Retributions  

The government has amongst sporadic protests introduced the OBC reservation bill in the parliament. The bill has been referred to the standing committee and it is there it will rest for the next 3 months. The bill has a few interesting features.First, it has proposed that quotas be staggered over the next three years to allow the institutions to create infrastructure required for the additional 54% seats. While it is amazing that in a nation where kids do not have access to primary education and government cites the lack of resources for the sad state of affair, an additional 16000 crores is being spent on higher education. But since the government had already conceded this demand, at least the staggering of quotas will give the institutions some breathing space.Second

The Bill, which was referred to the standing committee, lists 18 “institutions of excellence, research institutions, and institutions of national and strategic importance” where quota would not apply.

When the reservation debate raged on the blogsphere, we were told the truth about merit, and how it simply did not exist. Apparently a figment of our minds. Perhaps. Then pray, why has government felt the need to exclude strategic institutions from the purview of quotas? Or merit only exist for them? Of course, no one cares to answer why do we need job reservations when we have reservations in academic institutions, that is when the graduates are equal in all respect. Perhaps, the private sector is baised against them, but the government itselfBut of course the main issue is this:

The Bill for OBC quota in central educational institutions was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday without a murmur of protest from the Left benches over inclusion of the ‘creamy layer’ in ambit of reservations

We were told how due to lack of resources OBC kids were unable to compete with kids who had access to expensive private education. Fair point. Then pray, why has the creamy layer not been excluded? Even if we accept that the classification of backward classes is perfect, are folks seriously arguing that even a few thousand parents in such groups cannot give their kids expensive school education. I bet just the politicians from such groups would number in thousand if not more. So, how are the poor kids supposed to compete with the rich ones who by some miracle of the Mandal Commision belong to the same group? Funnily, all those bloggers who had taken a pro-reservation position, feel no need to criticize the lack of creamy layer concept. Hypocrisy anyone?This also throws out of the window the diversity argument in favor of reservations. Folks who have little understanding of American affirmative action system cite it as a model for reservations in India. Apart from the fact that the American system is far more nuanced than the Indian system, caste is not an equivalent of race. Caste is an artificially created concept and two people who belong to the same socio-economic background bring little diversity to a campus. It could with some justification that a rural kid or someone belonging to a poor background would bring diversity and some allowance should be made for such kids. Fair enough, except with the creamy layer concept firmly in place, how are such kids supposed to compete? What diversity then such a reservation system brings?The OBC reservation proposal is irreversible and neither the students nor the Supreme Court can do much about it. It can only be hoped that we are able to move on quickly, both as a nation and a society. However, with the demand for private sector reservations gaining ground, that looks highly unlikely.