My reservations against reservation…
Disclaimer: I have lost friends when I speak on this topic. Or maybe, they were never friends to begin with. However, I am going to speak about what bothers me. If anybody wants to walk out of a fine friendship, it’s up to them. Also, I am a little tired being on the backfoot and giving too much importance to how it will be perceived. I do not believe in the cancel culture and I feel opinions should not be throttled. If you can cancel somebody for having an opinion however contrary to yours, it already means you are being hypocritical about free speech. Free speech cannot be selective. Keeping silent hasn’t done me much good in the past. It only strengthens your adversaries. So, I might as well speak. I am not throwing everybody else under the bus here. But, trust me when I say that these are sentiments echoed by a large section of society today. As always they will talk about it in private and I am doing this publicly because it needs to be spoken about.
Growing up and having to give multiple competitive exams, reservations never bothered me much. We general category students knew that there was a certain score cut off and we didn’t score the desired marks, we just had to try again. The wake up call was during my under graduation when I realized that it wasn’t just an acceptable discrepancy in the scores between me and my reserved colleagues but literally an absolute difference of more than 40 percentage points. Their score for getting a seat was less than that needed by me for even qualifying for the counselling which is 50 percent. I would need around 90 percent to get that last available seat in a government institute.
This fact was reinforced this year during our NEET PG exam results when the cut off was reduced to a zero percentile after which someone had to file a petition and the court had to revoke the orders. Our country has reached a new low because the socially advantaged too have started demanding reservation. With over 65 percent reservation, this has turned into a joke for everyone who has invested their blood, sweat and tears into the process. I do not claim to be an exceptional genius but I can proudly say that I have worked my way to where I am today and struggled more than my fair share.
I understand equity where the historically disadvantaged need to be given an extra boost to climb the social ladder. It was certainly necessary once upon a time when the society was prejudiced towards the less privileged communities. It is something our parents spoke to us growing up, especially mom. She was a privileged kid but was allowed only a humble upbringing. Just like my brother and I, she was given only necessities and never luxuries. The rest they had to make for themselves. My grandfather had this logic that when you feel like complaining, look at the one’s less fortunate.
So as kids we were brought up with a very middle class lifestyle, but mostly a happy one. At least I wish to see it that way. If we had to study, we had to earn that seat. Nobody was going to afford heavy donations for us. When I have to get a rank in the first 1000 out of more than a lakh who give the exam, I have to do it on my own capability or simply settle for a less fancy option. The good part about India is that students can choose not to spend heavily like their western counterparts to study in good institutions if they work hard to score enough. I hope that never changes.
Things did change over time for us. When people today speak of being less privileged, I would like to remind them that we didn’t grow up with any of it either and we did alright and I am positive we will do better. People judge others on a lot of where they are presently and not what they have been through. It isn’t caste that makes or breaks you today unlike what it did 75 years ago, it’s your economic status and what opportunities you can and cannot afford.
My mom maybe a champion of equity, I am a champion of empathy and compassion. I do not believe in selective empathy because hardships aren’t selective either. Like someone pointed out, give equal opportunities not equal outcomes. I do not believe that after giving reservations in the education and job sector we have the same pressing issues today. There are instances when certain sections don’t get educated, but in those cases the problem is with basic primary education which is supposed to be free in our country. It is either due to lack of awareness or unaffordability.
In those rare instances and small pockets where discrimination still occurs on the basis of caste, we need law to enforce equal opportunities. Compulsory primary schooling, attendance and competency of teaching professionals and absolute intolerance to any kind of discrimination on caste or religious grounds. If our forefathers who championed reservations feel that the policy did it’s job, it’s time we make some necessary changes and if not, another many decades won’t be of any use either. Three generations getting an extra advantage is a huge kick start.
Dr B R Ambedkar, the architect of our constitution did not need any reservation to become the exemplary personality that he did. He was helped by the Maharaja’s of the time who sponsored most of his education abroad. So, that also again reinforces the fact that the royalty of those days didn’t discriminate between their subjects. Who did then? I completely agree with his policies which were required then. However, our political bigwigs only decided to continue the same to please the vote banks. It is an open secret today and let us not be defensive about it. I honestly think our politicians should be penalized for mentioning caste or religion in their election rallies. One should not be allowed to use Hindutva, Dalits, or even tom tom about secularism or the perceived lack of it. If they want to drum up a propaganda, do it on real issues that matter like developmental goals, job provisions, better per capita GDP, better infrastructure etcetera. It is only when we stop giving credence to what does not matter that things that actually matter will get their due.
Have you ever thought why people who avail reservations here do not need it for USMLE, PLAB, GRE or other overseas exams? Why do Americans who have a history of marginalizing their African American counterparts take only merit into consideration when it comes to employment and innovation? Why do they welcome the best brains from all over the world to build them up while we are okay with compromising our standards? Why are they on an upward trajectory while we are still struggling to find our feet being happy and content bickering about things that don’t matter?Do we demand reservation in Wimbledon? There is only one way to enter the tournament. You train hard, prove your mettle, rise up the WTA rankings and win on merit.
Also, I do not understand this extreme importance given to academics. I know getting a degree is one of the easier routes to a stable income. However, have you ever thought what would happen to us if Sachin Tendulkar was forced to be a doctor instead of a cricketer or Amitabh Bachhan made to play cricket instead of acting, or Dr Abdul Kalam made to act on screen rather than be a scientist? I guess they did exceptionally well in their respective fields because they recognized their aptitudes. So, it’s totally okay not to get into that medical college or be an engineer, one could still be amazing at a lot of other things.
To sum it up, Dr B R Ambedkar may have been an exception to the rule, where he did exceptionally well despite setbacks. However, what I am stressing on is that people who mean to fight it out, will do it irrespective. I watched the movie ‘12th Fail’ only yesterday. The real life story of a lad who goes through immense hardship and does petty jobs to make ends meet and with the help of a few well wishers and a lot of his own determination and efforts manages to crack the UPSC, probably the toughest exam in the country and the world. Note that he is an upper caste aspirant with zero government aid. His story will put things into perspective for a lot many.
To sum it up, the disadvantaged today are the economically backward ones. If at all there is reservation, it should be on economic grounds alone, the percentage decided by the census data. You do not need a caste certificate in the present day, but compassion and support from the right people to push you up the ladder.
