Reservations - My thots

This one seems to top any "Worst political decisions ever made" list. Our education minister, a very old hand at politics, has tried to come up with a very innovative idea to give a fillip to his party in the coming legislative elections in the five major states of India. True to the demeanor of a true Indian politician he has conveniently set aside all the concerns about the repercussions of his fancy idea. Well what is more important than a few votes to ensure his party is in power in as many states as possible, when its time to go for next elections at the centre. With left already flexing its muscle ( it has decided to review its support to the central government after the impending state elections) its all too prudent to demonstrate the strength of congress by winning assembly elections.
The Supreme Court decision has limited the reservation percentage in the educational institutions to <= 50%. The government with full respect to the decision plans to implement 49.5 % reservation in the government aided institutions. The plans are on the drawing board to introduce around 27.5% reservations in the premier schools in India. To follow are the reservations for the OBCs and SC/ST etc. etc. in the private companies also. For reasons beyond my comprehension the two premier indian companies - Infosys and TCS - have expressed support for the idea.
It is clear that congress still suffers from the quota raj of the past. India now is a changed country. Repercussions are difficult to gauge. It might be anything we have not thought about yet. Medha Patkar's non violent fast has not ruffled any feathers of the government. Looks like non violence is out of consideration. If the reactions to reservation controversy turns violent God save us. Students in France have taken to streets. May be it’s our turn now.
The government has dispatched orders to state to frame laws for reservation in state educational institutions, in the light of 104th amendment which allows state governments to frame laws to ensure upliftment of socially/educationally backward classes. Basically no avenue is being left for the meritorious students who do not belong to the lower castes.
Various predictions are being made, a few of which might be true. A strong social divide between upper caste and lower caste people which might become bloodier than what it is today. Bihar is the hotbed of this kind of rivalry. May be now it will assume national proportions. A Few say the quality of students coming out of IITs and IIMs will take a beating and so would the reputations of these colleges. The list of possibilities is long.
My opinion about this issue is somewhat different. Reservations is the worst harm that a government can inflict on the backward classes. Firstly the benefits of reservations would be lapped up by the kith and kin of already well off bureaucrats, government officials etc. while the more deserving ones would be deprived of it. Secondly it would be a mad rat race to the top for the students of upper castes who would have to work tremendously hard to get admits into the renowned institutions. These intense competitions would definitely make them smarter and better individuals as compared to the people who would put in moderate efforts secure in the knowledge of the ample seats reserved for them by some god father at the Centre. Thus the students of upper castes would continue to outshine everyone else every where while the guys into the institute because of quotas would have to settle for lesser. IITs already have a one year foundation course for students who have come in through quotas. Thus the usual engg course of 4 yrs stretches to 5 yrs. This shows the usual lack of competence in the quota students. Thus there would be a huge divide between the accomplishments of non quota guys and the quota guys. This would lead to further frictions between the two categories.
The reservation of jobs in private sectors might also be a boon in disguise for the people of upper castes. While the lesser accomplished quota guys would swarm these plum easily available jobs, the non quota guys will have to slog to get them and therefore would be able to make it to the top more easily than the non quota guys. Therefore it is easy to see that social fabric would be infested with casteist feelings all around. The majority of non quota guys might also opt for setting up their own ventures over teeming for a job. The entreprenual fillip that the upper caste community will get would transform the face of Indian society. The power mongers would be the business class i.e. the upper caste people while the quota guys would continue to suffer bliss in their easily acquired jobs. Thus while the upper castes would better their competency and position in the society the lower castes would continue to be at the lower end of the spectrum. The service mentality would crush the budding entrepreneurs in the lower caste society as they would continue to pick up jobs with ease. All hopes of upliftment to become equals to the upper castes would be erased.
The upper castes would have to look beyond India for survival and education. They would go on conquering the world while lower caste guys would be enjoying the bliss of Indian jobs, ignorant of opportunities beyond it. This had already happenned in form of brain drain during the closed economy era.And India suffered hugely because of that.
The upper castes are bound to feel disappointed at this hour but more so should be the Indian society which would lose lots of engineers to foreign firms and bright students to foreign university who would continue to believe that merit is the best leveler.
The reservations are therefore the sure recipe for the end of hope of upliftment of the backward classes. Though it might be a sure shot way towards glory for the upper caste people.

According to me solution to whole hearted upliftment of the society can be tackled in two ways:

1. Get the castes out of the way. Give the reservations to the economically backward classes. Now this again is dangerous. It would be very difficult to find out the income of non salaried people. This might also act as an incentive for tax evasion as people would show income lesser than actual to garner this benefit.
2. Give reservation to only one generation. For example if X and Y are siblings they can avail reservation only if no one in their ancestral hierarchy has availed reservation. This may be made flexible by segmenting reservation into many levels like reservation at primary school level, secondary school level, +2 level, graduation leven, post graduation level and job level. Now lets take an example to see how it might work . Suppose A is grand father B is father and X and Y are sons. A took advantage of reservation at primary level. B can therefore take advantage of reservation at any level apart from primary school level. Suppose he opted for reservation at +2 level. Now his sons X and Y can opt for any reservation except at the level of primary school level (availed by A) and +2 level (availed by B). This would ensure that the people make best use of the opportunities available to them and that next time the reservation is availed by other people in the backward classes who have not availed it. Else generally these reservations benefits only a closed loop of people who continue to enjoy these reservations while the more backward are never able to use them.

Hope someone is sane enough to do the right things.