Whose apple?

Sometimes, Reading through newspapers, it seems as if there is something as an overt irrefutable logic dripping all around from an article, and especially, when the article is written by the ministers or, administrators at the top of our institutions. But dig deep, and it becomes evident that these are all just interest groups speaking on their own behalf.

A story in yesterday's IE, written by the IIT Madras' former Director, laments Reservation as:

The [Indian] government is chasing two objectives simultaneously — quality in education and social engineering in faculty selection.

The two objectives are in conflict. Consider a simple example. For a teacher’s post there are two applicants. One is an upper caste, with excellent credentials, thanks to inherited advantage. The other is a first generation learner, badly handicapped by backward caste antecedents. Consequently, for no fault of his, he is less scholarly and less able. It is not improbable that the backward caste candidate would have been more proficient if he had had the same family background as the upper caste competitor. Hence, his lack of skills is not his own fault but that of his environment. Therefore, there is a strong case to prefer him to the more advantaged upper caste candidate. At the same time, consider the future of the students. Who will give them a stronger academic foundation — the more able upper caste teacher or the handicapped backward caste one?

I raised this question to a group of college teachers who were attending a course in Delhi. Several of them were vociferous in demanding reservations in teaching posts and about the need to break upper caste dominance in the teaching profession. I then asked them to which school they will send their children — a government school where teachers are selected on caste basis or a private one where teachers are appointed on merit. My question was met with thundering silence.

Even though it's not plainly evident, I can see the effects of this Caste-bias of former director in present times. Also, I just can not understand Why this former Director of IIT Madras considers all SC/ST faculty applicants to be of inferior credentials. As this tehelka story points out, IIT Madras has only 0.86% of its faculty as Dalits while officially it should be 22.5%. Clearly, The Director was quite successful in preaching and implementing his philosophy to the institution.

Caste is a social malady in Indian Society which is all pervasive. It doesn't matter whether you are a Hindu, Muslim, Jain or Christian. All religions have formed different sects in India which rarely inter-marry and sometimes, rarely intermingle too.

Going back in History, When India became free, The founding fathers of India, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru etc. were very much aware of the social unrest created in India based on caste and religion lines. India had already seen a partition based on religious fanaticism and had horrible memories of it. So, it was decided that There would be no difference from the viewpoint of State towards its citizens on the basis of caste, creed, race, sex, religion, etc. To ensure this, It was also decided that When a person comes to apply for a job or wants to get an admission into a University, He would never be asked about his caste. When there would be no official documentation of Caste, It was assumed that in real life too, The caste disparities and differences would vanish from India Society. A caveat in this clause was reservations for SC/STs, who were tribal people and whose condition were so poor that It was assumed that they couldn't be brought up with the rest of society without State's direct help to them in form of Reservations.

Alas! The expected result of game - caste vanishing didn't happen. Instead Casteism grew only. Since the social framework still largely supported casteism, It continued to flourish. Even today, intercaste marriage continue to create consternation in families. However, coming back to History, During 1980s, The first ever official report was prepared for studying relative castes representations in the Government offices. We today know it as "Mandal Report". It laid bare the shattered dreams of our nation's founding fathers. The percentage number of lower castes amongst Government employees was abysmal. It turned out that while the number of lower caste employees on Government rolls were far less, The ground realities were that they constituted almost 50% of the population. Immense political and social furore was created.. A huge political drama ensued.. a few higher caste Hindu students immolated themselves while opposing reservations.  Ultimately, Vote banks won the political game. Reservations for lower castes were recommended in Government jobs and it was proposed that the same would be done for Higher educational institutes too (which is the reason of current controversy in India).

Coming back to today's India, I'm ashamed that I still meet many people who use the word Chamar (a caste doomed to doing leather tanning works in Caste ladder) to foulmouth somebody. "Yeh Chamar log kya karenge" The mentality still exists in the Highest institutes such as AIIMS and IITs. I have had many classmates who used this lingo and I was left wondering only whenever I heard this.

Trying to propose a solution here can never bring out a win-win result. It always will be a win-lose game - If somebody has to win, somebody has to lose too. When you have only one apple and a hundred hungry patients, You can do only one thing - toss a coin and give the apple to just anybody.. just like a lottery. In modern version of Indian democracy, The lower caste patients outnumber the high caste patients who anyway are not united against this reservation issue (I for e.g., am a higher caste Hindu and support dalit cause). The end result is, Reservations get implemented and it is decided that, from now on, the apple would be given to lower caste patients as historically, the higher caste patients have been eating the apples since ages and now it's the turn of suppressed castes to enjoy the ride.

So far, So good. However, now the problem arises. There is only one apple and only one person can eat it. Agreed that the lower caste person eats it, but who is more equal than others? Obviously, the most powerful or rich amongst them. The tragedy being that the lower caste person who is almost on a deathbed will never get the chance to even touch the apple, and the lower caste strongman who eats it is actually so much powerful that He doesn't even need the apple to stay healthy. He is already much much healthier than few needy higher caste patients even. Here lies the farce and here lies the tragedy of *The game of Reservations*.

Reservations, by their very concept, will almost never go to the most needy person and also strangle merit. But still.. Why this lottery game of apple? It's only because the system is flawed. The Demand is for a hundred apples, while supply is only of one single apple. If anyone gets it, the remaining ninety-nine go hungry. Why can't our political system create a growth based environment where everybody can grow apples in his own vineyards and farms and lands so as to fill his own hunger. Why this whole conspiracy that only Government can produce the apples. The answer lies in the mindset that, if everyone will start growing apples, then in all this apple rush, there will be some apples produced which are rotten and when these will be sold in the market, few people will eat them and become ill. So, rather than letting some people get ill by eating rotten apples, no one gets to eat the apple. This is what our Government has chosen for us. I had written earlier too against this system of Government intervention, regulation and strangulation but (Sigh!) I know that this demand-supply gap is going nowhere any soon.

As for Reservation themselves, The methodology needs to be corrected. Just giving reservations to anyone who's Dalit or lower caste won't solve any purpose. It will help the cause of already rich and powerful lower caste strongmen only, and, of never the neediest one. A reservation purely based on economic lines won't suffice our purpose too, because caste is a mental and social barrier. We've already seen the ill consequences of ignoring caste realities in Indian society and it would be foolish to say again that these don't exist.

What should be done? According to me, We can use sociological parameters based on a combination of Caste, economic position, and the geographical area analysis. There already are few parameters devised by sociologists such as Deprivation measurement indexes which can help in this regard. Already, some very renowned voices have voiced their opinion against this blatant blind implementation of reservations, but still nothing seems to move in this present Gandhi family's rubber-stamp government.

Yes, I know that yelling at the world is fun. But changing it, Well.. that is where everybody starts the doublespeak. Ideas that change the world.. The Mahatma of free Market.. The freedom party.. Where are all of yooooooo?