Mandal II - Ambedkar out, Condi in

The recent anti-reservation agitation has consumed the front pages and headlines in print and visual media. In the forefront are the doctors from AIIMS who are spear-heading a strike.The whole thing is sort of deja-vu for me as it is for many. Back in 90s, arriving in Jaipur for my undergrad, the stains from Mandal I had not completely dried up. I could feel, breathe, and live the heaviness that surrounded the atmosphere. It was all consuming and distasteful at its very best.

Especially coming from Bengal, where the feelings of caste in real life are thankfully muted by “red” politics. Not surprisingly, Mandal I had a lukewarm impact.

Jaipur was a “culture shock”. All of a sudden I was being openly asked by college professors about my caste, whether I knew the gayatri mantra, or I was a red nut from Bengal. Transitioning to a culture consumated by faith and superstition, and so deprived of reason and intellect (ironically they were science and engg. Profs) in such a short period of time was challenging. The epitome of their being came out in the surface when some of them dropped in awe and overwhelm when the Ganesha in our campur mandir started "drinking milk".

Once in an oral exam, the examiner exempted me saying that – “I won’t ask you anything, since you are a Bramhin.” Caste-wars were right at the precipiece and stories about bloody past wars were part of the folklore. There were divisive fractions – to an extent that people from certain castes won’t even intermingle, avoided hanging around, or discreetly eat in separate tables.

Fault lines were deep. And this expanded outside the campus. During these four years, my frequent trips to my relatives in Delhi and hanging around specifically in AIIMS as well as mingling with friends in the Indian bureaucracy gave me an insiders view how Indian bureaucracy was just another India in a microcosm. All this contributed heavily to me getting completely disillusioned with a prospective career in the civil services, thus defeating one of the prime reasons for going to Jaipur. That’s all history.

Fast forward 14 years, and history is repeating itself.With a difference, and with an edge. The pro-reservation movement seem to have gone "Hollywood". Well, I mean US! Comparison is drawn with Affirmative Action in US and in a way used as a justification. Regular icons such as Ambedkar, are being replaced by examples of Condi Rice and Collin Powell. How they have succeeded because of AA. What works in US will also work in India.

And then of course we always have the leftist think tank to support any reservation whatsoever. It has become sort of a given that if you are on the left-centre of the political spectrum – you got to support reservation. It is like committing intellectual heresy if you are championing the poor and not supporting reservation. Thanks to those in some of India’s colleges and hot beds like JNU that we almost always get some naysayers like Prof. Jayati Ghosh sitting and stalling the Knowledge Commission.

I understand the drive to promote the subaltern masses. I understand it is hard to dissociate Marx from championing their cause - but what has reservation got to do with this. Why not go back to the old argument of providing opportunities based on economic condiotion? Looks like that the Leftist always take the path of least resistance in this regard because to actually implement what they should is too darn hard.

With Mandal II, the whole issue regarding reservation for higher education is a big diversion, diversion from where the actual focus should be.First and foremost – the keyword for this whole issue is not "reservation" but it is "premier institutions". And it is only fair to state that India spends too much on higher education at the cost of primary education.

The IMF came out with a working paper earlier this year that India has among the highest resource allocation in tertiary education (i.e., higher education) among all poor countries.India spends 86% per capita GDP on higher education and 14% per capita on primary education while China spends 10.7% and 12.1% respectively. Similar comparison with Latin America can be found where the social conditions of the masses are quite comparable.

Well, it is fallout of Nehruvian economics and his vision. While it has caused an accident of miracles by causing enough highly qualified engineers and managers to sustain the IT boom, but it is evident from reality and research that the common poor mass population is untouched.It will take something like a self sustaining manufacturing sector in poorer states like Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and north east to fuel economic development is a homogenized sense, else we will have pockets of development - Karnataka, Gujarat, West Bengal - and migration of people into these states, thus leaving vast areas undeveloped.

To develop a manufacturing or agriculture base, development of skills and knowledge all over the country is required. Along with that decetralized power to local authorities to facilitate micro-credits, hospitals, etc are necessary. And to develop that we need people to send their children to schools. Learning begets learning, so if primary education is neglected - the poor will not know enough to get into to IIT or AIIMS

So what is happening in primary education? What steps are being taken so that more children go to schools? That the teacher actually shows up in the class. That school supplies are obtained and children graduate and become participants in the market economy. We have seen such a dis-balanced resource allocation. And few talk about it. How much does the center support the states in this endeavor?

In the end, it seems we all know what’s going to happen with this "song and fury" of protests. It has always been a losing battle for anti-reservationists. And it seems that we all are aware of the hidden truth. The protests are not proactive activism for initiating change but a last minute conglomeration to vent one’s frustrations exhumed in one’s hopelessness. The real truth is that there is no fundamental authenticity in these protests – no body wants change because no one believes that it is possible. It is an assembly of individuals who have come together because they have somehow found a coherent individual agenda. There is an undercurrent of resignation that shows up in their statements and discourses. Once time flies – these students will go back to their classes and doctors to the chambers.

Sorry doctors, you may have the right prescription but your diagnosis of the reservation issue is too superficial and your response has come too late. The disease is too deep rooted and it needs a surgical makeover of the political system – followed by a long term treatment. As a starting consider working with those pseudo intellectuals on the left, see if you could get them in your side and then you can go to the next step. No politician will commit a suicide by reversing the policy.

Until then, some of you – enjoy your five minutes of fame through TV interviews and news coverage. That's the saving grace, for once the heat wave subsides, all we have to live with is our social mind-set - whic will become a little more fractured, a little more divided, a little more polarized, accentuating a more heterogenous India.

IMF Working Paper on India Development