Quota Issue: Losses and gains

Much of the turbulent times of protests are over with the Supreme Court order to medicos to stop the strike. The decision to call off the strike by resident doctors was the right one after the court decided to look into the issue because a lot of patients were suffering due to the strike. But the court order is not for the engineering students and students of other universities and they should take the baton now and keep the protests alive until the government comes out with a reasonable plan of action. Hunger strike and demonstrations that stall all work can not go on for ever. Pretty soon there will be exams and students will have to go back to classes. Alternative ways of protestations, that can be sustained over a longer period, should be explored.
The agitation has achieved quite a few things in the due process but, unfortunately, has missed a very important point. Starting with the gains, the fact that SC is looking into the issue should be a consolation prize and must raise some hopes. Moreover, the protesters have succeeded in increasing awareness about the issue and the government has got enough bad press which may be a lesson for politicians like Arjun Singh who act on their whims and fancies keeping rational in the backseat. Furthermore, the government decision to increase the total number of seats in the institutes of higher learning would not have been taken in absence of any protests. Yes, the quality of education will suffer for some years, in all likelihood, as it is almost an impossible task to appoint highly qualified faculty in a short time. The demand for phased implementation of quotas, so that at no point in time are the general category seats reduced, is still to be granted by the government. But in the long run, the much needed increase in infrastructure will be a positive effect. If the successive governments are able to create 6 new AIIMS quality institutes and the new IIM and IIT level institutes even in the next 10 years, it would be a great accomplishment and would take the country a long way. I would be utterly naive and hopelessly optimistic if I were to assume that the government has the will to do all it is promising. Therefore, the 'Youth for Equality' and others have to keep the pressure on and not let the government breathe easy. This opportunity to do something with our system, created by the foolhardiness of one minister, should not be limited in its scope to one issue. Let the movement be “Youth for Equality and Development”. However, in all this the most important issue that the agitating students have missed is the issue of primary education and equal opportunities for all classes. I strongly believe that the charter of demands should have included a plan of action from the government on how it proposes to give equal opportunities to backward classes. Reservations in institutes of higher education are not means of providing equal opportunity but are what should be the result of equal opportunity to all. There is a much vaunted Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan whose efficacy is highly debatable. A mechanism is urgently needed for ensuring that it actually serves some purpose other than feeding school-age children during their lunch break from cattle grazing, for example. A bi-annual evaluation of progress of students in such programs may be an idea to be explored. The demand of forming a technical committee to look into alternatives to reservation policy comes close to it but it gives the impression to quota supporters that the primary goal of such a demand is to get rid of reservations. Instead, I feel the agitating students should directly take up the cause of backward classes and demand that it be addressed in the right way and not by the sop of reservation. This sort of demand would have served two purposes. One, if accepted, it would have hit at the basis of the problem and ensured real social leveling so that, say after a decade or two, there would be no more need for reservations or other forms of affirmative actions anywhere. Two, it would have preempted the portrayal of middle class as 'elitist' and 'anti-affirmative' action by proponents of quota policy. For these two reasons, I think that the agitators have been a little short-sighted in their demands. It is not too late though. Even if the quotas are not rolled back, or phased in, this goal of basic primary education for all disadvantaged groups is too important to be ignored. Let us take up the cause even if it is for the selfish reason that any government 10 years on can not justify increasing reservations or, more realistically, implementing reservation in the private sector.