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I finally resurfaced for a breath of blog air after a hectic week, thanks to a belabored Stats test. Thankfully, tomorrow we have half the day off at work for Good Friday. I have always wondered why predominantly-Christian countries do not give a holiday on Good Friday but secular countries like India do. Of course, as a school kid, I didn’t mind it one bit. During this week, I could neither read blogs at all nor could post tip-offs for DesiPundit. Sorry about that. On a side note, you give us a tip-off and we give you a hat-tip as an acknowledgement; not the other way around as is often mentioned.

Finally, I managed to cover most of my list today. I completely missed the boat on the blog conversations on the issue of reservations and now I guess it is a bit too late for me to chime in; that, or someone has already said what I wanted to say. The blogosphere has gone ballistic on the issue making me wonder why all of sudden this acrimony for reservations when it has existed for most part of any blogger’s life. Is it because it has hit home and is now enforced in the IITs and IIMs (many bloggers are from those two brands of institutions)? Unfortunately, the blogosphere has again split into two distinct divisions and commenters are often branded with “Either with us or against us” and needless argument ensue about how you should argue the issue rather than arguing the issue itself.

As I said, whatever I wanted to say about reservations has already been said on blogs elsewhere; sometimes across blogs. But sometimes I wonder if affirmative action in the United States had received similar opposition, accusations of being racist would have been thrown around easily. Mostly a vociferous minority overshadows the silent majority. But we do not see this happening in India right now. The proposal for reservation was passed almost unanimously in the Parliament. If we don’t like such laws or regulations, why don’t we have targeted lobbying or campaigning when the issue comes up in the Parliament? Why the sudden outpouring of grief when it is signed into law? Probably we are crying foul to the wrong people. Or wait, will the High Court or the Supreme Court again step in to correct a perceived wrong, as it did in the dance bar ban case?

“Back to Blogs” [Short URL: http://www.ipatrix.com/?p=1257] was published Thursday, April 13th, 2006 at 7:03 pm by Patrix, filed under Law, and tagged as blogs, India, Law, Personal, reservations. Both comments and linkbacks are closed.

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http://palscape.wordpress.com BongoPondit
Patrix,
Welcome back ! I have had to go to other blogs for my daily comments fix :-) But hats off to you for managing to balance graduate school, personal blogging and desipundit all together.
Regarding the reservation issue, one common overwhelming feeling from both the so-called pro and anti groups seems to be anger at the goverment’s political games. Make no mistake – this is more of a vested interest in capturing vote-banks than an honest effort to revert historical wrongs. Unfortunately (and you hit the nail on this) – we are mostly barking up the wrong tree – we are too distanced from our lawmakers to make any difference in the Parliament.
As for the elite (IIT/IIM) debate – my personal perspective is that reservations have always been there in the IITs and it seems to work to some extent. IITs have a minimum cut-off mark for the reserved seats as well – if the SC/ST candidates fail to make that cut-off, they have to take one year remedial courses at an IIT campus – but the seats are held for them to occupy next year. Anecdotally, I have seen this work both ways – but mostly these students would not be able to cope in the later years and fail to land any of the plum jobs during campus recruiting. But, as I said – there were exceptions. The protests you hear from the non-reserved candidates is mostly frustration – borne out of the great deal of emotional energy that students in India invest in getting admitted through the JEE process – only to find out that seats in one of the coveted disciplines (Comp Sc, Mechanical etc) have been taken by someone with far lower scores. In the long run IMO, it doesn;t matter.
Personally, I would like the goverment to take some drastic steps to improve primary education. But I do not see that happening – so I am all for maintaining the present status quo.
sorry about the long comment !
Cheers
BP
http://www.retributions.wordpress.com confused
Yo Pat,
Welcome back. That explains the quick fix blogging you been doing these days! Anyways, I am going to struggle with stats for next few days…so
http://www.retributions.wordpress.com confused
oops that got posted by mistake…just continuing from above..
so stats for new few days, btw can I email you if I face problems with SPSS? :)
About the reservation issue, I think Falstaff has said what all needs to be said. Rest BongoPondit has.
@BongoPondit
Oho! my blog was just providing a temporary ”solution” while Patrix was away. hmph!
http://fonzter.com ishy
hey nice blog :D
http://ipatrix.com Patrix
Bongo, of course the reservations issue smacks of politicking and if the intent was really to provide opportunities to the underpriviledged then doing wonders for primary education is the way to go. I wouldn’t support public schools though; all the government has to do is to make it easy for private players to open schools all over after some standards have been established.
Anyway, I was expecting you and Confused to comment soon after I made the post :)
Confused, sure thing, man! I don’t profess to be an expert but can help you out in SPSS…pssst…you get plenty of help via Google.
Thanks, Ishy.
http://palscape.wordpress.com BongoPondit
Oh god – am I that predicatable ? I need to get a life :-)
I guess I would also trust private parties to do a better job on education (seeing the sorry state of most public schools in the US). But as you mention, the goverment has to set some standards and make sure that some sort of reservations are being implemented, mostly on economic criteria.
http://ipatrix.com Patrix
Bongo, don’t fret. Probably I need to get a life as well.
http://www.bdsays.com/blog/ BD
Comparing US with India is unfair. Firstly coz India has three times the population and is three times less in size. 9 times fierce competition. 9 times more unfair to a meritorious candidate who doesn’t get a seat because of reservations.
http://ipatrix.com Patrix
BD, based on principle only, does size of population make different policies? Is justice customizable to such parameters? We are talking about percentages so I guess comparisons are valid here. Remember, I am not arguing FOR reservations here but simply clearing up a point you raised.

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