Mandal Again
Today most MNC's say that only 25-30 % of Indian Engineering Graduates from outside the Ivy League colleges are employable. Imagine a day when they say only 50% of the graduates of even the Ivy League colleges are employable! Wouldn't it be the death of the Indian Education system?
This is precisely where our country is going today, with the Human Resources Ministry allocation 49.5% of the seats of all higher educational centers to the so called "backward classes". From next year onwards, half of the students of any government funded university would not deserve to be there. They say that the "downtrodden" have not been given opportunities to excel for a long long time now and they need to be taken care of. Somehow, this reminds me of the story of "Ekalavya". Dronacharya, asked Ekalavya – an adivasi, to cut off his thumb because he was better than Arjuna – a prince. My heart cried out for the brilliant adivasi child when I read the story! But those times were different. The concept of equality was unknown. Moreover there is nothing I can do to change it now.
But our government is proposing to cut off the thumbs of hundreds of thousands of Arjunas – the so called privileged! My dear minister, have you ever heard of the fact that " two wrongs do not make one right"? Just imagine, the prestigious IIT's, the IIM's, the top universities, will all have an abundance of students who do not deserve to be there in the first place. In the coming years, you would have tens of millions of deserving children being disillusioned, twice that number of parents left disillusioned. Lots of revolutions have been started and sustained with much lesser numbers!
Frankly, I am not surprised by these electoral tactics! The so called privileged was always busy working hard, paying taxes, educating their children, raising the standards of living in this country. They have strived hard to help create the pillars of our economic structure today; they have been busy writing programs for the " Infosys's", giving engineering solutions for the "Reliance's", selling mobile connections for the " Bharati's", making automobiles for the "Tata's". In fact they were so busy that they forgot to pursue their own interests: They forgot to create a collective vote bank! We have discussed ideologies; we have discussed political agenda's; strokes, counterstrokes and masterstrokes in our drawing rooms, while watching the television. Have we ever taken to the streets collectively? No, we say only the uneducated protest. We have better things to do, right? Like what? Worry about paying our home loans; calculating our taxes, paying our utility bills, wondering which Australian University should my child go to, now that there is not much scope left here? Has it ever occurred to us that why are the naxals in the eastern belt treated with much more seriousness than the very people who have toiled to get India to the much talked about 8% GDP growth? Many would answer this question by saying: "its politics yaar! Life will still go on!" But the real question is: when will this exploitation stop? Does anyone here think that any politician will have the courage and conviction to change the law once the so called "downtrodden" are brought into the mainstream? What step do you think, will they take next? Get quotas for the private sector jobs, then what? Caste based taxation? When will this ever stop? Or is anybody under the illusion that it will ever stop?
This is not just the question about you and me! It is the question about our country, our children, our grandchildren. This is a question about how mediocrity and in-competency would plague our nation. Tomorrow, you would have incompetent engineers, incompetent doctors, incompetent managers, incompetent administrators; we already have incompetent politicians. We are writing the doom of our country by ourselves.
I am not asking you to spread this message!U can choose to ignore it. But If I were you, I would think how can we make a difference, cos just writing a blog like this also would not make any difference, but it surely is a start... The choice is yours…..
Thank you for your time
This is precisely where our country is going today, with the Human Resources Ministry allocation 49.5% of the seats of all higher educational centers to the so called "backward classes". From next year onwards, half of the students of any government funded university would not deserve to be there. They say that the "downtrodden" have not been given opportunities to excel for a long long time now and they need to be taken care of. Somehow, this reminds me of the story of "Ekalavya". Dronacharya, asked Ekalavya – an adivasi, to cut off his thumb because he was better than Arjuna – a prince. My heart cried out for the brilliant adivasi child when I read the story! But those times were different. The concept of equality was unknown. Moreover there is nothing I can do to change it now.
But our government is proposing to cut off the thumbs of hundreds of thousands of Arjunas – the so called privileged! My dear minister, have you ever heard of the fact that " two wrongs do not make one right"? Just imagine, the prestigious IIT's, the IIM's, the top universities, will all have an abundance of students who do not deserve to be there in the first place. In the coming years, you would have tens of millions of deserving children being disillusioned, twice that number of parents left disillusioned. Lots of revolutions have been started and sustained with much lesser numbers!
Frankly, I am not surprised by these electoral tactics! The so called privileged was always busy working hard, paying taxes, educating their children, raising the standards of living in this country. They have strived hard to help create the pillars of our economic structure today; they have been busy writing programs for the " Infosys's", giving engineering solutions for the "Reliance's", selling mobile connections for the " Bharati's", making automobiles for the "Tata's". In fact they were so busy that they forgot to pursue their own interests: They forgot to create a collective vote bank! We have discussed ideologies; we have discussed political agenda's; strokes, counterstrokes and masterstrokes in our drawing rooms, while watching the television. Have we ever taken to the streets collectively? No, we say only the uneducated protest. We have better things to do, right? Like what? Worry about paying our home loans; calculating our taxes, paying our utility bills, wondering which Australian University should my child go to, now that there is not much scope left here? Has it ever occurred to us that why are the naxals in the eastern belt treated with much more seriousness than the very people who have toiled to get India to the much talked about 8% GDP growth? Many would answer this question by saying: "its politics yaar! Life will still go on!" But the real question is: when will this exploitation stop? Does anyone here think that any politician will have the courage and conviction to change the law once the so called "downtrodden" are brought into the mainstream? What step do you think, will they take next? Get quotas for the private sector jobs, then what? Caste based taxation? When will this ever stop? Or is anybody under the illusion that it will ever stop?
This is not just the question about you and me! It is the question about our country, our children, our grandchildren. This is a question about how mediocrity and in-competency would plague our nation. Tomorrow, you would have incompetent engineers, incompetent doctors, incompetent managers, incompetent administrators; we already have incompetent politicians. We are writing the doom of our country by ourselves.
I am not asking you to spread this message!U can choose to ignore it. But If I were you, I would think how can we make a difference, cos just writing a blog like this also would not make any difference, but it surely is a start... The choice is yours…..
Thank you for your time
posted by looniesindelhi at 1:38 AM
5 Comments:
sure its sane:D
So what is ur solution????? Its certain that the OBC'S do need to have their educational profile raised.... and also that the present system doesnt work.... The popular opinion(which i endorse) is that the reform should start from bottom-up rather than the present top-down approach.... what do u think???
I think that the basic educational system in this country has to improve. The state of the government run schools is just appaling in most of the places. If the primary and secondary education is taken care of, then the problem would be solved automatically.
Encourage Corporate India to take affirmative action. Set up scholarship schemes for brilliant students of the "underpriviledged" category. Now, that has to be according to economic condition, not according to the caste.
The best step towards eradication of caste system in India would be the eradication of any quotas. Just imagine if you don't have to quote your religion or caste anywhere, not while u are born, neither in school, nor for the job application and not when u are dead.
Yes, there should be a lot of work done for the economically backward classes. But, then, money should be the only crieterion. Ask the private schools to move out of cities into the rural areas, give them tax breaks to teach underpriviledged children, get the companies to sponsor schools in rural areas. The idea is include a tax saving element in it and you would see that miraculously, the problem would be solved to a considerable extent in a short while. I'm not saying it would be utopian, but the problem would become more and more manageable.
This is my opinion, but, I guess there are much more intelligent people out there, if there can be a "investment panel" to give suggestions to increase investment in this country, why cant we have a small "education panel" who could give sane ideas to insane people like Arjun Singh, and maybe it would work.
Very very impressive.... had never even dreamt that this is lurking in one of the 'three nuts in Delhi'.
I agree with u.... goading the private sector for affrimitive action is the path to go on. And tax breaks as u suggest might b the carrot they need.
But as we all know.... logic is not at all the backbone for this proposal. I personally feel that its in the best interest of the politicians to ensure that the uneducated masses remain so... who else will vote for them?? The question is how to eradicate vote bank politics and the answer is that u just cant.
God save Us..... hope he doesnt ask for an OBC certificate
Hello, Motu,
I can understand your concern. We have similar problems in my country. Yet it's not a problem that has a one sure solution to it but several. It would involve not only the government but the private sector as well. The whole process would be a slow one and may take several generations to arrive at the desired result. But let it be said that you have done your part by being vocal about your concerns on the issue. Thus, a seed has been planted by you. Now let other voices join this effort and nurture the seed to grow. Good luck! Btw, thanks for dropping by the blog. God bless you and your family. :-)
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