Sunday, April 13, 2008

FC(uked)

I support reservations wholeheartedly.

However it is my sincere belief that we do not have enough quotas for everything as yet. So here is a humble request for bringing in additional quotas.

I am an FC guy. History proves beyond doubt that in the field of sports, people from my community have not performed well. Hmmmm.. Err... rather, people from my community have been discriminated against and have not been given enough opportunities to shine. So, I put forth the following requests to the Sports Ministry of the Government of India:
  • In the athletic event of high jump, the bar should be lowered by anywhere from 6 to 12 inches for people from my caste
  • In long jump, we should be allowed to run across the landing pit, instead of leaping over it
  • We should be given iron balls half the stipulated weight in shotput. Or alternatively, we can be given rubber balls, along with a cannon for additional support
  • In Javelin throw, our throws should be measured in inches, while those of people from other communities should be measured in miles. And the final result should be calculated from the numerals obtained thus
  • We want motor support in running events
  • We should be allowed to take diets consisting WHOLLY of performance enhancing drugs
  • And we want 49.5% reservation in our Olympics squad
So how does that appear? Gross? Ridiculous? Ugly? That's what is happening with higher education in our country.

In principle, I am against ANY form of reservation. But if at all it needs to be there, it damn well not be on the basis of caste/community.

Financial status is a more sensible (to me) parameter.

And even more sensible is a rural-urban location based reservation. Cos the kind of educational opportunities that are available in our cities are far far more robust than those available in our villages. So if we want our truly backward masses to be thrust up, provide them good facilities for Godsake! And the "backward masses" referred to here are our rustic folk, irrespective of their caste and community.

Now don't tell me we don't have enough funds for all that. When we can set aside Rs 60,000 crore for temporary relief for our farmers, this can well be done.

26 comments:

Anush said...

that 60000 crore waiver was only for a very small section of farmers. Anyway, reservations are non-debatable. [:)]

R Srikkant said...

Hi anna,
A need of the hour blog !! It was a shocker to read the heading though :) And now what hurts me most is the fact that these politicians are unhappy with the fact that "creamy layer" is kept out. And they are openly stating that. The SC judgment atleast made little sense, but the implementation of it, without doubt will be flawed :( Fate of the nation.
- Srikkant

desh said...

reservation it will be sir, we cant runaway from it...

wait till you get some grey ;), ur kids will sit for JEE with 25 lakh people for 4000 seats in which 75% will be reserved :-)

atleast reservation wud be mainstream till then, and very natural

Ananthasubramanian said...

I support your argument that the Govt can definitely do anything if it wishes to do. But, I strongly believe that they wont be doing it. 1 year to go for General Elections and never will they think to do that. Congress is definitely going to lose lot of votes from the FC Bank in the North India. Neither would they get from the other castes as well. This judgement has spelled dooms for the ruling govt.

The Financial status could not be taken into criteria for reservations. When ppl can change their castes for reservations, it would then not be surprising to see ppl showcase themselves as poor.

Karthik said...

Sarcastic reaction buddy......I am in full support of reservations. It should be based upon the financial status of the person. If we dont have quotas, the rich gets richer and poor goes poorer...Everyone should be made to pay the income tax........Classification should be made upon the annual salary..Every year this list should be revised. The problem with the current quota reservation is that the even the rich people with B.C status walk of with reservations which were actually not meant for them. Tis quota system is all fc(uked) up...

Vijiram said...

Vote for Vishy!!!!!!!!!!!
No Pun intended..

yrum said...

when people were denied education on the basis of caste for 1000 yrs.... i dont think why that should not be a criteria to give them reservation in Education....look back the so called FC has denied education on the basis of caste for 1000 years...
Economic basis alone cannot determine reservation.....economicaly week brahmin has always had access to education....
still we r in world where two tumbler system is followed....
Two tumbler system is followed not bcos one is economically weak but rather bcos he belongs to a particular caste...
rather than seeing it as loss of opportunity ...The FC people should see it way to cleanse the sin of discriminating people on the basis of caste, done by their ancestors knowingly or unknowingly...
There are defects in every system...and politics too....but finally even if 25% of the true people who deserve reservation get benefits out of the current quota...then we should be happy about it....lets stop brooding over things and see it has a sacrifice we make it to truly deserving people who were discriminated on the basis of caste.....

Subs said...

I agree with you wholeheartdely.Reservations are meant to bring up people to equal status and no discrimination.so,where does caste come into picture?Ok,try telling anyone in the west that a caste determines your economic status(hey,thats what the politians are claiming).Some people have benefitted from these reservations for almost three generations just because of their 'so called' castes.Shouldnt someone keep a check on this? We claim that India has grown in economic terms after 60 years of indepedence but still rely on 1931 sensus.Build up the primary education rather than providing reservations at HIGHER education.

It's just not about politics.
It's just not about education system
It's just not about who will be benefitted but about those who will lose out in the end.

Subs said...

@yrum

When people are denied of education,we need provide them at their primary level where it is necessary and understandable but not at higher level.If a person has been denied education at the root level,how is he to cope up at higher levels?

Anonymous said...

@subs

I would agree with regarding reservation provided at levels. At any case, an under graduate cannot be considered "educationally backward" and these reservations should not be provided at a PG level of education which sounds baseless.

Set aside these "two tumbler" concept and all. On a practical context, this issue is all about elections for the politicians and I am sure that they would be succeeding in that. And regarding this vote loss concept, I believe only a less percentage of educated and "economically forward" people choose to vote. Either they get frustrated and remain at home or ignorance does the rest. In either case, the ruling party is benefited.

In the end, it is only the students who suffer and if at all a solution has to be made, try to change the mentality of people in applying for reservations rather than an attempt to blame the politicians or to change their minds.

BeeJay said...

@yrum . .
Glad you mentioned the Two tumbler System . Now did you realize that the same Two tumbler system is existing in the education system , the upper caste ppl being the non-touchables here !!
Now , lets stop expressing our anguish in this whole issue..

Vish and friends , Is there any way to demolish this whole reservation concept or atleast keeping it under control ? Or is this an yet another incident in which we just talk ( or write ) and do nothing else ?

hantan said...

i've seen a lot of better posts from you. this post sounds cliched dude, esp the points where u elicit reservations in sports, it was a deja vu of what azim premji had already said long ago. link here
http://gleez.com/articles/did-you-know/wipro-chairman-mr-azim-premjis-comment-on-reservation

i'm totally against reservations but we have to live with that.
like subs said, reservation at higher education is baseless.
you mentioned financial status as a parameter right? many even seem to agree on it. but is it a feasible one? consider a family owning 3 lacs per annum, it looks as tho the family is a well to do kinda family, but what if it is a joint family of more than 10 ppl depending on that 3 lac? are the financially forward?
is it really possible to account a billion ppl's incomes? i don think so. that wud be spending much much more money, which cud ve been spent in other ways for uplifting the poor
i am a creamy layer obc, and personally that judgment hurt me. if i don get thro jus bcos i'm in the creamy layer, its like nullifying all the time sweat and effort put in by me for the past one and half yrs.

King Vishy said...

Ok, so most here seem to be looking at financial health as a better parameter.. I beg to differ.. I feel though it is marginally better than caste-basis, its not a totally fine parameter either.. And not just for the impracticality..

Let me try pushin my point in again.. Does no one here feel that the divide (if any) should rather be based on location? Most of us in this loop have lived in big cities and have gone to some kind of coaching class - be it for regular tuitions / engg / mba admissions et al. Would we have got that chance if we were in some village far removed from the advancements in our cities? How much ever money a villager might have, he would not get the right quality of education that he so deserves as a citizen of the country..

So my point is: build better schools / colleges in our villages as a long term solution.. for the short term, offer them some reservations..

King Vishy said...

@karthik:
Machi, while it is true that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer (largely cos of IT nowadays), lets look at one point:
Whether I am rich or poor is the result of my own decisions and actions in life.
In cities, someone without money can still get educated in govt schools which are nowadays quite good.. Am sure we all have had many classmates from govt schools in our colleges.. So its not impossible for poor people to get good education these days.. And they can thus improve their quality of life.. but its much more difficult for rural folk, dont u think?

@Neo:
True to ur self, looking for ways to get things DONE, rather than talk eh? :) unfortunately there is not much we can DO in this.. Utmost, we can join Politics and become a selfless leader, and still manage to become the PM / HRM and then change the rules ignoring the political consequences..

@Hantan:
A friend too sent me that Azim Premji link today morning.. Great minds think alike? :P he he..

yrum said...

@neo
in the two tumbler system.....if the lower caste guy drinks water in tumbler ...u can consider him dead....
No one has denied education to you ......u have 50% chance...there is hell lot of difference between having a chance and having none....
I dont think the FC people have lost much ..... Vishy me and nearly every one in Tn had go through reservation.....
the central institutes reservation is totally 49%....but in TN its 69%.....I am a part of FC .....Probably lost a free seat.... but the ultimately I have not lost any thing big in my life....
But see a village guy from the oppressed caste getting a free seat which I lost ..... He surely has gained so much out of the reservation....
dont be losers by thinking u have lost some thing in life bcos of reservation

Anonymous said...

I totally accept this reservation is unfair.

What will this take away?
Why is it considered whole Fc(ucked)?

Is it gonna take away bread and butter of the aspirants.nope..
It's just taking away the luxury they will get at the end.
How many aspirants have something else other than their future in mind..
Are they gonna do something for country??
For their society???
Atleast for their neighbour??

Just 4000 seats every year, the whole fc community is just 4000..
Or this 4000 people gonna do something for their community...

R Srikkant said...

@ all
Ok, i see a lot of pro-reservation voices. but let s just try and answer one question. Where will this end? Will this need a revolt from the FC community which may need reservations in the future?

The same guy, gets into a college in quota, then he has a quota for higher education(now) and then when he applies for a govt job, there comes quota again. Now i see a three tier deprivation for the FC. And then his child get s the same benefit. What do you guys have to say abt it?

If u want to improve edn u gotta do it from the grass roots level. In layman terms, if u want a guy to do well in long jump at the international level, where u cant have quota, u gotta teach him how to jump X metres, there s no use lowering the bar by Y metres for him alone in the practice. Educate OBC's so that they can crack CAT and compete openly !!

R Srikkant said...

Also from an NDTV debate i got the stats that the govt investment in primary education has gone less by 12.5% in the last decade.

Now, instead of strengthening the base, what does govt try to achieve by giving quotas in PG level...

Teach a man how to fish, feed him for a lifetime. this is how the govt should think. But rite now, what s happening is that these politicians are perfecting the art of training the people to look up to them for a fish whenever they are hungry. Man, aren't they good at it?

King Vishy said...

@yrum:
Quote:
I am a part of FC .....Probably lost a free seat.... but the ultimately I have not lost any thing big in my life....
Unquote

Macha, like u urself have accepted, u HAVE lost a free seat.. that IS a loss, how much ever u think its insignificant.. And "significance" depends on one's own level of aspirations..

Quote:
But see a village guy from the oppressed caste getting a free seat which I lost ..... He surely has gained so much out of the reservation....
Unquote

Firstly, we do not know if it was a village guy who got the seat you lost.. It could well have been someone from Adyar Boat Club or Poes Garden..
Secondly, if you are considerate abt village guys, welcome aboard mate! That's what I've been sayin all along..

R Srikkant said...

@ yrum and Vishy

Hope you d ve known that in TN rural quota (i vaguely remember it to be 5%) was there till 2000 i guess. It was removed lately. For reasons, only those wise politicians will know.

And further, to the best of my knowledge, there is no quota, nor an entrance exam in govt schools. if we re tryin to improve the kids in village, it has to be done by improving primary education at schools.

And how and when do you guys think this reservation can come to an end? Or do u think this can go on and on !! Do u think this has reached the right people?

Sheks said...

It's high time the Budhia Singhs of our country got a chance to make it big.

BeeJay said...

@ vishy

lovely vish! expected that u wud say this..( that becoming a politician ourself is te only way to stop reservation) .
Now shall i show u another way ?

Go out and VOTE during elections.. We cant become politicians but certainly we can choose them ! How many folks in this forum had voted in all (eligible) elections ? If you go out and vote and select ppl who wud do the right thing, we can well reduce these kind of absurd happenings. .
Stop tellin "ALL POLITICIANS ARE DUSTBINS " .. how many have heard LokParitrans?

hantan said...

@neo
lok paritran u say?? when 3 ppl split away from the party, these were circulating in the news papers
"# Mylapore candidate Santhanagopalan Vasudev got extra attention `based on caste'
# The three say they were not informed about accounts on party funds
# They allege there was no written policy constitution and procedure
# They also alleged national head of the party Tanmay Rajpurohit was dictatorial"

its not that some politicians are good.. all are downright bad :) thats the beauty of politics, u step into gutter and u have to dirty yourself for sure

King Vishy said...

@neo..

Lok paritran was a brave initiative, and I supported them during the last elections.. I truly hoped they would somehow tag along and make it big..

But politics is a very wily field.. For freshers to succeed, it takes a lot of pluck..

Wat say? shall we join them in the next elections, if they are still around? :) Already we have one vote (see vjramk's comment above)

Mouli said...

Hi anna,

Though the first part of your blog was funny, If it s implemented means all political parties will start demanding Quota for other castes before you demand for FC.. Deon't give such good ideas to them..
It is just political ppl are not still aware that Quota can be given in Sports...

Hypothetcally only your joke is possible..

But See this..

INDIA 2020... SPORTS QUOTA SCHEME..

TENNIS... UNDER 18
FORWARD CASTE.. NO VACANCY
OBC... Upto 20 Can be Relaxed
SC.. Upto 25 can be relaxed

CRICKET.. UNDER 18
FORWARD CASTE.. NO VACANCY
OTHER CASTE...
(If any one wish to play the particular Cricket Board has to train them)
Other wise Strict action will be taken..:-)

Like this only possible na

Don't waste your time by asking Quota for FC and al..

Its enough if we are allowed to Live in this country..

Time is not too far .. All Political parties may say FC's should not study..

All the best for your motive to bring Sports Quota..

He he.. :-)

Ajai said...

This farmer relief is a political gimmick by Congress to woo voters. The amount when it reaches the farmers would be one zero less. Anyway, this is a good point mate.