which it tackles this is such that the scope for reservation is reduced and a uniform platform is created where merit is the deciding criteria. India is going down a path that will result in reservation in every sphere of life, and when caste and creed are the basis for everything from getting into college, to getting a job as opposed to merit, the entire countries productivity will be adversely affected

3) Reservation is like a slow poison for the OBC’s, as it makes them complacent, and also confident of the fact that they don’t need to work very hard to get into a premier institution. This creates a situation where the OBC’s are paralysed without reservations and the scope for removal of reservations is completely, thus making the quota system a self-perpetuating one that hurts everyone.

For the genuine improvement of the OBC’s setting up of required infrastructure is of key importance. If they are given the same quality of primary education as those of the general category, at government expense, they will be able to compete on an equal footing. The government should start giving scholarships, and funding the education of bright students. This way, those who do get into institutions like IIT and IIM will not have to great a problem dealing with the curriculum. When OBC's are thrust into these premier institutions, it is a well-documented fact that they find it hard to cope. The government should be focussing on providing a good base to students so that they can compete on the same level, rather than displacing able, meritorious students who have the required skill sets, with those that don’t.

It is also imperative to note that those people who are of a "backward" class, are not always backward. It is no longer a strict fact that everyone of lower class is economically backward as well. The government should realize that its duty is to uplift the economically backward, irrespective of caste or religion. Not doing so is in fact, discrimination against those who need this help. The worst affected by this are those general category students who are not financially well off, because they get absolutely no help from the government. And moreover, as mentioned before, this upliftment should not be done by implementing a quota, but should instead be improved educational infrastructure at every level.

Yesterday 22.5% Today 49.5% Tomorrow 99.5%
And today’s majority becomes a minority.

The following questions still remain:

1) Was the increase in reservations included in the election manifesto
for the last general elections?
The truth is that it wasn’t. Aren’t millions of people being cheated in this process?

2) The IIT’s and IIM’s were started soon after India became a republic
with aid from countries like USA, Germany, Russia etc. Since then
population of the country has increased dramatically but the country has
not catered to the increased requirements and the number of IIT’s or
IIM’s or institutions of similar calibre has been very limited in comparison with the population. How then can the government fiddle with the education in these premier institutions?

3) How does a country progress when only 50% of the students in its top institutions have the requisite criteria of being the best? Is it possible to win an Olympics gold medal in 100 meters race by running only 50 meters just because he/she is not fit to go all the way? Or will the government ask for reservations even there??

From this analysis, the conclusion drawn is that the government has been extremely thoughtless and unjust in its decision.
The youth of Bangalore will express their voice through a demonstration in front of Raj Bhavan on 17th April. We hope to correct this injustice with the help of the media, and anyone who agrees that this proposal goes against the basic concept of justice.

Thanking you.
Yours truly

2006-04-13T21:36:00.000+05:30

i got 3 big-time petitions 4 u right here, go ahead sign them: http://www.petitiononline.com/No_Quota/petition.html

http://www.petitiononline.com/obcrev/petition.html

http://www.petitiononline.com/arb06/petition.html

the first one had 90964 and the 2nd had 28343 and the 3rd had 6341 when i saw them ........signatures, that is.................this will give us more strength in our letter if we mention these as people who support our views..............

2006-04-12T08:56:00.000+05:30

Our plan of action:

there is gonna be a silent demonstration in front of raj bhavan on 17th apr against the reservatoins in institutions like iit/iim....

What u can do:

it would b gr8 if u can come along too, coz its ur future which is at stake, and more importantly, its a matter of principle....that of pushing forward the idea of meritocracy, rather than let our countries best institutions be degraded to a level of mediocrity
if u do intend 2 come(which i hope), plz bring posters n banners along with you....also ensure that these posters ARE NOT DEREGATORY against ANY COMMUNITY be it SCs/STs/OBCs/ Muslims or any other minorities , because we are not against them, we're against reservation at the expense of education....this is NOT a hastily arranged call to arms.... and as of now (that is 13th night) 300 ppl hav agreed to come....

if you have any questions or ideas, regarding this, or anything else that is related, please contact

Archit - 23450043

The least that you can do, is post a comment, voicing your displeasure against this movement:

one request... if you are posting a comment plz leave your name and your email id so we can get in touch with you with regards to the petition as well........... thanks

Looking forward to meeting you...17th April, 11am in front of Raj Bhavan....

2006-04-12T08:27:00.000+05:30

Recently, the Central government has decided to introduce 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in 20 Central universities across the country. The new reservation is in addition to the 22.5 per cent reservation for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, and will lead to a total reservation of 49.5 per cent.
This petition is to register a protest against this proposed reservation in the premier educational institutes of India, especially the IITs & IIMs. IITs and IIMs are brands symbolizing quality education that India offers. This has been possible not because these institutes have quality faculty members, but also because of the fact that they get really deserving and meritorious students at the entry level. The tough entrance examination separates the grains from the husks, so as to say.
Substandard students – no matter of which caste or tribe - will never excel, no matter how many concessions are given to them. One may lead a horse to the pond, but one can not force it to drink.
One picks up meritorious students from the weaker sections of the society, and prepares them for competitions, instead of giving them an "underdog" chance which doesn’t make much of them at all, instead only giving them:

a) Complacency or laziness. They will (and most often do) take it easy, thinking that they anyway have seats reserved, so they don’t bother to study as much as the other non-privileged candidates.

b) A false idea of how tough this world can be, which is quite harmful for them. Even before, SC/ST students joining institutes like IIT-K used to suffer from an inferiority complex and had to take extra courses to ensure they coped with the syllabus, which proves that they were not really deserving of the seats.The IITs and IIMs are the epitome of management and technical education in this country.

In fact, a character (Asok) in the famous "Dilbert" comic strip is based on an IIT graduate, proving the global fame that these institutions have achieved. Admissions to such institutions in this country should be purely on merit basis and devoid of caste, creed and any other racial basis. So far we had believed that IITs and IIMs are only for the exceptionally brilliant and skilled candidates. If the government passes any bill to issue reservation quota for SC/ST/Muslims or any minority, it is going to become one of the worst and most unfortunate decisions ever taken in the field of education.
If a student/candidate is exceptionally good in studies, he/she will definitely get admission in IIT or IIM. If people can not get into IIT/IIM through the normal admission procedures, it is better that they believe that they are not good enough to go there. This reservation undoes all that these institutions stand for.
It will erode away the pillars of Indian higher education, leaving behind naught but a crumbling image of what could have been.
The reservation as we perceive it will only be the beginning of the downfall of these institutes. This year it is quota. Next year they shall lower the qualifying marks for entrance tests for the reserved category students so that merit will take a back seat and persons with lower marks will have admission over a non-reserved students with more marks. And then shall come relaxation in age limits, increase in number of attempts and so on.
As an old English verse goes:
“For want of a nail, the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe, the horse was lost.
For want of a horse, the rider was lost.
For want of a rider, the army was lost.
For want of an army, the kingdom was lost.
All for the want of a nail.”
Instead of merit, caste will be a determining factor in education.
We would like to put across a few points that people short-sightedly (or sometimes conveniently) fail to take note of:

1. Most of the reserved seats are filled by students belonging to families which have already benefitted from such a reservation earlier. This does not help the needy.

2. Most of the OBCs are backward only in terms of caste and not in terms of wealth. Most of them are wealthy and can buy seats in any of the colleges in India.

3. By reserving seats in institutes of higher education, government is shying away from its responsibility of giving quality primary education to all (and thereby providing a level playing field), which is one of our Directive Principles of State Policy.

4. Many students belonging to the so-called 'upper castes' are poor and are unable to get decent education while most reserved seats are filled by students who have earlier recieved a decent education.

5. Many students who fill the reserved seats drop out because they have not been selected based on their merit and hence were not able to cope with the workload. This means a precious seat has been wasted in a premier educational institution.

6. Admission to premier institutes is highly competitive and a large number of meritorious students are left out because they have been born in a general category family.

7. With time, the prestige of these premier institutes would degrade as the students would not be admitted based on their merit but on their castes. This is already evident from the skewed placement statistics of the IITs and IIMs.

8. When the whole world is moving towards globalisation, Indian government is resorting to protectionism, a kind of “divide-and-rule policy”. By protecting the so-called OBCs, they are mollycoddling them instead of giving them the competitive edge.

One should not provide a fisherman with fish, but with the means to catch his own.This move is totally uncalled for at this stage when everything was going on well.We feel that there should be no reservations based solely on the principles of caste. The government should focus on providing quality primary education to all, rather than fiddling with the higher institutes, which are functioning very well. Kindly see that this unfair and unjust reservation is put down.

2006-04-11T22:59:00.000+05:30

if the governtment thinks of us as fools 2 accept dat then they r bigger fools