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Socialism is immoralProtest the quota systemEnd entitlement benefits for freeloaders Support the death penalty for terrorists and anti-nationals |
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| The deep rooted conspiracy to subvert the political process [link] |
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Saturday, April 29, 2006 |
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Monsters Inc. | |
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It is evident that the reservation system has failed to reach the masses that it was intended to reach and horribly so at that. Most unfortunately, the system has created a group of individuals, freeloaders if you please, that are benefitting from the system for generations to come. These people have become very adept at gaming the system and spewing hatred all over. Take for instance the blog The Other India. It started off innocuously enough so that prominent bloggers like Rashmi Bansal linked it as a pro-argument blog. Soon enough this blog turned into an anti-progress and pretty much anti-civilization spiel. Ironically the bloggers at this site wave American examples ad nauseum, often out of context. They talk about AA (Affirmative Action) while not realizing that it is a completely voluntary exercise on the part of the US universities. Well, we will let it go at that. Talking of America, let's take the simple example of freedom of speech. In the past few days, I posted at least a dozen comments on their blog. These comments were removed in no time. Furthermore, they turned on moderation and removed pretty much any comment that opposed their views. On the other hand, they are spamming the internet with their own comments: Anonymous comment on a blog. Also here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here. I noticed at least a dozen other blogs on which the comment has been posted, mostly under the handle Shylock, sometimes under handle Narayan and sometimes anonymously. Note that some of the urls will not correctly scroll to the comment since there is not enough page length to scroll up. A nice rebuttal here. Compare this to the comment on the Other India Blog by poster Shylock (*). I sited this example because in the comment, they are viciously attacking "merit" and its validity. Here are some of my arguments against this comment which were removed from their blog (assuming this deserves rebuttal): What "merit" are we talking of anyway ? Scores in entrance exams at age of 17? My Dear Sir, the age limits for SC/STs are often relaxed by 3 to 5 years. Hence if you believe the poor old Dalit babies need more nurturing, you need not worry. Oh by the way, even after the age handicap, they are allowed free seats. The CAT exam is based on the SAT exam in the USA . It has been proved beyond doubt that the SAT test is culturally biased. Blacks and hispanics do poorly at it year after year. Looks like you love America a little too much! So are you saying Blacks and Hispanics may have some anthropological link to Dalits? I thought the Dalit leader Dr. Ambedkar claimed that Dalits were of Aryan descent? Approximately 25 % of CAT test is about English! Another 25 % is about English Comprehension!!!! There you are !!!! About 50 % so called aptitude test is a hoax for someone who is from a non-english speaking background . Well, how do you explain the IIT-JEE and scores of other Engineering and Science admission tests? English does not even feature in those. Also, keep in mind that CAT is a test for a post-graduate degree and often candidates with 2-5 years of job experience are preferred. So, are you saying that an undergraduate education (obtained via free seats) and few years of job experience is not enough to catch up on your English skills? Dhirubhai Ambani had a poor command over English . He would not have made it through CAT. So what “merit” are we talking of? Last time I checked, they attributed Mr. Ambani's success to extreme hard work, discipline and (oh the horror) merit. (*) Note: There is a vicious reason the Dalit anonymous poster chose this Jewish handle. I will elaborate it on a later post. Update: My own blog was spammed by the anti-merit comment as well.
posted by barbarindian at 10:16 AM Permalink
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Friday, April 28, 2006 |
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Investment Advisory | |
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I touched upon Mandal I vs. Mandal II briefly and never quite got a chance to elaborate on the significant differences. It does not look like I can add anything to what several bloggers have already written on this (sorry, no time to link to your excellent blogs, will do that as soon as I get some time off, after all unlike TA Abinandan etc. I do not get free lunches). As an investor, I am quite worried by how this is unraveling. At a superficial level it looked like Mandal II would be confined to the web. On the other hand, the behavior of the little understood myspace generation is quite unpredictable. We do not have a historical precedence on how a massive online protest can get unleashed on the real world. I am willing to bet that the latent anger this time is much more intense. In other words, we have a pressure cooker situation in contrast to the open hearth boiling fury of Mandal I. I would hold off on increasing my exposure to Indian assets for now and see how it goes. I advise you to do the same. We just do not have a rigorous tested method of assessing the risk of a situation like this, I am not talking about the medium/long term effect of reduction in quality of manpower in a knowledge based economy but something like this: 
posted by barbarindian at 12:47 AM Permalink
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Thursday, April 27, 2006 |
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Mandal II | |
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 Well, it looks like it is finally happening. Although it has not quite reached the Mandal I levels. I think the reasons are quite clear and many bloggers have elaborated on this. First of all, you have to remember that Mandal I agitations were mainly concentrated in the metros and the big cities. As a matter of fact this proves that the reservation system does not produce the desired effect at all. If it did, then it would create a lot more agitation in the rural areas and secondary cities. This proves that the quota Raj only impacts the few economically advanced areas.Secondly, Indian has made visible progress since then and young people in the metros and big cities are simply too busy making bucks. This also proves that the reservation beneficieries and victims are concentrated in the happening areas really. So, the reservation never really did or never will feed that 200 million hungry Dalits/OBCs as Mr. Mandal claimed it would. Something for Mr Arjun Singh to think about. But I guess he has a much bigger problem to deal with. The Mandal II has much stronger campaign and this time around it is spreading like wildfire. The blogosphere is in flames. I urge all bloggers to continue this effort. Show Mr. Arjun Singh that his version of cow-belt politics does not work anymore. Relegate him to a forgotten relic of the ancient past, where he really belongs.
posted by barbarindian at 11:19 PM Permalink
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Wednesday, April 26, 2006 |
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Here we go again | |
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I have been planning to write a well-researched piece on difference between the protests against Mandal I vs. Mandal II. Unfortunately my demanding schedule at the moment is preventing me to allocate as much time to this blog as I would like to. One of the issues that caught my attention early on was that this time around here was a complete lack of violence involved, forget about the horrific cases of student suicides. Guess I was wrong. The strike decision came after about 600 medical students gathered for an anti-quota rally which turned violent. The students wanted to protest outside Arjun Singh's Akbar Road residence, but were not allowed to go there. The drama started at 8 am and continued almost till 5 pm. The cops roughed up several students and rained lathis on them to break up the protest. By afternoon, a frustrated police force turned on the students, all of them wearing medical overalls and stethoscopes, with tear gas shells and water cannons. Apart from leaving several students bruised, the protest brought traffic to a halt in many parts of central Delhi. I am not willing to speculate at the moment how much of this protest was inspired by the recent blockbuster Rang de Basanti.
posted by barbarindian at 11:26 PM Permalink
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A Hobson's choice for talented OBCs? | |
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During Mandal I regime, there was a different sort of protest. I am going to elaborate it on a later post but let's just say at that time reservation for OBCs was seen as a very welcome move by this group. Keep in mind though, the term 'OBC' is a politically coined term and does not have much relevance to reality. For the time being read this post to check out what I am alluding to. In any case, back to the problem at hand. Take the IIT-JEE, the world acclaimed Joint Entrance Examination for example. Each year, about 3000 odd students make it beyond this most difficult test. If you take out the SC/ST quota students, about 2300 students are lucky enough to gain a seat in the IITs. Although there are no reliable published statistics, I am willing to bet there are about 500 students who make it, who would fall under the OBC category at least in some states(*). A number of these students make it towards the lower end of the ranking (called the AIR or all India rank, which drives the IIT class system and not the student's caste background as of today). Now, think about what happens when they introduce this 49.5% quota. Many of these OBC students will not make it unless they apply through the quota! They will be faced with a tough choice - go to IIT using the quota or go to a regional college without. If you say it does not make any sense, well that's precisely the point. That is the reason talented 'OBC' students are equally upset this time. (*) The observant reader might ask, what will happen to a person who is recognized as an OBC in state A and applying to an IIT situated in a state where he is not? Since IITs are central institutes, will there be a central list of OBCs which will be separate from individual state lists? I do not have any answer. The whole thing stinks to high heavens anyway.
posted by barbarindian at 12:08 AM Permalink
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Monday, April 24, 2006 |
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OBCs voice protest against reservation | |
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At the risk of self-aggrandising, here’s a personal example. When I was in queue for admission to various business schools, I could have easily confirmed my seat in one of the country’s premier institutes had I opted for a reservation quota seat. But frankly I didn’t deserve that seat in the spirit of the law, since I had sufficient financial resources to match up with those from the open category. The logical thing to do was to opt for an open category seat, which I did, even though it meant by-passing a prised seat in a premier B-school. - Will the IIMs abolish existing quotas? MANGESH SAKHARAM GHOGRE (Economic Times) I was the topper of my batch and got through to medical college through all India entrance exam, till then I was known as a topper by my classmates but then came VP singh and mandal and since then I’m known as an OBC who also happens to be a topper. - Letter from an OBC (personal blog)
posted by barbarindian at 10:48 PM Permalink
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Sunday, April 23, 2006 |
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Our Dalit Leaders: Part II | |
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Someone please call a lobotomy specialist. "We should close down the IITs and the IIMs as they pander to the upper-caste economy of the country. Those who pass out from these institutes use their technical and managerial skills to earn dollars abroad. Are they using their skill sets to the benefit of the agro-based economy of the country? Tell me, with rising incomes of our B-school graduates are farmer suicide rates coming down? So what is the use of such education if it cannot be put to any use within the country or for the uplift of the majority of the population who live in villages?"- Kancha Ilaiah, Dalit intellectual Earn dollars abroad? Indeed. That's what Dalit poster boy Tanmay is doing by the way. We do not believe that the government should subsidize education. The recent success of ISB proves that the future of education rests in the hands of the private sector. Oh wait a minute, aren't they demanding reservation in the private sector as well? The above comment by Mr. Ilaiah sent the dalit freeloaders into a state of wild confusion. The loonies at ambedkar.org hastily added this statement: "Actually, we don't have to insist that the IITs be closed down. All we - dalit leaders, activists, dalit politicians, MPs, MLAs, writers, lawyers... - need to do is pressure the government and courts (where 78% judges are brahmans (New York Times, quoting dalit activist Martin Macwan, 16 Nov. 2000) into ensuring that the reservation provisions are honoured. That our constitution be honoured." So what is it do they want? Close down IIT/IIMs or allow these freeloader to get free lunches for generations to come (at the expense of the real needy)? I guess for now they have decided on the latter.
posted by barbarindian at 4:43 PM Permalink
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Saturday, April 22, 2006 |
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Our Dalit Leaders: Part I | |
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A trip down the memory lane (Warning: The pictures linked are not safe for work). Disclaimer: I am not about to make a moral judgement here, neither do I intend to use this post as a direct anti-reservation argument. I am writing this in response to several loony Dalit leaders who claim that the general category students go abroad anyway, therefore waste the resources of the country. As a matter of fact, as I outlined in my previous post, many dalit students go abroad. The ones that are relatively better at academics go anyway. This sort of argument hurts the cause of the dalits. Is a beneficiary of reservation supposed to turn into a social worker for the upliftment of his community? This is an unfair demand. We believe that regardless of whether a person is a beneficiary of reservation, he/she has every right to go about his/her life as he/she chooses to. Just like Suresh Ram, the philandering son of illustrious dalit leader of the 70s, Babu Jagjivan Ram, did. So, here are some picture for your viewing pleasure, of Suresh Ram exercising his fundamental rights (for story and more details please visit Hindustan Times): Note: we have removed the pictures and instead provided links to them based on reader feedback. [Picture] Here we see Suresh Ram (at the time married and 40 years old), with his paramor Sushma Chaudhary, a 21 years old woman from a lower middle class Jat family. Now, do we think that this is wrong? Of course not. A dalit has as much right to indulge in sexual pleasure as anyone else. Unfortunately we can not say the same for sons of ministers who misappropriate public funds and use their position to splurge on their girlfriends. Incidentally they used to rendezvous at the Western Court to which Suresh had access despite being a political non-entity. [Picture] We like this one even better, the woman astride position. Here we see an upper-caste Sushma riding the dalit scion Suresh Ram. Did you say ironical? Well, that's what we had in mind. [Picture] How about this one? Looks like here Sushma is doing a sideways straddle. As Kushwant Singh put it then, "If the Kamasutra has 64 poses of making love, this one certainly had 9." Apparently Suresh himself used a polaroid camera to take the pictures. Legend has it that he was a bonafide voyeur and it can be safely assumed he had quite a portfolio before this one. Remember, this is the days before the internet, so people had to make their own porn library. [Picture] I am sure you knew this one was coming, didn't you? Some people smell a rat in the bonding between a married 40 year old and a 21 year old young woman. We like to think that there was no coercion involved. However, we don't rule out the effect expensive cars and gifts are known to have on women. For us die hard romantics, the source of Suresh Ram's riches is not that important. [Picture] Here is further proof that their relationship was built on equality. Suresh Ram is seen returning the favor in this picture. All in all, we believe this was a sweet love affair. I know that there are many "where they are now" type of questions in your mind. Well, unfortunately Suresh Ram died at the age of 46. Sushma went into hiding, and the newspapers have stopped hounding her. This scandal killed Jagjivan Ram's political career. It is not clear whether Suresh Ram had subsequently married Sushma. Sushma claimed he did. Note: pictures were taken from Hindustan Times archives and digitally enhanced using GIMP, mainly to invert the negative images to enhance their clarity.
posted by barbarindian at 3:45 PM Permalink
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Friday, April 21, 2006 |
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Keep the fire alive | |
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It looks like the government is having second thoughts about going forward with the proposed reservation bills. Can we say they got a little blogged down? Now is the time to go the extra mile. Keep blogging, keep on voicing your dissent. Congress sources also say they are worried that Arjun Singh's proposal for 27 per cent reservations in educational institutions could alienate the middle class votebank, which has finally started warming upto the party. Some of the ministers are now planning to push for deferring the draft when it comes up in the Cabinet, and propose options like sending it to a group of ministers or a committee. The proposal for SC/ST job quotas in the private sector has also faced stiff opposition from corporate India, and some Cabinet ministers want to send it to a committee for further study. Well, we all know what happens when something is sent for "further study"!
posted by barbarindian at 12:58 PM Permalink
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Thursday, April 20, 2006 |
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Sad but true | |
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In a previous post, I wrote about what I think the immediate impact of the proposed reservation will be in our premier institutes. It is quite obvious that at schools like the IITs/IIMs, ability earns you respect, no question asked. As I mentioned in the previous post, it looks like there is a very positive trend at these schools. Students have basically rejected the caste system. Once you are in, your identity gets linked to the school and the amount of respect you command, to your ability. Your religion/caste etc. cease to matter. I think this is how caste system will truly get eliminated. Students at IIT-Roorkee confirmed my theory (from Times of India): Even OBC students on the campus are against the proposal. Students Affairs Council general secretary Ashok Kumar said, "I am an OBC but I refuse to let my social status overshadow my abilities. I take pride in having made it to IIT through my own talent." He added, "We support upliftment of the weaker sections but that has to be done effectively at primary and secondary levels of education." As far as I can tell, a position like the general secretary of the students Affairs Council is a big deal and unless you are really popular and well respected, you just can't make it. Unfortunately, the proposed bill will bring this beautiful process to a grinding halt. IITs/IIMs and other premium institutes will gradually become the seething cauldron of anger and divide between different castes that many lesser institutes are today.
posted by barbarindian at 11:39 PM Permalink
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Support Wipro: Thanks Mr. Premji | |
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 Yesterday I reported that it looks like CII is meekly giving in to the reservation proposals in the private sector.Today a very heartening piece of news came in: read here. A day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked industries to broadbase employment and make it representative, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji said his firm would recruit people based only on merit. "We compete with global companies. We are primarily in the service business in terms of the mix of our consolidated revenues", he said, adding that "the service business is highly people-dependent. People make you (the company) successful or the people make you less successful". Premji pointed that close to 80 per cent of Wipro's global revenues come from the US, Europe, Japan and parts of the Middle-East. "We have no alternative but to hire the best talent available within India and the best talent available globally to man our positions -- critical positions, non-critical positions, (and) programming positions", he said. (At a press conference announcing the landmark $2 bn in revenue). Support Wipro, apply for jobs at that company or urge your friends to do so. At a minimum, buy Wipro stock. I have already been handsomely rewarded for owning Wipro stock. If Mr. Premji is true to his word, it means his company rewards achievers. For a knowledge based company, that's bound to be a good thing.
posted by barbarindian at 12:56 PM Permalink
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IIMs strike back | |
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From Times of India: All six IIMs in the country have taken the collective decision to fix the academic eligibility to take the Common Admission Test (CAT) at 50 per cent in the Bachelor's exam, a top official said on Thursday. "It was a joint decision taken by the IIMs in view of the difficulty in handling the increasing number of applicants. We wanted to introduce the screening at the CAT level itself," IIM Bangalore Director Prof G Prakash Apte said. Allow me to speculate here but OBC candidates who secure more than 50% marks are quite likely to hit the creamy layer glass ceiling. There is already some evidence that reservation candidates find a very hard time at IIMs and it appears that IIM administration is not going to make it any easier. It proves my theory that one should not mess with lawyers and management type people. I believe this is clearly a pre-emptive strike. Now, why is this not a huge issue? You see, all politicians care about is promises. They never bother to check back on implementation and that applies for their populist policies as well. Think about it, the creamy layer does not make a candidate ineligible to avail reservations multiple times in his lifetime. Therefore, those candidates who go to the better undergraduate institutes are virtually guaranteed a seat in IIMs. Looks like the quota is eating into itself.
posted by barbarindian at 12:37 PM Permalink
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Where the heart is | |
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Ok, I have no way of verifying this. Found this in a blog: A distant cousin of mine is in a medical college in Delhi (dont know which one, have met him only once till date and dont even recall his name) told me this. He was in his third year of medicine. In the lab, the professor was asking students to point out various organs on a body on a stretcher. He asked a SC girl student "Show me where is the heart"? The girl pointed out to the kidney. Whooaa.. a third year medical student does not even know where the heart is. I suppose even a high school student could have pointed that out in her place, using some logic and sense. And my cousin noted - she pointed to the right kidney. ROFL... :)) Link to blog.
posted by barbarindian at 12:34 PM Permalink
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Wednesday, April 19, 2006 |
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Sour Cream | |
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I spoke to a few of my friends in the last few days and the topic of reservation generally came up. To my surprise, most of them were none too concerned about it. As a matter of fact most of them said they favored reservation. Most of us actually have happy memories of that one guy from the SC/ST background who had made it against all odds. Unfortunately, that one guy in my immediate friend circle did not manage to graduate. If you have been casually following all this, I urge you to read this current recruitment notice for cabin crews at Air India. See for yourself just how atrocious this is. Specifically, let me point out this section:  Back to the topic at hand - the so called creamy layer. It is inherently dangerous to provide peripheral arguments to something as fundamentally wrong as the reservation system. One may get trumped by pseudo-logic and thus trivialize the main issue. I feel the reservation system is immoral, plain and simple. Nevertheless, I feel compelled to discuss the "creamy layer" idea because I find it inherently funny. The official definition of creamy layer can be found here. Apparently it is not the most up to date one, specifically the family income ceiling for eligibility seems to have been raised to Rs. 2.5 lakhs. Read more in this blog. The creamy layer concept makes OBC candidates ineligible for jobs if they are above a certain economic level based on a given set of rules. For instance, children of Class 1 officers can not apply for reserved positions. Note that the creamy layer exclusions do not apply to SC/STs. Now, isn't that funny?
posted by barbarindian at 11:32 PM Permalink
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Tuesday, April 18, 2006 |
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The real victims of reservation | |
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 It's a pity they will never understand what the fuss is all about, not now, not ever while the thugs that our politicians are continue to pillage. loot and plunder away our resources.
posted by barbarindian at 8:45 PM Permalink
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It happened sooner than I thought | |
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 Earlier I wrote a post about the immediate impact of the proposed reservations. But this thing is unraveling much faster that I thought. For those who were wondering about the apparent silence of the PM, well, it looks like he capitulated. Actually he went one step further and called for voluntary affirmative action on the part of the industry addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). So far the CII was vociferously opposing the move. Industry leaders including Narayana Murthy had strongly criticized the move. Now this comment from none other than the PM has them scrambling for the exit door. They are planning to set up a task force. Will this move help the CII avoid another legislative blow? Not likely. Dalit and OBC MPs are already lobbying for a law to mandate private companies to implement a reservation system (as if 15(5) is not enough!). If the CII is under any illusion that it can get off easy by providing say 20-30% employment in non-key positions, well, they got another thing coming. Read more here and here.
posted by barbarindian at 8:01 PM Permalink
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Affirmative action? | |
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There are significant differences between the protests against Mandal I and Mandal II and I will elaborate on it in a later post. For one thing, there is a significant increase in the use of examples from the West, specifically the U.S., in both for and against arguments. Of course this is expected, given the importance of India-U.S. ties and the improving U.S. image in India. It is one thing to rigorously follow Western ideas (which we never really do), quite another when we try to extrapolate Western debates into our society. Take for instance the Roe vs. Wade case and the never ending debate in the U.S. about abortion rights. Imagine when we try to apply the moral judgement in this case to Indian society - indeed it can lead to extremely undesirable effects. Quite predictably, "Affirmative Action" has found its way into the blogosphere to bolster the reservation debate. Those invoking this are doing so without understanding the full implications of it. Noted African-American scholar Thomas Sowell, like many illuminaries from the African-American community who have made it on the masis of merit alone, are vociferous opponents of a system that discredit the talented minorities. There is evidence that racial divide has increased due to blind persual of a bigoted idea. Take for instance, the stance of the liberal party. It appears that if a minority achiever does not toe the party line, abuses will be heaped upon him/her. Colin Powell and recently Condoleezza Rice have had to face liberal ire, often in very racist terms, by the liberals - supposed cheer leaders of Affirmative Action. A recent gem from Senator Hillary Clinton: "When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run it has been run like a plantation and you know what I am talking about," the New York senator told a mostly black audience at a Harlem church this week. The plantation jibe is of course aimed at Ms. Rice. Incidentally this drew a tremendous amount of flak from the black community leaders. Likewise, when the animal activist group PETA tried to use blacks for their self-serving purpose, they were excoriated by black students. Reservations, Quota, Affirmative Action or whatever you call it, a false ideology is bound to lead to unpredictable outcomes, often at the expense of the original intent.
posted by barbarindian at 11:02 AM Permalink
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Monday, April 17, 2006 |
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Good work by you | |
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Here are some links to interesting bloggers. Keep checking back this page as I will regularly update this. If you want to be linked, please email us or leave a comment. Huge anti-reservation blog-roll: Entrance to the Shrine.: Anti-Reservations Blogroll. Some facts on the OBC issue: Facts on the reservation issue An interesting blog by an ex-IITian: Understanding Reservations Reservation fun: Blade Pakkiri Loves Arjun Singh Some stats: The walking stick called Reservation Interesting post by noted blogger Rashmi Bansal: Caste vs Class Another anti-reservation blog: kartik kannan's space on the web Some more reservation fun: Nation applauds much wanted change in law Interesting analysis: Reservations benefit the upper castes An OBC speaks out: Me, Myself and theginsoakedboy: Diary of a Non-OBC man... A Belgian woman's perspective: In love with India...: India shrugged Another OBC is upset with the quota: Buzz off....OBCs don't need quota at IITs Some insight on the TN situation: vetris: Reserved classes forge ahead Life of a Brahmin not all that great: As I Like It: Mistaken Beliefs Details on the Azim Premji debate: My Life A poem in Hindi: We Didn't Start the Fire... in Hindi Highly recommended blog: Reality Check India. A senior IITian speaks: Indra's Drishtokona Vulturo: The Moral Default Vulturo: Creamy or Non-Creamy, Sir?
posted by barbarindian at 2:24 PM Permalink
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Is this really winning? | |
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 Outlook India recently ran a cover story on the reservation system, complete with feel good pictures of smiling beneficiaries of the reservation system. All these people unequivocally stated that but for reservation they would never have made it to the institutes they attended. Now they work for some of the top class corporations in the world, including Microsoft, AT&T and Siemens.Many of these folks will leave the country for greener pastures. Although they vehemently state that they will not avail the reservation for their kids, statistics suggests otherwise. Once a family gets benefitted from reservations, they keep coming back for seconds for generations to come. The definition of winning in our country has changed over the years. There have been great men who have surmounted extreme difficulties to become great scholars. However, today winning means acquiring entitlement benefits. As a matter of fact this is symptomatic of a much larger problem. Regional groups constantly attempt to claim a larger share of the pie not on the basis of merit, but because of their supposed birth rights. Then again the problem starts much earlier when innocent kids are endoctrined in a philosophy that has become a relic of the past with lies and deceit. No wonder we no longer care about dignity and honor. We have learned to be happy in our state of indignant denial.
posted by barbarindian at 11:17 AM Permalink
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Sunday, April 16, 2006 |
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The immediate impact | |
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Students at the IITs/IIMs are kept miraculously insulated from local politics. Part of it is attributable to the fact that these kids have posh jobs waiting for them and they simply do not have time to indulge in other activities. In other words, they do what students are supposed to do. Make no mistake though, one false move and these institutes find themselves prey to media hounds and local politics honchos. Many times in the past incidents of ragging at IITs have found headlines in newspapers. By contrast, students from the various government universities willingly or unwillingly have to spend a lot of time and pay attention to local politics. Dharnas, gheraos, sine dies etc. are day to day occurences. Local political mafia almost always find the students easy game for their hideous agenda. A huge issue in these less fortunate institutions is the constant tension between the so called FC/BC (forward/backward castes). Fights regularly break out between the two groups. Students waste a huge amount of time in unproductive activities, often against their will. Often the students themselves indulge in primitive discussions about caste, much beneath their education levels. If the proposed quota is implemented, the serenity of the IITs/IIMs will shatter into pieces. There will be widespread seggregation, us and them politics and daily bickering. Lurking political parties will find a breach and come in with all their might. Some students will join them. Pressure on authorities to loosen educational standards etc. will follow. The strict discliplinary actions that the IITs/IIMs take against errant students will cease to exist. Take for instance, the experience (by no means uncommon) of this IITian: I got a place in B-Tech chemical engg at IIT KGP. I was apprehensive about-facing the same experience here also. But I was surprised when no body asked me my caste there. I was surprised from the environment there. No body really cared which cast I belonged to. No body at iit ever care from which religion or which cast one belongs to. Feeling of equality was for the first time felt by me there. I feel no place on the earth will be as secular and as racism free as iit (Click here for link to original post). Of course, this student entered IIT through the general route. He was universally respected. He participated in all activities. As a matter of fact, no one really knew about his background. Not that anyone cared. Consider what will happen next year. There will be 50% students who will avail the reservation. This is a significant group with a lot of bargaining power. They will be as indignant as the rest will be angry. Think about the student organizations. Will they be forced to have 50% candidates from the reservation regimes? How about the various clubs such as music, drama, literature etc.? Quite likely the participants of various creative activities will cease to discuss Shakespeare and indulge themselves in endless tirade about pros and cons of reservations. This significant group can then arm twist the professors into lowering the standards of exam - there is a thing called student feedback and believe it or not it can decimate a professor's career. The whole thing is fraught with moral hazard.
posted by barbarindian at 7:58 PM Permalink
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A Primer on Article 15 | |
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Our consitution is wide open to interpretation and does not limit in any way the state's power to favor one faction over another. So, here are the said articles relevant to the reservation fiasco. The original article 15: 15. Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.—(1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them. (2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to— (a) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment; or (b) the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public. (3) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children. The very first clause of the very first amendment in 1951 then moves to further expand the scope of Article 15. A 4th clause is added which will form the basis of all quotas: (Note: Dr Ambedkar was living as of this amendment, separate post to follow on his stand on the whole issue): Amendment of article 15.-To article 15 of the Constitution, the following clause shall be added:- (4) Nothing in this article or in clause (2) of article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. Referred article: 29. Protection of interests of minorities.— * * * * * (2) No citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them. This is just an ominous sign that more is to come. Effectively Article 15(4) gives a carte blanche to the states to do whatever they please. Then as of 20th January 2006, the 93rd (this is the famous 104th, the number discrepancy is due to the fact that some proposals were rejected) amendment changed Article 15 in what I believe a preemptive measure against class action lawsuits by adding the following: (This is the famous 15(5) being referred to): Amendment of article 15.-In article 15 of the Constitution, after clause (4), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:- (5) Nothing in this article or in sub-clause (g) of clause (1) of article 19 shall prevent the State from making any special provision, by law, for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes in so far as such special provisions relate to their admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State, other than the minority educational institutions referred to in clause (1) of article 30.". Referred articles: 19. Protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech, etc.—(1) All citizens shall have the right— * * * * * (g) to practise any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business. 30. Right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions. — (1) All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. It appears that the 30(1) was preempted to preclude the Christian and Muslim run schools and colleges. Article 19(1) allows all citizens to practise any profession or trade and even this is being preempted. This is ostensibly to prevent lawsuits arising from say a businessman claiming that he is unable to carry on his trade because he has to give jobs to a certain number of backward classes. I believe this is a precursor to a widespread enactment of laws forcing businesss to hire backward classes. The next victims? Quite obviously the likes of this. Reference: Constitution of India. Constitutional Amendments.
posted by barbarindian at 4:04 PM Permalink
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Hon'ble Minister of Human Resource Development | |
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 The official biodata of Sri Arjun Singh lists his profession as "Agriculturist/Farmer". Incidentally he is also a B.A., LL.B. Educated at Allahabad University and Agra University. Beats me.A news item caught my eye (from Yahoo India): New Delhi Feb 8 (ANI): Union Human Resource and Development Minister Arjun Singh was toady hospitalised in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) after he complained of breathlessness. Singh, a senior Congress leader is 75-year-old and has served the party and the government in different capacities. (ANI) Well, don't get your hopes too high. The ministers are attended to by top doctors and it's anybody's guess if they come from the quota regime.
posted by barbarindian at 3:17 PM Permalink
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Mr. Mandal and Sons | |
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 From Wikipedia:B. P. Mandal is best known for authoring the Mandal Commission report that radically changed Indian polity. Mandal was born in Murho, in the Madhepura district. Mandal was also the chief minister of Bihar, for just 48 days, in 1978, an era of turbulence. (His predecessor was chief minister for only three days.) B. P. Mandal was the son of Rash Beharilal Mandal, an extremely wealthy zamindar, who owned many bighas of land. The villagers say he probably had no idea how much he actually possessed. His father was famous because, according to legend, he raised the demand for Indian independence at the 1911 durbar. He later became one of the leading politicians to emerge from Bihar. The Mandals belong to the Yadav caste. B. P. Mandal, his siblings, and other descendants came into possession of large amounts of land after the death of Rash Beharilal Mandal. For more information, read this blog.
posted by barbarindian at 2:50 PM Permalink
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It's all about wealth redistribution | |
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 JNU Professor and economist Jayati Ghosh is one of the most vocal proponents of the recent reservation bill. She is also a profic writer on socio-polictical issues. Doesn't require a genius to identify her agenda. Read more here, she is taking Keynesian economics to new levels. A gem from Ms. Ghosh:"The most dramatic and remarkable improvement in consumption has been of those who were already the richest people in India - that is the top 20 per cent of the urban population. Their per capita consumption has increased by around 40 per cent since 1989-90, and this increase is likely to have been even more in actuality since the NSS usually underestimates the consumption of the rich." Duh!
posted by barbarindian at 2:25 PM Permalink
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I want to eat my cake and have it too! | |
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 Recently V.P. Singh went on record by saying: "I am getting undue credit for reservation in government jobs. I was only a small link in a chain of events". I could not figure out what he was trying to say for a while. Then it dawned upon me, he was trying to play both sides! Can't believe this asshole, on one hand he is trying to take credit for the reservation rulings on the other he is trying to assuage his guilt, presumably to soothen upper caste anger. Dude, you can't have it both ways and weasel out of responsibility. Either you are in or you are out.
posted by barbarindian at 2:13 PM Permalink
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Wednesday, April 12, 2006 |
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Welcome!!! | |
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The so called reservation policy of the Indian Government has turned our country into a three ring circus of SC/ST, OBC and the supposed privileged classes. Needless to say it has given rise to a flurry of activism on the web. However, the arguments put forward by various factions do not underscore the fundamental philosophy behind these atrocious developments. We intend to explore and expose these issues and un-mask the neo-Indian barbarians.
posted by barbarindian at 9:10 AM Permalink
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