Living Diagonally In My Parallel World!

On the occasion of Maratha reservation Maharashtra government has made a decision to designate Maratha caste as OBC. Maratha is politically the most powerful caste in Maharashtra. An overwhelming percentage of politicians are of the Maratha caste. So why was there a need to declare Marathas as OBC’s? Is there an electorate out there who will vote for the government on this issue? That raises the question why do we need reservations? If the government has a vision of classless society then the castes should be done away with. Why is it mandatory to put in the caste while applying for a school/college admission or applying for a job? Aren’t there any better ways to improve the social conditions of the so called under priviliged citizens? By bringing in quota’s aren’t we limiting the number of bright students thereby putting a restriction to India’s future? Aren’t we denying opportunity to the elligible? Aren’t todays elligible persons being punished for something that happenned few cent...

Another excellent article on Quota system for IIT admissions in Times of India dated 18th April 2008 On quota, IIT cutoffs may go negative If subject-wise cutoff marks for general candidates in the just-held IIT-JEE are, as in last year’s examination, likely to be in single digits, how will the system have scope to relax the qualifying marks, as announced, by 10% for OBCs and 40% for SCs and STs? Chairman of IIT-Jee 2008, Prof N.M. Bhandari, admitted to TOI that the subject-wise cutoffs for reserved candidates may turn out to be less than one mark which was the level to which the bar was lowered last year in one of the subjects for general candidates. Speaking from IIT Roorkee, Bhandari hastened to clarify that since subject-wise cutoffs for even general candidates have become so low, a further reduction for reserved candidates would be of “little significance”. The ridiculous cutoffs are thanks to a rather liberal ranking procedure adopted last year by the IIT system, stung as it was ...

An excellent article from the Times of India of 13th April 2008 by Dhananjay Mahapatra. Will Parliament ever put an expiry date on quota law? Everything under the sun is supposed to have a shelf life. Childhood, youth, middle-age and old-age, all have a time limit attached to them. In one-day cricket too, field restrictions last only for a few overs. Quota laws — be it for SCs/STs or OBCs — are an exception, with no “sell by” limit. In the cases where they have, Parliament secures extensions before the deadline. The perpetuation of quotas “to achieve a casteless and classless society” — engaged the attention of each of the five judges on the Supreme Court’s constitution bench which last week okayed the 27% OBC quota in central educational institutions. The framers of the Constitution did not intend the quotas to last in perpetuity. Article 334 of the Constitution originally mandated that reservations for SCs/STs and Anglo-Indians in Lok Sabha and assemblies would be for 10 years, which...