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July 20, 1998
ELECTIONS '98
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How Readers reacted to Pritish Nandy's last column
Date sent: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 17:34:59 -0700 Nandy says he won't trust his sick family member with a doctor who is a product of reservation. He assumes that a BC or SC/ST doctor is incompetent. He conveniently forgets the fact that if s/he is incompetent he wouldn't have gotten his medical degree in the first place. A good doctor or an engineer is groomed by the teacher/professor. If the person does not study well, s/he would not get a degree. Period. There is a misconception among people that students of Brahmin origin do well because they have superior genes and so forth. This is the same type of misconception that prevails here in the US, that the White race is superior than all others. My take on reservation is this: Persons coming from BC or SC/ST do not have the resources to do well. This is unlike the case of Brahmins who have exploited India for many years. Most of them are well entrenched in their cushy jobs at banks or railways or at the public service. Not only that, they provide their offsprings with a whole lot of opportunities than a kid from BC or SC/ST can dream of. In India, reservations are a must, if we do not have them, the Brahmins who are in the minority would try to trample others to maintain their stranglehold on every jobs. Remember if you are really good, you will rise to the top -- reservations or not. I can only hope that people like Mr Nandy wake up to the reality. Venkat
Date sent: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 22:12:36 +0100 I can't say that I am an ardent admirer of Mr Nandy, but I have to agree with his views on reservations. I would happily go further, and support abolishing most of the reservation policy that we see being abused so regularly in our country. And to hell with the self-styled champions of the underprivileged! I have spent my student years in India, in daily contact with beneficiaries of this abuse, so I know what I am talking about! There must be hundreds of thousands of Indians scattered across the world who are as frustrated as I am with the corruption that pervades the reservation system. If the system could be kept clean, it might have been justifiable. If it can't, it should be scrapped.
Date sent: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 13:14:04 -0700 Pritish has written an apt article on the futility of reservations. But he should have followed that up with how we can dismantle the stranglehold of reservations aka Laloo, Mulayams and Mayawatis of the world, who would start jumping up and down on the issue. A dialogue needs to be opened under the aegis of the learned President (at least he should have some job to do) to review the reservation policy and make amendments to it. This issue has a potential to dismember the whole country. My heart bled when my best friend could not make it to the engineering college with me, despite his being as good as me. And I had with me 10 guys who could barely make out the difference between physics and chemistry. If that was not injustice, then what is? Hemant
Date sent: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 00:21:02 -0500 (CDT) This is a superb article. I totally agree to all of the points raised by him. In fact, I would like to add a point which he seems to have just missed out. This myopic reservation policy is one of the main reason for the so-called "Brain Drain". Independent India has lost a vast majority of excellent brain power, at the cost of enriching other nations, due to brain drain. It is high time that more and more voices are raised in Parliament in tune with Pritish Nandy. It is only there this utter nonsense policy can be rolled back. Hopefully, Nandy will raise the points in Parliament.
Date sent: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 13:49:10 -0400 I think Pritish may have a point here. Indian women do not need reservation because they are not weak. Indira Gandhi was one of the strongest leaders of the world. She had the guts and so do many other Indian women. Yet we do not see many women in politics. The reason is simple -- politics is disgusting to women. That being the reason we should all try to make Indian politics clean, efficient and just. We must get rid of Mulayams, Laloos and their likes. We must have more of Pritish Nandys and Manmohan Singhs. And then we will have more GOOD women in politics (not Phoolan Devis). Krisnananda
Date sent: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 13:10:10 -0400 Once I was a fan of Pritish Nandy. I considered him a person who represented the truly uneducated & exploited Indian . I used to read all his articles irrespective of the subject. But now, after his 720 degree sommersault, I cannot even stand the sight of any Pritish Nandy column on Rediff... It's not whom he supports, but the fact that he believes he can take everyone for a ride, putting forward seemingly legitimate arguments, what hurts most. The fact is, every coin has 2 sides. Sadly, Pritish sees the side which is advantageous to him! And he wants us to see the same side too!!!! What a shame!! Pritish, you are only as good as the rest! (I am being liberal here!)
Palaniselvan
Date sent: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 13:57:06 PDT The article is very correct. We cannot undermine the crucial role of merit and achievement. The current form of reservation kills talent and merit more than trying to uplift the downtrodden. The present conditions provide equal opportunities for all regardless of caste. Reservations should encourage the backward on merit and achievement and not just on caste basis. Regardless of their merit or talent they are given a quota. Social justice is a very good cause but should that be achieved at the cost of merit? Consider the case of seats in medical or engineering colleges. Should that be an issue of merit or reservations? Reservations should be in the form of scholarships to help persons with merit and talent in the backward classes. In Indian politics, what rings the bell is the vote banks and NOT logic or reason. Now we want to correct our historic wrongs against backward classes, so in future when loss of merit and talent hurts, let's start afresh correcting our historic wrongs against merit and talent! The merits and demerits of reservation are well known but who cares -- all that politicians care for is vote banks. Whatever be it -- true merit and talent will always succeed. Padma
Date sent: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 12:14:22 PDT I accept your point on women's reservation. All big parties are supporting the Bill just for the sake of votes. Let me ask them one question: If they really want women to occupy more seats, who prevented them in the past election? They can frame rules within their party and choose better constituencies for women where they would do well, instead of forcing them in some fixed constituencies. I feel the policy makers have no right to restrict people's choice in a mandate in the name of reservation. Arularasu
Date sent: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 12:09:59 PDT I strongly support Pritish's views on reservation. All the so- called messiahs have no love for the BC, SC or ST. These are the people who flare up divisions between the people for their own advantage so that they can be leaders. What capabilities do Laloo Yadav or Mulayam Singh have? Are they good in administration? No. Do these messiahs have any growth oriented policies? No. Their only ability is to flare up communal or caste tensions so as that they can be leaders. I would like to say that it is because of the reservation policy that India is not progressing as it should. Opportunities for deserving people are not given. I know many talented people who have gone into depression because they were not given the opportunity they very well deserve. What is the cause for the sorry state of affairs in our government offices? It is because the people who got the jobs merely because they were born in a certain caste. If you take a census of the people who got the benefit of reservation policy, you will hardly find any from villages. These people will be be there forever, living in the most horrible state whereas the sons and daughters of IAS officers, top government officers, engineers etc enjoy at their cost. If India has to progress it should get rid of this reservation policy. Vijay Yeturi
Date sent: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 10:17:56 -0700 Well said Mr Nandy. More on this, please. Ajay
Date sent: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 08:00:58 -0700 Pritish dada, you are right on target. India today gets its leadership from goondas, thugs, rapists, murderers, dacoits and other such low life. Our elected crooks cannot discuss anything intellectual as they never had anything between their ears, so they pander to the masses telling them how unfair highcaste Indians are, and how they are going to right the wrong done to their grandfathers. The only politics that is taking place is robbing the poor, rich and the foreign investors and opening bank accounts in foreign countries under fake names. And to help us with corruption, we now have an Italian advising us -- as if Laloo did not know enough tricks!
Date sent: 19 Jul 98 19:20:32 PDT Pritish Nandy has hit the bull's eye, but it worries me a lot. He has come out with this truth when it has become politically correct to bash affirmative actions with the winning of proposition 209 in California, and overt and covert adherance to the new policy throughout the United States after the disintegration of Soviet Union as there was seen no need to be in competition for fairness. But one thing this new policy has done as apparent in analysis of admissions to many top colleges is that in the absence of justice and truth in the administration, the hitherto oppressed class has not got an equal opportunity. There has been a dramatic decline in the number of diversity students. Same is true hundred times more in job opportunities. But in India the scenerio is totally different. The Hindus as a whole is the oppressed community because of foreign domination for centuries and because their institutions have been destroyed. Except in a few notorious places, the disparity in opportunities for different classes among Hindus is a myth created and nurtured by the politicians for their own narrow interest. Percentage wise, the Hindus in India are most unprivileged even though some of them may be more privileged. So, I agree with Pritish Nandy -- that in India, if basic justice, truth and efficiency are maintained, an equal opportunity for all is much better than any kind of reservation. Still, I think reservation for women should be made for the present. Rasik Sanghvi |
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