Arjun or Bhasmasur ??

Arjun Singhs recent move to increase reservation in India’s premier institutions of learning reminds me of the story of Bhasmasura , a devil who had the power to destroy anything he put his hands on. One day he put his hands on his own head and was destroyed himself. Our beloved minister for HRD is also leaving no stone unturned in putting the crown jewels of our education system onto a self destruct mode.

At a time when we should be concentrating on making the IIT/IIM s the best of the best globally our politicians are taking them many steps backwards. The quality of student intake is the key to any institutes success that’s precisely the reason why they put so much emphasis on the admission process to make sure that only the best get selected. Reservations would definitely compromise the merit in admissions as almost half the class would find their way into the institutions only because they were born into certain communities.

Moreover will the increased reservations actually help the needy ? The answer is a big NO. Consider this, most of the tribal and backward class children still do not have access to primary education. Of the few that do most of them do not study beyond high school and very few actually make it past the graduation level. In a society where a large section still cannot read and write how can reservations in higher education be helpful.

We have been following the policy of reservation for the past 59 years and still the backward sections are as underprivileged as ever before and the tribal are still not a part of the social mainstream. What better proof that the policy has failed miserably to achieve its ends.

The minister for HRD feels that students from the weaker sections do not have an equal opportunity compete with others. But that cannot be a reason to compromise merit in the education system.What is needed instead is to create a society which provides equal opportunities to all its sections. Our objective should be to improve the quality of education facilities at the school level and make sure every child has access to education. The government should make sure that poverty or lack of funds does not prevent a deserving student from getting admission to higher education. The criteria should be merit and economic background and not caste.

Someone needs to tell Mr. Singh that in a country where the primary education system still continues to suffer from extreme corruption, lack of facilities/infrastructure and absenteeism or lack of teachers. He has the huge task of making this system functional and productive. Please tackle the root cause of the problem. You now have access to huge funds from the education cess all of us pay on our taxes, please use them to equip all sections of the society to compete on equal grounds. The IIT/IIMs have succeeded despite the government and not because of it. Please spare them of your evil designs and petty political motives.

Like many others I prey that in the interst of mother India you fail miserably.