The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the 27% OBC quota in higher educational institutions like IITs, IIMs and other central universities.For more information about the news read here.
According to the bench of judges the present suggestion on implementation of this 27% quota does not violate the basic structure of the constitution. But then has anyone ever thought whether the ratio of the actual population of the OBC’s to the quota justified? When was the last census stating the actual population of the OBC’s carried out. By the way does anyone know that “The list presented by the commission to the Central Government is dynamic (castes and communities can be added or removed) and will change from time to time depending on Social, Educational and Economic factors.” Source:Wikipedia
Mandal commission in 1980 submitted a report saying that OBC’s(inc Hindu and non-Hindu tribes) constitute around 50% of the population. However, this findings was criticized as based on “fictitious data”. The only official census about the OBC population was carried out in 1931. How can someone be so dumb that they can allocate the quota based on data from some report submitted 70 years back??
The case on this issue had been going on in Supreme court for a long time and a law had been made in this regards. But on 29 March 2007, the Supreme Court of India, as an interim measure, stayed the law providing for 27 percent reservation for Other Backward Classes in educational institutions like IITs and IIMs. This was done in response to a public interest litigation — Ashoka Kumar Thakur vs. Union of India. The Court held that the 1931 census could not be a determinative factor for identifying the OBCs for the purpose of providing reservation. The court also observed, “Reservation cannot be permanent and appear to perpetuate backwardness“.
But then now, today on April the 10th, 2008, Supreme Court again passed the verdict saying that the quota can be implemented as it does not violate the structure of the Constitution. What? By doing this the Indian Government is contradicting the Constitution itself which supports the ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity.
How can you say each and every individual of our society is equal when you only are dividing everyone on the basis of caste. Just because he is from OBC he should get more preference. Have you ever thought what will be the effects of this?
Just imagine, a person who has passed some diploma course from some arbit college and to make it worse a person who just managed to pass meagerly in his graduation, getting a post of a lecturer in one of the IITs or IIMs since he belongs to OBC and there is a reservation of around 27% for OBC’s for the post.! What will happen to the quality of teaching.? Think about the future of the students studying in premier institutes like IITs, IIMs and NITs at least. Or actually you need not bother since half of the students themselves are going to be OBCs. So why take tension, right? Its just gonna get worse!
The most benefited people are going to be the children of MPs and MLAs. They need not bother about there future anymore. There fathers would get fake OBC certificates or actually do something and officially declare their caste to be an OBC and thats it. Done. Their future is secured. Do graduation somehow. And then come join politics and revive the future of the country.
Our preamble states that each citizen should be given EQUALITY of status and of opportunity but I dont think with the quota coming up, the citizens of the country will be provided with equal opportunities. I guess the time is not far away when the people not belonging to OBC, SC, ST, etc will require a quota to thrive for existence.
Anyway, the only thing we can do is wait and watch the show. Fight hard for existence. Best of luck for the future guys!
Read more about the population of OBCs in India here.
