Frustrated with politics

Since the day the announcements of quota for OBC's were first made, I have been following the news with disgust and hope. My first reaction to the announcement was of befuddlement at the limited extent of imagination of our politicians. We had all prayed for Murli Manohar Joshi to loose the elections after his messy attempts at regulating the elite institutes of our country. But Arjun Singh reminds me of the Chinese proverb - Be careful of what you wish for, you might get it. To all the questions raised by the protesters, the only answer the HRD minister could give was 'The Parliament has taken a decision and we have to implement it'. As if the Parliament ever takes a right decision. We should better keep a watch at any legislation that gets passed unanimously, because those are the ones with the potential of most damage. In this reference, I'd say that Congress is the probably the worst political party. Communists are scorned all over for their pre-historic views of economy and society. Indian communists are known for their opposition to any progressive development. BJP has its share of issues with its Hindu bias. But at least these parties have some “ideology” unlike Congress whose only raison d'etre is to be a sycophant to the Gandhi clan, and that is their only ideology. This is the only party that is capable of unprecedented disasters. This is only party that can enforce Emergency to ensure that the party remains in power, this is the only party that can promulgate a law (Shah Bano case) to counter a secular Supreme Court judgement and call that secularism, only to ensure its political gains, and now this is the only party that can play politics with the life of the brightest brains of the nation to garner some electoral votes that I hope people see reason enough not to cast in their favor. The whole process makes me a cynic and I again question the inherent good and rationality in humans. To the assertions, by the directors of various institutes, of their inability to increase the intake without a consequential decrease in quality, the government has no answer. By government, I mean Arjun Singh, because the PM does not seem to have Sonia Gandhi's permission to speak out. But he wants students to have FAITH in him! He sure has a sense of humor. Among the absurdest claims I have heard in support of the reservations let me list a few: 1. By Prof. Jayati Ghosh: IITs have poor ranking internationally. So anyway these institutes are not that great. So why worry so much about how the quality of student intake. Similar comments by a some others like the one I read somewhere: There was only no reservation for OBCs for so long in these elite institutes. What good did they achieve? It is a shame that somebody from such elite institute as JNU, will dare to utter such a stupid piece of logic. And the hilarity of this logic was appropriately pointed to by Prof. Balakrishnan of IITD. 2. Some MP in parliament claimed that HoD in IIT Madras is biased against backward classes and therefore many such students don't pass the exams. For anyone who knows anything about IIT life, it would be a blasphemy to suggest the possibility. There is hardly any bias against students by Professors except for the criterion of sincerity in student for his academics. As for among students, the ones from SC/ST get elected to Hall bodies and Student Gymkhana all the time. Not many people are even aware of other persons caste. 3. The OBCs constitute more than 50% of the Indian population (a dubious claim). Upper castes constitute only 15% of the population. We have left 50% seats for them. What more do they want? So, why do you stop at that? Do a census and determine (if at all it can be honestly determined) what percentage of population belongs to IQ level below 90. Reserve seats for them, if you find them to be in minority. National Sample Survey Organisation has put the % of population in OBC category as 32 (National Family and Health Survey puts it at 29.8, as opposed to 52% put by Mandal Commission). According to NSSO, 23.5% of seats in universities are already occupied by OBC students. So, again, why do we need reservations, for OBCs? Yadav's dominate the political scene in UP and Bihar. One of my best friends is a Yadav. I didn’t see any discrimination he suffered as a result of belonging to that class. A rediff article by Francis Goutier dealt with how the condition of Brahmins is worse then dalits. But who cares? How many votes do they account for? So many people are protesting and the government goes ahead and makes the decision with all secrecy of some covert operation, all the time asking for students to have FAITH in them, and going ahead with the proposals without even considering any of the objections to the policy. Not even a seemingly innocuous demand, like instituting a non-political party to examine the efficacy of the reservation system, was granted. Who do they think they were fooling with their committee of Arjun Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, and two other morons whose name escapes my mind? It was clear from word go that they had no intention of being rational. It all seems like a magic wand. "We'll impose reservations and increase the seats". How? Do you have a plan to ensure that the quality is not affected? In that case, can you please let others know what you have in mind? Or is it that you can not comment because ‘Parliament has taken a decision’ and the Parliament has no obligation of being right, rational or answerable? And please can anyone tell me when we will decide that the backward classes are no more backward. Perhaps when the forward classes become backward enough? Or when they multiply to constitute a greater portion of the vote bank? Or perhaps when as a result of pandering to the masses and neglecting the virtue of merit, the nation gets sunk deep into a quagmire? When and on what basis will the government make that judgment of giving merit a little of the infinite respect it deserves? I sincerely hope, and appeal, to those agitating against the reservation policy that they don’t give up yet. Let’s try a little longer.