Anti Brahminism

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The above was in response to the below article..

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Tamil Brahmins are the new minority
  Gayatri Jayaraman
  Sunday, May 21, 2006  00:13 IST

  Mumbai: “The only person in the state to oppose reservations and to insist no
new categories be added to it is me, and I have no takers” says Cho Ramaswamy,
journalist and political commentator.

“Forget Jayalalithaa, even a paper like the Hindu will never oppose reservations
in this state because the minority - the forward classes - have no voice.”

The reason behind the success of reservation in the state, he says, is its
brilliant use as a political tool to sway the majority vote bank and the
‘pathetic state’ of the minority community.

“Reservations in Tamil Nadu have been in place seen pre-independence from the
time of the justice party. Hence the electorate is accustomed to it more than
any other state,” he says. All political parties in Tamil Nadu support
reservation without opposition.

Very few statistics are available on the state of the ‘forward community’ in
Tamil Nadu. P V Indiresan, a Padma Bhushan awardee and former director of IIT
Chennai, says, “I am in Delhi because of the reservations in Tamil Nadu. My
immediate family and of those I know have all migrated from Tamil Nadu to other
states or other countries and will never return.”

On December 27, 2005, the Tamil Brahmin Association, headed by N Narayan,
submitted a proposal before the state government seeking 15 per cent reservation
for Brahmins in educational and governmental institutions.

Nothing, not unexpectedly, came of it.In Tamil Nadu, Backward Castes (BC) get 30
per cent reservation in educational institutions, Most Backward Castes (MBC) 20;
Scheduled Castes (SC) 18; and Scheduled Tribes (ST) one per cent. The 1,224
medical seats then get divided into 354 for BCs; 247 for MBCs; 226 for SCs; and
13 for STs.

The rest of the 384 seats are allowed as open competition, where everyone
competes, regardless of community. In 2005, the final tally released by the
Directorate of Medical Education indicates only 28 students from the
`non-reserved’ or Forward Caste (FC) have got into government medical colleges,
representing about 2.3 per cent.

Are Brahmins a minority in the state and should reservations be extended to
them? “Brahmins were always a minority,” points out Prakash, a financial analyst
in a leading multinational firm.

“Their focus was always on education. So when they were denied that, they just
left and began to find it elsewhere.” While few grudge the righting of a
historical wrong, many fear the lack of educational opportunity will shut the
door on them.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->