Circa 1980….

A batch of 70+ graduation aspirants has just crossed the barrier of CBSE 12^th Board Exams. The results are out, as expected, the science stream has done extremely well compared to the commerce and arts. The high rankers in the science stream got in to premier engineering institute, and the rest (most of them) in the north campus colleges of the Delhi University. There was one exception. This was my Langotia Yaar (childhood friend) who had pinned his hope of getting into Delhi College of Engineering (now Delhi Technical University) having missed the IIT deadline. He could have joined any of the Regional Engineering Colleges (now NIT) but did not want to go out of Delhi for personal reasons.

His hopes of getting into DCE came crashing when he was told his PCM marks were short by 0.25%. His marks were 89.5% and the cut off for General Category was 89.75%. The irony came to light when another classmate with just 55% got into DCE based on his Caste Certificate.

He was heartbroken so were we, the last benchers who had managed to get into lesser colleges with our second division marks. After much persuasion from family and friends he went to a distant country to do his engineering and passed out with flying colours. Gained valuable international exposure and is well settled in life today.

So what happened to the other classmate who went DCE flaunting his Caste Certificate? The details are sketchy as to when he dropped out but Drop Out definitely, but after a year or even before are still not known. He eventually did his graduation in Bachelor of Arts (General), got into Govt. service, again flaunting his CC. He is still in govt. job, risen a few steps up the ladder, but that’s it. Will retire in a few years, having done nothing notable for himself or the society.

I mentioned the above to highlight the anomalies of the Reservation Policy being followed in India. It is there for over 60 years and nothing much has changed. Even the proponent of the reservation, Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar also did not propose it to be for infinite number of years. Initially, it was expected to last for a decade or two, but courtesy our Vote Bank Politics, the Reservation Policy has become an integral part of our life. The caste politics has created a number of monsters and have been a hindrance to the growth of the country.

I am not against reservation but DEAD AGAINST RESERVATION BASED ON CASTE. The reservation should be SOLELY based on ECONOMIC condition till the SCHOOL level. Thereafter, MERIT should be the only criteria for getting into institutes.

Recently, Roorkee IIT, threw out over 100 students because of extreme low academic performance. But then the latest news says these students have been taken back due to pressure from the political groups that are thriving on reservation. Just imagine these are the ones that will get into govt organisation based on their CC and many would be responsible for making high-rise buildings, bridges etc. Without acquiring any real knowledge, they pose a much greater danger to the society than the terrorists!!! It is same in the field of medicine too, where some just managed to scrape through and become healers in govt. hospitals. No wonder, that so many patients die due to negligence; actually it is not negligence but ignorance of the subject that kill these hapless patients.

No other country in the world has this kind of reservation policy. The govt of the day must take corrective actions on reservation policy immediately if INDIA is to rise as Developed Nation. The country cannot afford to promote mediocrity any more…