04-12-2006, 11:44 AM
Mandal-II: It's the age of pro-reservation bloggersAdd to Clippings
Himanshi Dhawan
[ Tuesday, April 11, 2006 10:30:59 amTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
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NEW DELHI: Mandal-I generation fought its battle on the streets. Mandal-II is being waged on personal computers and while anti-reservation fervour is evident, there is a new voice in cyberspace - the war has been joined by pro-reservation blogs which are increasing by the day.
The issue has bloggers delivering emotive arguments - like Vivek K Singh on Sulekha: "We cannot claim to be a developed country if we still have OBC and SC/ST castes that lack equal social status and deprived of social respect."
He argued that "reservation was to give representation to the oppressed and socially weak classes, I support reservation for that reason. It is not a fight one caste vs another caste. Reservation is a temporary solution to embolden India's social commitment. Reservation is help, not a fundamental right."
Chandra Bhan Prasad, who runs the Dalit Shiksha Andolan gives some hard-hitting facts, against the argument that SC/STs have not benefited from reservations so far.
He says, "There are some 3.5 million Dalits in government jobs, about 125 MPs, and hundreds of MLAs. There are about 68,000 Dalits in Group A services."
He adds: "There has been a Dalit head of state, a Dalit deputy prime minister, two Dalit Lok Sabha Speakers, at least half-a-dozen chief ministers, and hundreds of ministers.
There have been Dalit judges in the higher judiciary, and currently a number of Dalits are serving as vice-chancellors of universities." Ironically, there is one half of the world where Dalits are invisible, says Prasad.
"Outside the regime of reservations, say in the private sector, there are hardly any known Dalits in corporate boardrooms, acting in Bollywood, or speculating markets at stock exchanges, to say nothing of a publicly traded Dalit-owned company."
Charlie, who completed his PhD at IIT Kanpur and by his own admission interacted with several "reserved quota" students, says: "I do not forsee any remarkable decline in standards at IITs or IIMs."
Injunjoe on fonzter.com agrees: "Reservations are a must. The only problem is that in many cases, reservations actually don't go to the people for whom they are meant."
Himanshi Dhawan
[ Tuesday, April 11, 2006 10:30:59 amTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
RSS Feeds| SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates
NEW DELHI: Mandal-I generation fought its battle on the streets. Mandal-II is being waged on personal computers and while anti-reservation fervour is evident, there is a new voice in cyberspace - the war has been joined by pro-reservation blogs which are increasing by the day.
The issue has bloggers delivering emotive arguments - like Vivek K Singh on Sulekha: "We cannot claim to be a developed country if we still have OBC and SC/ST castes that lack equal social status and deprived of social respect."
He argued that "reservation was to give representation to the oppressed and socially weak classes, I support reservation for that reason. It is not a fight one caste vs another caste. Reservation is a temporary solution to embolden India's social commitment. Reservation is help, not a fundamental right."
Chandra Bhan Prasad, who runs the Dalit Shiksha Andolan gives some hard-hitting facts, against the argument that SC/STs have not benefited from reservations so far.
He says, "There are some 3.5 million Dalits in government jobs, about 125 MPs, and hundreds of MLAs. There are about 68,000 Dalits in Group A services."
He adds: "There has been a Dalit head of state, a Dalit deputy prime minister, two Dalit Lok Sabha Speakers, at least half-a-dozen chief ministers, and hundreds of ministers.
There have been Dalit judges in the higher judiciary, and currently a number of Dalits are serving as vice-chancellors of universities." Ironically, there is one half of the world where Dalits are invisible, says Prasad.
"Outside the regime of reservations, say in the private sector, there are hardly any known Dalits in corporate boardrooms, acting in Bollywood, or speculating markets at stock exchanges, to say nothing of a publicly traded Dalit-owned company."
Charlie, who completed his PhD at IIT Kanpur and by his own admission interacted with several "reserved quota" students, says: "I do not forsee any remarkable decline in standards at IITs or IIMs."
Injunjoe on fonzter.com agrees: "Reservations are a must. The only problem is that in many cases, reservations actually don't go to the people for whom they are meant."