(thiking…. This one is going to make my blog famous)
It’s actually very sad to watch National TV and see the reservations debate going on. For some reason, I consider myself pro-reservations. Now now, before you get all emotionally fired up, let me make it clear. I used the word pro-reservations, but I really meant to say pro-fairness.
While watching a certain show on NDTV, all the IIMs and IITs were proclaiming that they’re have most meritorious students in India, while the statistics I saw on TV told me that 60% of the country’s population don’t even have access to a television set that would allow them to even watch this specific show in which they were called stupid and dumb and low-quality. Since when did the CAT and JEE get supernatural abilities to judge the abilities of all Indians and select the top 2000 from them, even when 60% indians of Indians didn’t even know that such an institution exists? Good God! We really seem to have some great managers and technologists in India. I don’t think even the ETS is capable of making such a claim. Those damn Americans! What do they know about testing the abilities of all Indians even when they do ot appear for the entrance? We have great Acient Indian Magic which allows us to do this!
Before you get emotionally fired up again, please understand that I’m not _unfairly_ criticising the IIMans. They’re good no doubt. They get the best amongst those who applied to the entrance. To claim that everyone who’s good applies for the IIM would be an anti-constitutional statement – remember we’re in a democratic country. People have the right to not apply if they so feel. All I demand, is that be fair to those who didn’t apply. Listen to their opinions also – just because someone’s not in an IIM doesn’t make them stupid – I don’t believe Lalu Prasad Yadav ever went to an IIM. But from what I hear, he is making profit in the Indian Railways for the first time in the history of the country. No matter what you say, you can’t say he cannot protect the business interests of his company. Make sound and objective arguments against reservations. Simply saying “We’re the best in the entire country and we know what’s best for the entire country” is not a very good way of exemplifying this democracy.
Let’s look at it from the point of view of the entire country. How many people in the IIT and IIM attempted the entrance more than once? How many of them went to a coaching class? How much did the coaching classes cost? Does everyone in India have the same resources for competing on equal grounds? Is this coaching class not a sort of “reservation” for the rich few? Before you start telling me how coaching classes are available to everyone for reasonable costs, you’re assuming everyone’s living in the heart of the city. The nearest IIT entrance coaching class from my house was 22 KM away. The nearest CAT-coaching class is a bit closer – around 5 KM. Now I live in a reasonably located outskirt. I know loads of people who never could physically travel to a class even if they could afford it (including myself).
So how come only those who live in the right location, can afford the right classes and can attempt the CAT multiple times be called “meritorious” and the “very best in India”? Hell, for all the votes that IIMs and IITs are showing against reservation, if we only allow those votes who came in at the first shot without coaching, then we shall see fairness. Because most of the reserved castes fall in this category. Perhaps being a pure scientist, I understand the definition of “comparability” much better than the managers, but I’ll give a bried overview here. Comparability is always done on the basis of identical conditions being created before an experiment is performed. Without this no scientific community will accept any crap whatsoever, regardless of how elite you are.
Moreover, I may have gotten this wrong, but I think no pro-reservation politician is asking for separate evaluations and examinations within the IIM. I don’t think any one of them is asking for high grades. They’re only asking for the opportunity. If they’re so stupid, then let them enter – in fact, I would _defy_ them to enter. Let’s conduct a scientific experiment – like we do in my profession. If they keep on miserably failing, then it would be so easy to push back reservations. Our point would be conceded by the entire country. I don’t think anyone would want to get into an IIM and ruin his career by maintaining a failure year after year. They would stop using the reservations altogether. But as with any manager, they’re afraid of scientific experiments, because science is a double-edged sword. Before conducting this study, everyone in India must sign consent that if the reservation-entry people do pass, and that too with good grades, then we shall stop calling them stupid. If we want to benefit, we must be ready to pay. This again, is based on democracy and fairness. If we prove them wrong, they must admit to never utter the word “reservations” ever again. And if they prove us wrong, then we should keep out mouth shut on the issue of them being asymtotically dumb.
I had in fact proposed a very nice scientific experiment some three months ago when this debate began, although I never blogged about it. The IIM people are great simply because they earn more money. Because that is the sole criteria (and yet somehow the IITs claim Microsoft is evil because they want to earn money – but we’ll target this hypocricy later). Placements, money, and pay packages make them great. It’s great! Now, I only request them one thing. This could cost them a bit, but it’s ok – we’ve read about their pay packages in the newspapers so I know they can afford it.
All I want is that the top 2000 reserved category applicants from last year who don’t have money (this excludes the creamy layer), should be sponsored by an IIM alumnus for one year to the best CAT coaching class. They should get all the comforts of not having to work part-time and they should get all the quiet study time without their daily worries. As to the definition of the creamy layer, since this is not an official government sponsored study, I leave them free to choose who is not in the creamy layer.
And then, let us consider the results of this study. I’m a scientist, so I’m not really pro-reservations or anti-reservations. I only blogged about this because when someone begins calling his countrymen stupid and dumb, he should be able to provide proof of it. Being a scientist, I don’t care about opinions and arguments. I like cold, hard, and comparable results! Please let us do this. It may turn up that the reserved people are so stupid that even after this priviledge, they don’t perform. In which case, we can shut them up for once! Completely! It may also happen that they do perform well given the right conditions, in which case we must shut up at once! Completely!
Please understand that this article is not in opposition to or in justification of reservations. That’s an entirely different matter. But I really don’t like comments being made against a community who was never given the right to defend itself. All I say is that we should accept that we’re the best amongst a very few, no doubt that we are the best amongst them! But only _among_them_. We had this talk during the code4bill contest too. So many people in the country do not have an internet connection and I knew many friends who could have made it to the top 20 if they had that provision. So far as we think of the few who applied, the top 20 are the best. Completely agreeable. But we dont go about commenting about being the best in the entire country – especially one where 60% if the population does not even have access to a TV set.
My request to all readers is that if you hear an anti-reservations guy justifying his cause, please do make sure he is making moderate statements. Reservation is no answer to the problem of unfairness. Comment all you want about this. Please dont go about calling those who never had the same priviledges as you, stupid and dumb.
The reason I, of all people, am sensitive to this is because I’ve gone through all experiences. I’ve been driven to thinking about suicide by the University of Pune just around six months ago because they didn’t like my face. Now if my examinations were never fairly evaluated, on what basis should they go around calling me dumb and stupid? Please, let us be fair and moderate. They’re our own brothers. We’re going to be living in this country together for years to come. We must end this peacefully and objectively in such a way that no community gets hurt.
The popular cricket-team analogy:
Now, I want to comment on the e-mail that is going around the internet about some dude claiming that the Indian Cricket Team should have a few NTs and STs and OBCs and so forth. This person has not understood the basic principle and concept of reservations at all. I admit, being a management guy they are trained at coming up with popularist attractive analogies, but the limitation of never having studied science makes these analogies rather weak. As a moderate scientist, I must clear up this confusion for everyone.
Reservation is about _opportunity_ and not _guarantee_. Please understand this statement very carefully. The appropriate analogy with the cricket team is that whatever number of open category players are invited for the tryouts, the same number of reserved players be called for the trials also. Nobody is guaranteed a position on the team. They are guaranteed the opportunity to show their ability. I think we should ask the Director of the IIM board since he himself would be able to answer the question of whether the Government of India sent him a letter forcing him to _pass_ students of reserved categories. I seriously doubt it. He is only asked to give them the opportunity to appear in the examination. Nobody is asking them to be made managers, but everyone wants them to have the opportunity to prove their smart, and scientifically thinking, it is also an opportunity for us “smart people” to prove they’re dumb (if we’re so sure of it, why not see it in the exams?)
Let me give an analogy to the original cricket analogy going around the internet (surprise! surprise! scientists can come up with graphic analogies too!)
Suppose a prominent American sends out the mail:
“Indian babies have a higher mortality rate compared to American babies. Indian babies are weaker than american babies and appear as if they were malnutritioned. This means that Indians are of a lower and weaker race compared to Americans. I believe we should stop them from coming to America. I believe the Indian cricket team should be made up of the genetically superior Americans.”
Isn’t this the most offensive thing you ever heard? Well, your own cricket mail is equally offensive. What this mail doesn’t take into account is that Indian babies don’t “appear to be like malnutritioned babies”, but they really are malnutritioned! Indian babies don’t have the average healthcare facilities available to their American counterparts. But suppose we ignore this “opportunity” that American babies have above us, then yes, we are an intrinsically inferior race. But you would immediately say that they should wait till India is a developed country and everyone has the same healthcare and then see if Indian babies equal the survival rate of American ones. Why don’t you wait till everyone in the country can afford a 1 lakh per year coaching class before calling them stupid?
So how come, when there are coaching classes for CAT and GATE that sometimes charge upto 1 lakh per anum, do the very people who benefitted from these coaching classes go on national television and start calling anyone else stupid? I believe when everyone gets access to these coaching classes can we make an educated statement. Will Narayan Murthy speak against coaching classes on national TV calling them an unfair advantage? Will the directors of IITs say that the government should ban coaching classes? Or how about if we give reservations in coaching classes instead of in the IITs and IIMs themselves? I think that would be fair also. Coaching classes are like mental healthcare facilities for the dumb and stupid, IMHO. So how come people who need them are the ones calling others dumb and stupid?
These comments sound offensive don’t they? Well, imagine how much you offend 60% of our country when you make them on television and they don’t even know such statements are being made. You can vent your anger by flaming me and even perhaps physically harming me on the streets. But when you make statements against people who don’t even know the internet exists, do you think that’s bravery?
All I say is that be fair to them. They _do_ have a point. Their solution may be wrong, but hey, it’s all our own country. We must propose better solutions to the problem instead of going around calling them dumb and stupid. If we are the smart ones, how is it that we’re acting just the opposite of what we claim?
The Gandhigiri approach:
If they ask for 50% reservations, then give them 100% reservations. Remove all open-category people from the IITs and IIMs. Let them run the entire show. Boycott it. Peacefully. No abusive comments, and no name-calling like 5-year-old school-girls. They will realise that quality is maintained by “good people” (does not necessarily equate to “open-category people”). Over time they will realise their mistake. This may take two or three years, but India as a country will have improved. Anyways, since we’re all so intelligent and smart, we should quietly go to oxford and harvard where there are no reservations and let the IIMs be 100% categorised. Anyone up for Gandhigiri?
One of the Mahatma’s statement prominently shown in Lage Raho Munnabhai was, “Dar hi sabse bada rog hai” (“Fear is the worst disease”). Are we afraid of being shown that they are equally good and that the monopoly we’ve enjoyed for so many years may be at risk now? If we’re not afraid then let us peacefully show them just how dumb and stupid they really are. “Fear is the path to the dark side of the force, once you walk down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny…..”
