Friends:
While I do read most of the posts in your group, I find that some members
appear to be severely opinionated and biased and even use offensive language in
the discourse. This is why I keep my comments to the minimum.
The reason Why I am posting this is to correct some common misconceptions beihg
repeated ad nauseam by a certain section of Indian society who believe that
they alone are the bearers of 'merit' by virtue of higher marks in exams due to
preivileges of caste, class and urban location, having access to educated and
comfortable employed parents, a regular income, and good education in standard
english medium schools in urban locations. Many of the so-called reservation
candidates still come from rural, mother-tongue- medium, and are first
generation or at most second generation educated, while the so-called
meritorius feel so insecure by the rise of even these groups into the hallowed
portals of colleges, medical and engineering!
The most deep-rooted casteism of the writer is evident in the fact that while
he pours scorn on the Dalit surgeon because of the presumption that the surgeon
passed wih minimum pass marks, he says at the end of the message that if the
status of the candidate is known to be reserved, he would be eliminated at the
preliminary stage itself...! it is clear from this that the writer feels anyone
from SC or ST categories should not aspire for any professional or higher
education - if they do, the system will see to it that they are eliminated at
the preliminary stage.
Finally, the writer appears totally unaware of the fact that while those
outside the category do not hesitate to claim the beneifits of reservations
using false certificates, there are thousands of backlog vacancies in education
and employment in these categores too, for precisely the reason the writer lets
slip - the system, manned by those steeped in exclusionary beliefs, see to it
that even legitimately qualified and eligible candidates enjoying reservations
are kept out of their just dues. This is the reason for the continuing
disparities in the economic and social situation of these categories. If they
system had implemented the reservations fully and fairly the need for them
would have been absent by now. Ambedkar did say that reservations should be for
a short while, but he did not imagine that the system would see to it that very
few got access to the beneifits!
I earnestly request the moderators to moderate parts of texts As the audio
in TV is masked with a bleep - with an xxxxxx to prevent the most offensive
parts of a message from being transmitted. Else they too will be guilty of
perpetuating prejudice and thereby contributing to it. Freedom of speech is
important, but we also have the responsibility of not allowing discourses to
deteriorate below a level of minimum decency as this is a public forum.
Cynthia Stephen
Independent Researcher and writer
Bangalore, India
