Aug 23, 2006

Reservation , Creamy Layer And Politicians..



Hmmm...finally the s*#king politicians are bringing up this stupid thing in Parliament even without the rider of Creamy Layer which will enable the wards of all politicians to get the benefits..This was not unexpected though...No party has the credibility or courage to put atleast the funda of creamy layer into this OBC reservation. I wonder what happened to the case that was filed in Supreme court challenging this legislation...To tell how sinister and undeserving this is, I can quote some incidents that I've come across..

Scene 1: NITC counselling Yr - 2000

Kerala is a state which has implemented OBC reservation. But,as it is, the benefits are always cornered by the affluent in the society. Being the premier college, the seats in our college used to fill up after the IITs.Fortunately or unfortunately I managed to hang on to the last csc seat in open category .On that day, I witnessed people coming in ultra-luxury cars and claiming seats under OBC quota showing income certificates that defied logic..Ofcourse,It is true that some deserving people also bagged seats under this . Neverthless, the day exposed how deserving people are subjugated and how income certificates are manipulated to obtain seats under the name of quota.


Scene 2: NITC counselling Yr-2001.

Had some of my friends attending the session.So just went there..Things were no different. Over the 2 - 3 batches that I know at NITC , there are people who regularly go abroad for vacations and run mobile bills in excess of thousands per month claiming OBC reservation and bagging seats with income certificates showing BPL incomes...Being born into a caste or community would automatically allot you a seat in one of the coveted colleges.


Scene 3: An attestation..

One of my neighbour's son came to my mother for getting the copies of marksheets attested as he was about to attend the engineering counselling. In the set of certificates , he had an income certificate from a village officer showing the occupation of his father as "Koolivela"( Manual labour ). In truth, his father is one of the richest in our locality with a very big house , multiple cars and herds of servants... I was really perplexed by all this.


Scene 4: GATE.

This actually happened in a party..I was talking to my classmate ( One of the very few dedicated souls to computer science ) .He had a good GATE rank which would have got him admission to one of the IITs..He said he was not applying this year as he had GRE plans..and because of another reason -- If OBC quota comes in , as GATE score has a validity of 2 years , he may very well get into IISc next year --
I don't really know if that argument was meant to be sarcastic or serious..But then, in all probability if he studies well for another year he may get into IISc in general merit..Why..oh why abuse quota in this case..?

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The problem with reservation in India is the inability to effectively filter out the creamy layer..In a country as corrupt as us, an income certificate or an OBC certificate can be obtained for a few bucks. Even if the rider of creamy layer is incorporated into the present bill, public would have found ingenuous ways to circumvent that..But then, in such a form the bill would have had a bit of decency...Hearing the esoteric and unimaginative arguments of the OBC politicians, I can only say..."God Save This Nation" .

Ajith

7 comments:

Sreejith Panickar said...

I am always against this reservation based on your colour and creed. I am for economic reservation for those falling in the merit lists, but still in a country like India where the administartion is so corrupted, it would be more than easy to fing loop holes. Let me also join you "God Save This Nation"

Rahul said...

nice piece... iam pro-reservation in principle, but i cant figure out an income stipulation that can be made to stick. But, it is probably better to have a creamy layer rule that is openly flouted than to do away with reservations altogether. I would also suggest that the benefit of reservation should be inherited so that nobody in a reserved candidate's geneology is eligible again. That would stand up to the logic of historical correction and balancing as well as to reduce the pool of eligible people over the generations, gradually phasing out the whole system in a self-effacing coup de grace...

Anonymous said...

u r absolutely correct.The politicians r playing with the future of lakhs of students.Its time people took the govt to task.

Anurag said...

u do feel strongly bout it dont u...i too did......not any more....its useless...the only way one can change it if he is in politics....not even then......if he does not get votes or a ticket also......how will one change nething :o)
all said n done...whatever u said is very very very correct

Hitchhiker said...

I keep thinking about this question on and off. I am not against reservation per se...the underlying assumption of anti-reservation people is that the playing field is level for all people.

But that has never been the case : when you are poor or belong to a lower caste or are in general different, the playing field is never level.

You are right about it working in favor of the creamy layer. But as Rahul said, its better that there be a system with flaws which helps the people, rather than no system at all.

(Now since the deed is done, the only thing that keeps popping in my thoughts is how do we make this whole situation a win-win one, for the OBC's as well the general ppl..not found an answer to that ...sigh;) )

Hitchhiker said...

@Rahul : The idea of reservation being applicable only to a particular generation and all subsequent generations benefiting from the opportunities accorded to their parents sounds very good. But the logistics to carry out such a plan would be enormous, and that's what scares me. Hope it works out.

Ajith Prasad Balakrishnan said...

@Sreejith Kumar -- Indian administrative infrastructure has to progress much if we have to implement economic reservation.

@Rahul -- The point is, there are very few among the pro-reservationists who think your way.Parties like PMK, DMK have said that reservations should be there for ever...Its like a drug addiction..Once you grant something ( say reservation without creamy layer ) , it would be politically impossible to revoke that .Thats why it is important to introduce the creamy layer rider now itself.


@Anonymous -- Yep..Arjun Singh has opened a pandora's box.

@Anurag -- Yeah..The root cause is caste based votebanks..As long as that is there, its impossible to bring any reform in this direction.

@hitchhiker -- Same point that I've mentioned as reply to Rahul..Once something is granted ( inclusion of creamy layer ), it is politically impossible to revoke that as long as caste based votebanks stay in our polity.