Reservations

Story goes that a greedy man once found a hen that laid golden eggs. This extra ordinary stroke of luck set him finding ways and means for extending his luck. He imagined that killing the hen and extracting all the stored eggs will make him rich quickly; and that is what he proceeded to do. The inevitable result of his folly was that instead of getting the stored wealth, he lost the very hen that could have made him rich with a steady supply of golden eggs. This story has a moral that applies most to the Indian politicians who are currently busy devising ways for enforcing other backward classes (OBC) reservations at the premier Indian academic institutions for their imaginary gains and stuffed ballot boxes for them.

Even though hens capable of laying golden eggs do not exist in the physical world, yet the institutions like Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have almost acquired that status. Western multi-nationals and institutions of repute have been so impressed with the quality work done by their past graduates that they are in a race to harvest their new crops. If the multi-million rupees pay packages offered to the graduates of these institutes is any guide, these institutions are no less than the proverbial golden egg laying hens.

Struggling politicians of the current UPA coalition government in India have lately recognized the potential of these and other similar institution for instant gain for themselves. As a result, they are hurtling themselves into a gold rush of sorts to reap quick gains. While sugar coating their designs with lofty public spirited aims, these politicians are working overtime to devise admission quotas, reservations and controls to provide perceived nourishment to their vote banks and open new channels for lining their pockets. They are, however, oblivious of the fact that in their attempt to extract the “golden eggs”, they may end up killing these golden egg laying hens. Their rusty old tool of OBC Reservations may finally succeed in mutilating them if not outright killing them.

Modern IITs, IIMs and the like were set up as stand alone deemed universities during the initial years of the post independence era of industrial development. Thus, they escaped the otherwise inevitable controls of the affiliating Indian universities under the straight jacket of strict political and bureaucratic controls. These institutions enjoyed the freedom to devise procedures that allowed them to admit the most talented students; hire the best faculty and evolve the most up to date courses. Above all, they could implement the teacher managed examination system that was free from the ravages of the antiquated external examiner system. And to top it all, they enjoyed the added benefit of technical collaboration with many renowned academic institutions in the world. These advantages propelled them to the top of the academic totem pole in India and achieve parity with the best in the world.

No wonder that the older institutions stagnating under their affiliated status are in a rush to attain “deemed” university status for themselves, thus, becoming the new golden egg laying hens. What a spectacle, where the academician dominated wing of the government is busy freeing the older institutions from unwanted controls by providing them the deemed university status, and the other wing of the same government dominated by selfish politicians is busy imposing disabling controls? Thus, when an enlightened wing is engaged in diligently producing the golden egg laying hens, a more selfish wing is eying to kill them for their own benefits. An amusing aspect of the efforts the reservationists are making is the set of tactics they are using to mislead the public.

They are saying that reservations will not hurt the merit system for admission to these institutions. How could that be? Only 2% of the students who appear for the admission tests actually get selected; when you add 27% quota of students who could not be among those top 2%, the quality of the class is bound to go down. Maintenance of quality despite reservations is an empty rhetoric. It could be valid only if the backward class and poor students were tutored at government funded academies and made to win their admissions in open competition instead of sneaking in through the back door of reservations.

They say that the reservations will not take away the seats from the regular students as the government will compensate by increasing the seats in these institutions by the equivalent numbers. It is easier said than done, because increase in seats requires considerable amount of hard to find material and manpower resources. If these resources were available on the asking why were not they used to increase the seats earlier? Institutions are not built in a day. They develop over a period of time. It takes money and time to construct buildings, equip laboratories, and hire competent faculty to maintain the existing standards. Whereas, it is difficult to find the financial and other material resources, it is almost impossible to find competent faculty under the ongoing rate of expansion of the education establishment in India.

The university had 16 affiliated professional colleges but could not fill even one post of a full Professor. None of the applicants responding to repeated advertisements qualified even for the post of an Assistant Professor what to speak of filling the post of a Professor. IIT was short of 16 professors at that time. How, in those circumstances, could he part with even one professor? How will they get additional staff for suddenly expanded intake when they have difficulty in catering to the current load adequately?

Another ploy thrown by the reservationists is that they would meet the requirement of additional professors by increasing the retirement age of teaching staff. The ground reality is different even on this count. A large number of new colleges being establishes in the private sector are in need of qualified people to develop and mange them in the capacity of College Heads/Principals. They are tapping the existing pool of retiring professors for this purpose. Almost every professor in the retiring age group has one or more offers to head a new institution. They are, in fact, on the way out from the teaching pool to join the management pool. Thus, the promise of expansion of seats looks more hypothetical than real.

Nothing appeals to the politicians more than a permit, quota or reservation regime, as it allows them to get favors for their friends, associates and supporters. It also provides an easy avenue for them to line their pockets. A politician took over as the new Minister of Technical education when I was the advisor at the technical university as stated earlier. It was the time of new admissions. I got applications from two students with orders by the new Minister to admit them out of turn. When politely told that the students could not be admitted without going through the process of competitive admission test, the Minister roared that his recommended students be admitted as a part of “his quota”. It was not a cake walk for yours truly to tell the Minister that the university under the then management did not entertain any ministerial quotas. I could have suffered the recent fate of the Director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where the Health Minister tried to dismiss him; but escaped because I had the support of the bureaucracy at that time.

Under these circumstances, there should be no doubt in anybody’s mind that behind the enactment of the reservation policy, the politicians have another hidden agenda. They want to have a foot in the door for expanding their control over the premier institutions to curry favors to their chosen ones. Once the reservation quotas are implemented, a regime of false documents and spurious certificates will be let loose. Results of such a regime are not difficult to perceive. The elite status of these institutions, painstakingly established, will cease to exist and the gains made over time will be lost in no time.

It is ironic that the leader of the UPA coalition and the current Prime Minister owes his position to his reputation for removing unnecessary controls and liberalizing the economy in early 1990s. That liberalization had brought tremendous gains to the economy and, in the process, brought foreign recruiting teams at the doorsteps of these very institutions making them what they are today. Will the same Prime Minister now preside over the re-introduction of reservation and controls on the very institutions that gained due to the removal of controls on a wider canvas?

The politicians need to be told in no uncertain terms that the people will not take their antics lying. Whereas medical community has taken the lead in registering their protest, the engineering community has lagged far behind, at least so far. It is high time that the engineering and management communities join their co-professionals in the medical world to let the politician know that they would not let them succeed in killing the hens laying golden eggs for the country.