Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers ....

The response of these three groups of professionals to various external events shows how remarkably accurate the basic paradigm of free market (people respond to incentives etc.) is.

Take engineers for instance. Arguably this group is least affected by government actions, at least directly. A small percentage of engineering undergrads pursue higher studies - hence as a group engineering students are least bothered by changes in the quota system. Engineering students seldom go on strike, their response was quite muted during the reservation drama. 

Law students have a short fuse, taking to the streets and violently agitating every chance they get. They indulge in wholesale destruction of properties. Forget students, groups of lawyers are known to settle their disputes in the traditional way, often in the court premises. Recent examples include beating up of accused in court premises, violent agitations in Tamil Nadu etc. What's going on? 

For one thing, law students and lawyers are pretty much part of the system so it is natural they will respond to what they perceive as systemic changes much more aggressively. There are two other things going on here - one subtle and the other not so subtle. There is an element of information asymmetry here. Law students "obviously" know what they can get away with. Perhaps the law enforcement thinks the same, so they probably believe the law students would not do anything they didn't think they can get away with. In other words, perhaps the law enforcement doesn't even bother to try and enforce the law against law students.

When the law students grow up, they become very critical and powerful components of the system. Not all of them, but you simply don't wanna find out, do you?

If law students frequently agitate, doctors simply leave them in the dust. There is always a doctors' strike or a medical student led protest (non-violent) going on somewhere in the country. It is no wonder, doctors are at the receiving end of government policies which will directly impact them. Silly politicians will threaten to send them to mandatory rural postings, withdraw their allowances and so on and so forth. Add to it the frequent assaults they face from relatives and friends of patients, even when the fault lies entirely with the hospitals and facilities. 

Medical students also have to go to school for a longer period and many will pursue a post graduate degree. There is no wonder medical students spearheaded the anti-reservation agitation.

So, what happens if you reduce the incentive of a group who have no recourse? Well, the obvious.