The Election Commission having forced the Centre to postpone Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh’s controversial attempt to impose a reservation quota hike from 22.5 percent to 49.5 percent in 20 central universities and institutions such as the IITs, IIMs, and medical colleges, political parties would do well to set aside votebank calculations and weigh the relative advantages and real disadvantages of the move.
Though there has been no violent reaction to the proposal, it has created deep disquiet in all sections of society. Foremost of course, are middle class children who compete purely on the basis of hard work and dedication, and their parents who often fund costly coaching classes to give their children the cutting edge in these merit-based competitive exams.
Yet this time, there are voices of disquiet from OBC students who are projected as the beneficiaries of this move. Hence, it would be interesting to pay heed to their objections. The most obvious cause of unhappiness is the stigma attached to being a reservation quota admission case, because this automatically implies that standards have been relaxed to let the entrant in. But this is the least of their problems. It has been the sorry experience of quota students for several years that they are unable to match the exacting academic standards of institutions like IIT or IIM. These standards have nothing to do with caste and relate to the students’ intrinsic academic merit and aptitude; hence these should not be linked with caste.
Quotas put both students and institutions in a bind. The student is often too embarrassed to tell his ambitious parents that he can’t make the grade and should go elsewhere. He tries to plod on and the institution tries to pull him along by promoting him somehow or other. But in the end, despite a couple of years of effort on both sides, the student does not make the grade and is failed at the end. He then has no degree in hand and no idea how or where to start again when already in his mid-twenties, when other peers are getting into jobs. This is a human tragedy, and we should not wait to let it assume the dimensions of farmers’ suicides before we take note of it.
The fact of the matter is that students and parents both have a fair idea of the child’s potential. If the bait of quotas and relaxed standards were not waved before them, they would fix their ambitions and aspirations more practically, in consonance with their abilities. This would save heartburn and heartbreak across the board. Politicians with their one-dimensional focus upon votebanks cannot be expected to appreciate such simple yet fundamental issues pertaining to the lives of ordinary people.
Interestingly, within the ruling Congress there is a growing realization that there is no political capital from Arjun Singh’s move. It has been pointed out that the party may not be able to wean over the OBCs from well-crafted and established leaders like Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and Railway Minister Lalu Yadav. On the other hand, by exempting minority institutions from the purview of the quotas, it may fuel anxieties in the rest of society regarding conversion pressures on children sent to such institutions for higher studies.
The move has also enraged Dalit leaders, who see it as an attempt to enhance the power of groups that disadvantage the Dalits in the countryside. Both Ms. Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party and Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan of the Lok January Shakti Party have expressed doubts about the 27 percent reservations, as it may cause the Harijan-OBC rivalry of the countryside to spill over into the towns and cities, with unforeseen consequences.
Corporate India has of course reacted to the move with ill-concealed horror. Barely had it managed to fob off the threat of caste-based reservations in the private sector, than a new threat has come in the nature of quota students in institutions like IIT and IIM which give India is cutting edge superiority in the Silicon Valley and other corporate hubs all over the world. A 27 percent quota will mean that the institutions will inevitably have to lower their standards, and this will necessarily impact upon the quality of students available for campus recruitment by India Inc. It’s a vicious circle.
It goes without saying that the IITs and IIMs and medical colleges (India is just now emerging as a major destination of medical tourism on account of the high quality doctors we possess in every major city) are the most depressed at the prospect of receiving non-competitive students. One major reason – which deserves the attention of MPs who may well vote on legislation in the next session of Parliament – is the experience of reservations for SC/ST students.
Since many SC/ST students fail to make the grade for admissions, the IITs put those close to the entrance level in a one-year preparatory course. This itself marks them out as not having the requisite standards to be in a cutting edge institution. Anyhow, those who pass the course, are then formally admitted to the various IITs. Not many of these students make the grade in the finals, and now the IITs are at a loss to understand if they are to undertake such “coaching classes” for another 27 percent students. Where would the faculty come from to bear such a load?
Further, if the Government agrees to increase the seats so that meritorious candidates do not suffer, where will the faculty come from so quickly? Many leading institutions already suffer a severe shortfall of teachers and infrastructure (classrooms, hostels), and may find it difficult to cope. Mr. Arjun Singh’s ill-thought out scheme could thus adversely impact upon higher education all over the country in a manner detrimental to all.
Organiser, 23 April 2006