Mandal II: Policy of Discrimination Revised“Students’ Perspective” - Aditya Raj Kaul
UNITED STUDENTS
“We are against the divide and rule policy of reservation. We want equality and a secular education system”
- -STUDENTS
The government has proposed a 27% reservation for OBC’s in educational institutions including the IITs and IIMs, which will take the total quotas for backward castes to 49.5%. With this announcement it is to be seen which direction the student reaction will go. Though we don’t see a revolt like condition, which took place in 1990, but the students still are talking against reservation on streets.
It was way back in 1990 that the Mandal Commission report was implemented which sparked off tension across the Indian state. Students in one voice came to the streets, resulting in extreme steps taken by some individuals. Who can forget Rajeev Goswami? Many others as well tried self-immolation and other such acts. At that time the Congress and BJP had a totally different stance and had supported the anti-quota protests. The result was that V.P. Singh government became unpopular and eventually led to its fall.
Reservations have been there for the last 58 years, but with no concrete achievement till date. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar the architect of the Indian constitution was of the view that reservations should be implemented for 10 years or at the most 20 years, for the upliftment of certain section of the society and immediately after that period it should be removed. But the reservations have continued for double that time, further dividing the society on the basis of caste.
This issue has now reappeared in the form of Mandal II, with HRD Minister Arjun Singh being its sole architect. He announced this policy at a time when five Indian states were going for elections and examinations were on in all the major Indian universities. It has been a long known fact that these policies have only been used for electoral benefits, keeping the fate of lakhs of students at stake. The OBC have a total population of 52% in India, which certainly means something for the vote bank of political parties. That is why this time around we don’t see any political party going against the reservation policy, unlike what happened in 1990.
Arjun Singh would not have imagined that his remarks on increasing the quota to 49.5 % would result in countrywide protests and strikes.
Students this time as well, have responded in a united voice. While medical students took to the streets, students of non-medical background collected over 1.7 lakh signatures and personally submitted them to the Hon’ble President of India. Many non-political students’ organizations like the United Students (who initiated this debate from the student community side on 9th April, 2006), Youth for Equality (comprising of students from 5 premier Medical Colleges), Youth for Justice (Delhi University), Bharatudaya Mission (IIT & JNU), and I.I.T. Alumni etc have clearly come out against the reservation policy. It is shocking to see that some of the politically active students’ organizations like the NSUI, ABVP, SFI etc. have still not clearly defined their stand on this burning issue, shocking because they claim to represent the student community at large. This time even large numbers of SC/ST/OBC have criticized this divide and rule policy because they have understood the real motive behind the reservations.
After centers’ one step forward towards increasing reservations, state governments quietly are also introducing quotas in their respective states in private professionl institutions. This comes at a time when demonstrations against the proposed reservations have become quite common across the country.
Meanwhile, in Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is all set to introduce quotas for OBCs in all private higher education and professional institutions. He is desperate to be one up over the central government, by going ahead with his plans to introduce quotas in 116 engineering and management institutes, 12 medical colleges and two universities set up in the private sector in Uttar Pradesh.
Leaving aside Uttar Pradesh, government in Maharashtra has quietly approved a draft ordinance that will bring in a staggering 50% reservation in private professional institutions.
“How can a report of recommendations based on a situation analysis of 1978 and thereabout be taken to represent the realities of the India of 2006 and thereafter? Thus, the relevance of the Mandal Commission Report can be clearly seen as severely retarded and should be rejected.” this has been one of the strongest arguments of anti-reservation students’ lobby.
Even on the basis of logical extrapolation, it can be safely and strongly, argued that the Mandal Report is vastly out of date and at the minimum requires a serious review by a non-partisan committee that explores the real potency of the report in the context of better mechanisms to achieve its avoided objective of social and socio-economic parity.
Students also blame the present state of primary education as the main cause for reservations. They allege that government has drastically failed in providing basic quality primary education, leave aside equality. It is the right of every citizen to get a free and compulsory education till the age of 14, but this remains only on paper. Similarly, many other educational policies have failed.
The extension of quota bill if passed, also points to another diabolical injustice where while a 50% quota is reserved for persons of certain caste and creed, there is no bar for the same communities to contest the other 50% as well. Also, the issue at hand holds the potential of tearing student communities into polarized halves. The incidents of protests by groups on both sides of the divide, point to similar flashpoints.
The main question that remains unanswered is: “Do we want to eliminate caste as a factor of social relations and political processes or do we want to perpetuate it forever?”
Students are totally against reservations on the basis of caste. They demand a secular education system and equality.
They also argue that the OBC quota is likely to be susceptible to political manipulation to include dubious categories as in the case of Jats in Rajasthan.
Recently, even the Hon’ble President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam during his meeting with five-member delegation of UNITED STUDENTS gave an indication that there is a need of an analysis of Mandal Report. He is also in favor of increasing the overall seats in educational institutions. He strongly feels to develop various mechanisms to improve the basic primary level education in the country and make it equal for all.
The student community across the country is against violent means to serve their purpose, but they feel strongly for this boiling issue. They are planning different types of protests and mobilizing techniques to garner support from cross-section of people. Also, they are planning a coordinated nationwide campaign for the cause of students.
Students have already collected nearly 2 lakh signatures against Mandal II. Even modern day techniques like e-mails and sms campaigns have yielded a great response.
Now, only future will tell if this anguish in the students will yield any result or the government will continue to play with the future of students, just for electoral gains.
I pay my tribute to Rajeev Goswami who set himself alight during a demonstration on September 19, 1990, when the then Prime Minister V.P. Singh announced the implementation of the Mandal Report. It is very sad that a student had to take such an extreme step due to obvious reasons. Rajeev Goswami died in oblivion on February 24, 2004.
I hope someday these political leaders will forget their personal benefits and will start really working towards the upliftment of the people of this great nation i.e. INDIA!
Suggestions and criticism to this article are welcome at
adityarajkaul@gmail.comAditya Raj Kaul has just completed his schooling from Gyan Bharati School, Saket, New Delhi and is a member of the students group UNITED STUDENTS.
