There is no Mandal II III or IV - Arjun Singh (so he says)

This entire weekend I have been flipping through news channels listening about the students' revolt against Mandal II... What started as a minor movement has slowly caught on and is due to become a nation wide revolt. And to some extent I would give full credit to the police for making this is nationwide event. Had they not done what they did to students in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore then probably this wouldn't be so hard fought by the students. There atrocities gave this Rang De Basanti generation another reason to come out on the streets and well why not. And so I say that let us thank the commissioner of police Bombay for his outrageous comments and then throw him out of his office.

Now let's look at the center of issue the reservation itself. Opinions flow from both ends in high passion on this issue. The people who favor this new (or the previous) reservation say that "It will give the traditionally underprivileged communities an opportunism to come at par with the rest of the society. Also that the underprivileged communities make a huge portion of the society and without there advancement we cannot make a progressive society."

My question to the government is what has it done in 55 yrs that these people have not been educated well enough that they cannot compete with the rest? Where has the money gone that was spent on education since independence? Why are these students not able to compete in the world today? Is because that they can't afford the expansive tuitions that is almost necessary for entrance exams? Or is it because that there basic foundation from the schools (government or private) is not strong enough? Is it because that these families do not give importance to education itself? Are backward classes the only once that suffer form these problems? Are there no others that will have the same problem? Why is the govt. signaling out the SC/ST? Is it because that they form the major vote banks? There are many question to be answered before we can actually there can be any appropriate solution.

None of the above is a fault is the fault of the student who will appear in the entrance exams... And then why does He/She have to pay for it? And most importantly reservation is a shortcut -- and some wise guy said that "there are no shortcuts to any place worth going" The uplifting of individual or a society is not done by giving them charity it is done by making them strong enough to be able to stand at par and with pride. Now lets look at the consequences of Mandal II(yes it is mandal II Mr Arjun Sing weather you accept it or not) Every deserving student that will loose out a seat to a non-deserving student will create a divide in the society that is already fighting many other such differences. Let us assume that we do not look at the intangible results but only at the tangible. Are we not pulling down the entire standard of education of some very good institutes? Are we not making the one strong selling point that India has (its educated youth) a lot weaker? Are we not passing out less competent workforce? Are we not increasing the already biased opinion about these communities? Are we not ruling by divide and conquer?

Now don't get me wrong I am not against uplifting of these sections of society it is jut that reservation is not the right way of doing it. If there ever has to reservation for anyone it has to be for economically backward. To bring them to the main stream we need to make them able and this is not done at university level it is done at lower levels, in schools. Open schools and make the education given there count. Follow through that programs that are implemented in villages to see that they reach there desired end. But no the government does not want to work all they want to do is find any number of way that will make others work and get them votes. Actually I can categorically say that Arjun Singh surely does not have the interest of the nation in his heart as he has a heart of politician.

Now let's look at the current situation… form the comments that have been delivered by our so called leaders of the society has been none other that Mr. Singh. This is a shameful act in itself. None of the politicians have cone out and made any comments including our revered PM. Shouldn't this be of some concern that the educated youth has taken to the streets, or is it because of the fact that the educated youth is still a small number vote that the politician do not concern themselves. Actually that is what is true. So for one thing we (this generation) should be aware of is that the more the number of people educated the better our voices will be heard. And second we need more educated people running this country, people who can think further than the next election. Mr Singh called the student movement 'propaganda' I call his move 'propaganda' because it truly benefits none.

One thing that does concern me is the suffering of the patients in the due course of the protest. We can put the blame on the govt. but the truth remains… they are suffering. So for protest let the medical students call upon some less fatal profession to conduct the strike. Let the MBA's, software professionals, industrialists', journalists' do that for them. Let the people not suffer in this fight for right with the government. Hopes are very limited, but the cause is worth a fight. But in the due process let us not forget that there are truly underprivileged people in our society and this fight is not against them it is against a wrong solution to a worthy problem.

Links:
Arjun rejects relook at quota issue from The Hindu
Quota protests: Private doctors join stir from NDTV
Students:Arjun inciting us from The Asian Age
Arjun rejects re-think on quota from Rediff.com (this has other article to read too)