Reservation

Reservation, a word that has over the years created too much sensation all over the country. The recent fuel being provided by the proposal to give 27% reservation to the Other Backward Classes, better known as the OBC’s. Throughout the time when the anti-quota protests were raging over cities and towns, we could see students getting lathi-charged by the patrons of law and order. Why? Merit should be allowed to bloom. That was the logic accepted by the students countrywide. Another logic sprang up, that reservation should only be given to those who are economically backward. But somehow this logic receded to the background, nobody knows why, very few ever tried to think about it.
But where lies the crux? Who is responsible for all this outrage? The Mandal Commision? The Government of India? The much hated Arjun Singh? Let us try to put things sequentially.
Take the case of the IIT’s. When Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru established the first of them, he said that for years this place had been a detention camp for those who fought for independence, now from this very place a new India will arise, where there will be no poverty, an India dreamed of by those who died for its cause, this place shall represent the new urge of India to earn its rightful place in the family of nations. They are termed as the Institutes of National Importance which means there will always be a preferential allotment of funds. The amount of funds bestowed upon IIT Madras in one year is far greater than that of all engineering colleges of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. Our government spends crores of rupees per student studying in the IIT. Is this justified? The graduates over the years have failed to fulfill the motive behind setting up of these institutes. They have done very little or nothing to remove poverty from the country. There are millions of destitute who have never ever known what literacy is like. Everybody gets admission to these institutes having just one thing in mind. To earn a lot of money. There is nothing wrong in thinking so. To travel to foreign countries and work in big multinational companies. Again there is nothing wrong in thinking so. We have toiled for so long, so we should get our due. Why spoil our chance with something called reservation? But had there been no institutes of such caliber WHERE THE HELL WOULD YOUR DREAMS OF WORKING IN MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES AND EARNING BIG BUCKS GO? Seems strange, isn’t it? Its a chance given to us by our government, just think of those who don’t even get the chance to study in a primary school. Those who had to work in fields or in a tea stall or for that matter in a country made liquor shop. Don’t we have any responsibility towards them? Yes, its the government’s duty to look after them but then who are we?
We say India’s bridges are built by those who come through the Quota system. Who is responsible for that? The Government of India? Yes, of course. The graduates who have been passing over the years?
No, not at all!!!
Are you sure?
Yes!
Just think about it.
Yes, we might be responsible. Yes, we are.

My friends, it is not the time to hold each other responsible. Michael Faraday persevered even as a mechanic’s apprentice and thus we know electromagnetism. Ramanujan only had frayed notebooks for his mathematical formulae. A great nation is created by its people. We should be happy that we got a chance to prove ourselves.