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Caste-based reservation is 'Operation Destroy India'

By M V Kamath




Both Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi are very busy persons and may not have much time to read old documents and hence this respectful attempt to help them out.
First, may one point out to a paragraph in a circular to the presidents of all Pradesh Congress Committees issued by none else than Jawaharlal Nehru, on May 26, 1954?

That paragraph said: "In particular, we must fight whole-heartedly against those narrow divisions which have grown up in our country in the name of caste, which weaken the unity, solidarity and progress of the country...."

When the British Government sought to give separate electorates to the Scheduled Castes, Gandhi went on a hunger strike that is old history now, which ended in the Poona Pact in 1932.

Some seven and a half decades later, on September 6, 1990 Rajiv Gandhi made a similar, though not as sensational, effort to promote national unity in a speech in parliament criticising the Mandal Report, lasting, to his eternal credit, some two and a half hours. Rajiv Gandhi, like the Mahatma before him, was not opposed to enabling the Scheduled Castes, make progress in all fields.

Addressing the Lok Sabha he said: "If you believe in a casteless society, every major step you take must be such that you move towards a casteless society. And you must avoid taking any step which takes you to a caste-ridden society.

"Unfortunately, the step that we are taking today (accepting the Mandal Report), the manner in which it has been put, is a casteist formula. While accepting that is a reality, we must dilute that formula and break that formula by adding something on to it".

Attacking the then Prime Minister V P Singh whom he charged with not having the guts to stand up and say whether he believes in a casteless society or not, Rajiv Gandhi said: "This government is creating a vested interest in casteism and the country is going to pay a very high price for it".

The Mandal Commission had recommended that "with a view to give better representation to certain backward sections of Other Backward Castes (OBCs) like Gaddis in Himachal Pradesh. Neo-Buddhists in Maharashtra, fishermen in the coastal areas, Gujjars in Jammu & Kashmir, areas of their concentration may be carved out into separate constituencies at the time of delimitation".

An angry Rajiv Gandhi shot out: "Does the government subscribe to the Mandal Commission view that political constituencies should be carved out on a caste basis? Are we going back to the Round Table Conference for having separate electorates? That was designed to break our country, Sir".

Warming up in his address, Rajiv Gandhi said that "even at this late hour (and this was in 1990) there is time to pull the country back from this caste division…Ministers are provoking caste wars".

Continuing, he said: "The Raja Saheb's (V P Singh's) statement doesn't command wide acceptance in the country. They (the Ministers) have weakened our national fabric and to add to that, the Central Government, the Ministers, have deliberately provoked the caste confrontation and caste wars....".

Rajiv Gandhi said that "an issue like reservation cannot be treated in a piecemeal manner. We must look at the whole picture." He quoted Mandal himself who had said that "the aim is to overcome historical and geographical handicaps, not to create new vested interests" and admitting that "the categorisation of backward classes has always been difficult".

The concept of "Other Backward Castes" has always been a joke. Attacking the Mandal Report, Rajiv Gandhi has said: "I know for a fact that Reddys are included, Vokkaligas are included, Kammas are included, Lingayats are included, Gounders are included, Chettiyars are included. Are these Backward Castes? Do they need help?"

Chidambaram was not around then but were he there, he would no doubt have had a good laugh. He would properly have been described as belonging to the OBCs. Asked Rajiv Gandhi : "On what basis has the Mandal Commission defined caste? How has the Mandal Commission reinterpreted the Constitution and changed Backward Classes to Backward Caste?"

Rajiv Gandhi noted even the Mandal Commission Report had noted that of those whose views were sought on the reservation issue, only 28 per cent of the respondents favoured caste as the sole criterion and that nearly 70 per cent were in favour of evolving "multiple criteria based on social status, political influences, educational attainments, economic level, employment status" etc.

Even, according to Mandal, "most of the respondents who were OBCs have said that they do not want caste as the single definer..."

Rajiv Gandhi reminded the Lok Sabha of an earlier Kakasaheb Kalelkar report which had said that the upliftment of the Backward Classes are extremely wide-ranging and comprehensive and covered such diverse fields as extensive land reforms, re-organisation of the economy, Bhoodaan Movement, development of livestock, dairy farming, cattle insurance, bee-keeping, piggeries, fisheries, development of rural and cottage industries, rural housing, public health, rural water supply, adult literacy, university education etc.

And for good measure he added: "Do we want the benefit that the Government is giving to be cornered by the Ministers or the sons of Ministers or the families thereof? Do we want the benefits that are being given by the Government to be cornered by big landlords and people who have a lot of property? Why do we not exclude the people with a certain number of properties from such benefits? Do we want these benefits to go to high senior Government officers who have already got that privilege? The Government is aiming these benefits at a particularly privileged group and not looking at the really poor".

This is Rajiv Gandhi's much-interrupted speech in summary. Rajiv Gandhi quoted V P Singh as having told a newspaper that implementation of the Mandal Commission Report "was purely a political strategy".

And he went on to say: "Raja Saheb's policies are not very different from what the Britishers were doing. It was the British who tried to divide our country on the basis of caste and religion and today it is Raja Sabheb sitting there, who is trying to divide our country on caste and religion... Already you are taking this country towards religious electorates. First you are dividing into reservations in jobs. This government is taking the country in this direction".

Are you reading this, Soniaji? Are you reading this Manmohan Singh? Kindly read the parliamentary proceeding in full, and carefully. Rajiv Gandhi believed in the unity of this country. Are you?

Himachal to introduce ordinance to regularise fees and quota


SHIMLA, JUNE 24 (PTI)
The Himachal Pradesh government today approved a draft ordinance to regulate admission fees and provide reservations in private medical educational institutions in the state.

The ordinance, named the Himachal Pradesh Medical Educational Institutions (regulation of admission, fixation of fee and making reservations) Ordinance 2006 is expected to be promulgated shortly.

It will take care of all aspects of admissions, fee fixation and reservations in medical and dental colleges, pharmacy courses, nursing courses and ayurvedic colleges in the state.

The state cabinet, which approved the draft of the ordinance, also cleared a proposal for adopting a policy for registration of private health institutions outside the state for treatment and reimbursement of state government employees.

Institutions that are at par with AIIMS, New Delhi and PGI, Chandigarh would be eligible for listing while other insititutions approved by Central government will also be enlisted.

The cabinet also decided to fill 548 posts of peons and part-time sweepers on a fixed remuneration of Rs 1,100 a month in primary health centres and civil dispensaries. It further approved the recruitment and promotion rules for block medical officers and gave its nod for filling 75 posts of block medical officers.

OBC quota won't lower standards: Moily


NEW DELHI, JUNE 24 (PTI)
Oversight Committee Chairman M Veerappa Moily, asked to prepare a roadmap for implementing the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in elite educational institutions, today said with the right infrastructure, the increased quota could be put in place without lowering standards.

"By including more people, I don't think the standard would be lowered, provided we give equal support in infrastructure and faculty," he told NDTV news channel.

As the common entrance test was administered at the same standard for general and backward caste categories, the question of merit was misplaced, he said.

"I introduced the system of the Common Entrance Test (CET) for the first time in the country. Consequently, everything transformed," said the former Karnataka chief minister.

Asked whether the standard was not lowered in the CET as the reserved category also had to pass the same test, Moily said the standard was never lowered in the CET.

The difference between general category and backward class students may be 1.5-2 per cent and between SC and backward class students, it may be 2-3 per cent. "So how do you measure merit?" he asked.

To a question whether the country could have 50 IITs, he said, "Why not? Massachusetts is one example where in one campus they can have 5,000 students." Asked how the money would come for such an expansion, Moily said funds should be available. He had discussed the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and the finance secretary, who had assured that the money would be available.

Doctors strike: 'Money flowed like water'

Onkar Singh in New Delhi | June 26, 2006 12:28 IST


On June 30, doctors, professors and students from various educational institutions will stage a dharna at the Jawaharlal University in New Delhi to continue their protest against the Union government's decision to increase seats for Other Backward Classes in medical and technical institutions.

Dr Sanjeev Chibber, national convener, Citizens for Equality, the organisation heading the anti-reservation agitation, disclosed this to rediff.com on Monday morning.



Dr Chibber runs a hospital in Delhi and was one of those who helped raise money for the striking resident doctors during their 19-day strike at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.
He does not want to discuss the ways and means by which the money was raised or the amount of money spent on sustaining the strike by the resident doctors, saying it would dilute the issue.



"Look the money that was spent was all accounted for and there is no hanky panky," says Dr Lokesh Paliwal, a senior resident doctor at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

"I am not a financial expert," adds Dr Paliwal. "Dr Kamlesh Talesra handled the finances. You kindly speak to him and he will give you the necessary details."

Dr Talesra admits that a lot of money was spent on the agitation, but does not quantify the figure.

"I do not say that no money was spent," he says, "but it would be difficult to say how much."

"The expenses were huge but they were picked up by individuals. Someone paid for the tents, some for the bottles of drinking water, some put money in the cash donation boxes. At times we doctors had to shell out money from our pockets to keep the strike going," points out Dr Talesra.

"Every single penny was accounted for," he adds, "and it was approved by the general body meeting."



Dr Talesra denies that private hospitals donated funds to the striking doctors. "Some employees of these hospitals may have given," he says.

"Don't ask me how much money was spent. It flowed like water," says a junior resident doctor who did not wish to be identified for this report.

"Besides Delhi, we had strikes and dharnas in the entire country including Mumbai, Kolkata, Chandigarh and several other places. I would say the money spent could be anything between Rs 75 lakhs (Rs 7.5 million) to Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million)," claims the junior resident doctor.

In Chandigarh, the doctors on strike were taken aback when the manager of a State Bank of India branch in the city refused to open an account under the name 'Voice for equality and voice against reservations.'

The account was to have been used to deposit cash and cheques received as donations.



Dr Anindya Banerjee of Chandigarh's Post Graduate Institute Association of Resident Doctors told rediff.com on the telephone that the doctors were surprised because the manager was friendly but reluctant to open an account because it was meant to collect money for the anti-reservation agitation.



"When we went to the SBI branch on our campus, the manager would not budge," says Dr Senthilnayagam, who handled finances on behalf of the Chandigarh doctors.

"He told us he could not do it as our body was not registered and hence his hands were tied," adds Dr Senthilnayagam. "We then went to the ICICI branch and got the same answer. We then decided to appeal to the people wishing to support the anti-reservation movement by sponsoring different items like tents, water bottles, water coolers etc."

Mandal Messiah: Congressmen to fight it out among themselves
[ Monday, June 26, 2006 11:33:18 pmTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]


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Suspicion in Congress circles about the HRD minister's motive in championing the quota cause has been rampant (Agencies )


NEW DELHI: HRD minister Arjun Singh's suspected attempt to appropriate the political ownership of the move to introduce OBC quota in Central institutions has finally run into in-house resistance.

Social justice minister Meira Kumar has questioned the justification of the HRD minister's move to circulate a draft cabinet note on the reservation policy without waiting for the report of the Oversight Committee set up by the government for the purpose.

Responding to HRD ministry's persistence with what many in the government see as its unilateral approach over the politically sensitive issue, the social justice minister is learnt to have asserted that the roadmap for quota implementation could not be drawn without inputs from the Oversight Committee.

Sources said social justice ministry may not oblige HRD ministry with its comments on the draft cabinet note, on the ground that a document prepared without taking into account the findings of the Oversight Committee has no authenticity.

This marks the first instance when an important government functionary has objected to Arjun Singh's seeking to run away with the quota Bill. Suspicion in Congress circles about the HRD minister's motive in championing the quota cause has been rampant, with sources pointing to the leadership's discomfort with the ultra-zealous approach. Yet, the doubts have not been vented, lest the critics got dubbed as anti-OBC.

MEMBERSHIP DRIVE

YFE has started a membership and registration drive to unite all the Indians in the country and abroad under one banner to fight against politics of divisiveness. The membership card issued will bear the name of the individual and an unique code which cannot be tampered. It will give a special identity to the members of YOUTH FOR EQUALITY throughout the world.

Paswan now wants 'his' quota of central funds

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ MONDAY, JUNE 26, 2006 03:13:21 AM]

NEW DELHI: The quota enthusiasts in the Manmohan Singh government have found a fresh cause: funds quota. Two days after the Union Cabinet announced that 15% of the allocation would go to the welfare of minorities, a leading member of the Manmohan team, Ram Vilas Paswan, on Friday revived the demand for "proportionate allocation" of central funds for Dalits and STs. The SCs and STs account for 22.5% of the population.

In its anxiety to contain the political fallout of identity-based formations like Assam United Democratic Front and copycat outfits in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, the government had on Thursday cleared the proposal for allocating 15% of central funds for the welfare of minorities.

Although many in the government were sceptical about the political potential of this move, the government cleared the proposal under pressure from the Congress leadership.

Citing the Cabinet's decision, Mr Paswan and other Dalit leaders have revived their funds quota campaign. According to them, the government's decision to reserve funds for minority welfare is an acknowledgement of the legitimacy of their demand for a Dalit funds quota.

Mr Paswan had raised the demand for 22.5% funds for SCs and STs when Congress' Meira Kumar attempted to emerge as a prominent Dalit leader by advocating job quota in the private sector. Mr Paswan saw it as an attempt by Ms Kumar to emerge as a challenger to his Dalit support base, at least in Bihar.

At the sub-committee meetings of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Dalit affairs, he first demanded the establishment of model Dalit villages covering inhabitations with at least 40% Dalit population, and then hit upon the idea of asking the government to set aside 22.5% of the annual Budget on Dalit welfare.

The GoM members, who thwarted Mr Paswan's attempts, feel that it would not be difficult to deal with the steel minister's demand. "We had managed to drive home the point that allocations for most ministries are indivisible. And that large chunks of almost all social welfare programmes are already being spent on Dalits.

For instance, 40% of the funds allocated under the Indira Awaas Yojana were earmarked for Dalits. The Cabinet's endorsement of 15% allocation for minorities will embolden Mr Paswan to bring back his demand," said a member of the GoM.

Democracy and Nationalization of Higher Education

Shree S. Vinekar, M.D.



"Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness," and "EQUALITY", of course -- These are the fundamental rights and the virtues of democracy. Over the last few centuries many civilized democracies have attempted to redistribute the national and individual wealth to reduce inequalities in their populations. This is accomplished through taxation, increasing national productivity, industrialization, and other peaceful measures. Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru chose the path of socialism for India. Shri Vinoba Bhave attempted to redistribute land. There are many peaceful measures to uplift the deprived and the disadvantaged, and, as such, these are all noble efforts. Over the last fifty eight years in "Independent" "India that is Bharat," such gradual efforts to combat poverty have succeeded, to some degree, in spite of the rapid population growth. In keeping with all the progress and successful reforms, India's politicians and policy makers say, "NOW IT IS TIME TO REDISTRIBUTE THE EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES on a larger scale than ever before." On the surface, it sounds like a very noble objective, designed necessarily to redress the injustices of the past. It is high time that the evils of caste system or even the caste system itself be entirely overthrown in modern India. There seems to be no justification for such system in the modern world that is going through global shrinking. For seekers of the vote-bank, however, overzealous "affirmative action" is indeed an opportunity to appease the "minorities." Politics is now directly entering the universities and institutions of higher learning.

What is different about these just and noble sounding thrusts? The OBC reservation and quota system is an imposition on the current higher education systems both private and public. What is different about this protectionist proposal is that many deserving, hard working, meritorious students not belonging to OBC, classified as OC, both rich and poor, will be deprived of opportunities to further their careers that they have earned through their hard work and merit. Instead "their" "SEATS" in the universities and other institutions of higher learning will be offered by RESERVATION POLICIES in large numbers like 49 TO 70 PERCENT to students, for many of whom the only qualifications and admission eligibility may be their scheduled caste or minority classification, and not their merit nor their lower socioeconomic level. Needless to say that many students from the so-called "creamy layers" the well-to-do of OBC classes will claim access to these seats based upon their caste rather than merit. Significant number of non-deserving OBC students lacking merit will displace many deserving and meritorious students of the OC class as there are no current plans to sizably expand the current absolute number of educational opportunities or seats. This is the price the new generations of the OC class have to accept to pay to undo the injustices perpetrated by their past generations! Fair enough? Why do these OC brats whine and threaten to commit suicide when they lose opportunities, while their underprivileged brethren have lost a myriad of opportunities for many generations because of their caste, it may be asked.

There is a basic fallacy that underlies this policy. It views the "SEATS" in the universities as if they are equivalent to ownership of land or property, guaranteed by the phrase "Pursuit of Happiness." By generously offering the "seats" to the non-meritorious underprivileged it is assumed that the recipients of these seats will graduate (and no doubt some will be sincere, hard working, students and will graduate with distinction) and acquire the necessary knowledge base and skills given simply an opportunity to progress in the educational field of their choice. This is a simple minded selling point for the proposed policy. Educational opportunities, when made available to meritorious and deserving students of all classes and castes, no doubt, enable them to acquire cognitive abilities but COGNITIVE ABILITIES CANNOT BE REDISTRIBUTED. Moreover, if such attempt to redistribute is made, it will be a caricature of communism in the intangible domain of educational psychology. During fifty eight years of social and educational experiment with 15 to 27 percent of total seats allotted to OBC students, one would assume the Government or the Ministry of Education would have both demographic and achievement related accumulated data to arrive at intelligent, scientific, and evidence based recommendations to uplift the deserving students of the OBC class. Such recommendations with altruistic and philanthropic intentions as well as for "social engineering" purpose will be welcomed by any and all reasonable and thoughtful people. Arbitrary imposition of numbers for reservation and quotas on all educational institutions and private employers without regard to any logic or evidence based results of past social and educational experimentation in this area of social reform, however, would lead to questioning the motivation of the politicians. Even the most developed older democracies of the world have their large sections of society that are not privileged to partake in higher education, not because of caste or class, and not even because of economic background. Some democracies are well endowed to provide free education and/or generous scholarships to their meritorious underprivileged students. Yet, not all are either equipped with prerequisites or are motivated to learn. Uneducated and/or undereducated sections within the society do not necessarily reflect discrimination of the minority by the majority. It must be clarified that this fact alone is not a justification for deliberate discrimination and deprivation of educational opportunity for low income meritorious students on any basis, caste, creed, color, or socioeconomic background.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR HIGHER EDUCATION SHOULD BE EQUAL FOR ALL. However, while these opportunities must be made available to all deserving students on the primary basis of merit, some concessions and allowances need to be made for the underprivileged by lowering the admission standards to facilitate their entry. That is, certain admission standards of most educational institutions understandably need to be lowered for those underprivileged students who show promise, but in whose case if it can be determined that they may have earned somewhat lower marks due to their social and economic circumstances. Sincere efforts must be directed to focus on minimizing, and if possible, eliminating cheating and fraud in the educational testing systems to ensure that merit is authentic, if all admissions to higher education are merit-based. There will need to be monitoring system in place to ensure compliance with regulations ensuring non-discrimination and affirmative action in the educational system.

Those who need scholarships based on their lower economic status would best be served by providing financial assistance or educational loans that could be written off, if their performance and achievement meet certain expectations. And, even then, such concessions must be contingent upon sustained satisfactory performance in their studies, e.g., minimum level of performance must be maintained for a set number of consecutive terms in order to qualify for the waivers. In this manner the deserving students of the minority class can be better served to bring about the social reform.

Such policies for social reform implementing affirmative action in higher education to raise the educational levels of the underprivileged are laudable and all political parties will welcome and endorse such policies. One of the goals of education is also to foster broad-mindedness to maintain harmony and cohesiveness within the society at large. Unfortunately, the self-serving interests of some political parties and their alliances to appease the vote-banks will only further divide and fragment the already fragmented society.

The transparent motivation for such short-sighted and self-serving reform is to create an increasingly manipulative spiral trend wherein the underlying intentions of any future policy will be more heavily weighted on how it will keep the party in power rather than how it will inherently help the society as a whole. Therefore, over time the political party in power desiring to sustain this authority, will exploit the current inequality in the educational status of the minorities for its political gains, implementing such policy designed purely to consolidate and maintain its position of control. As such these power politics motivated exploitations of all kinds of rifts in the society based on castes or other identities are not new tactics in politics. Unless all Bharateeyas wake up and view themselves as ONE FAMILY, such tactics of ripping apart India more than what the colonial rulers and missionaries have done over the centuries by coming into the country and instigating hostilities between different castes and social classes will be perpetrated unchecked. If united to gain political power, the majority in India will become truly independent at last after thousand years. Ultimately and in the long-term, social progress will be stunted or even halted by ill designed social reform of reservation and quotas which in reality is calculated to create more rift between the minority and majority than there ever existed. Any social reform whether affirmative action or social welfare projects must lead to social progress that is allowed to grow into an increasingly beneficial and self-sustaining feature of India's further growth as a world power. Any social reform that further divides and weakens the very fabric of Indian society is inimical to the progress of Bharat.

The best way to eliminate inequality is to create an even playing field. One possible way to do this is by stressing the implementation of policies to ensure free and easy access to elementary and secondary education and high quality academic experience to all children. Such college preparatory education needs to be made available to all children. The bell-curve will again show that, given the basic opportunities, within all classes, (poor and backward as well as the rich and privileged), will be found a few students in the extremely high achieving range who will merit admission to institutions of higher learning. There are many "Institutions of Excellence" competing in the world educational industry that may be best left alone to select only the best but required to be non-discriminating. Some professions allow only a very narrow margin of error in their work. For example, neurosurgeons and ophthalmologists or nuclear physicists, higher level Information Technologists and experts in artificial intelligence, etc., are not to be chosen on the basis of their castes. As these prerequisite policies to uplift all lower socioeconomic class children to qualify them for higher education are put in place, fair and just policies addressing admission requirements to higher educational institutions of excellence should be effected concurrently to retain their pride of place in the country and also internationally. These private institutions of higher education need to be given free reign to select the best candidates and compete at the international level. Private industrialists, entrepreneurs and technocrats will thus have an incentive to fund and finance their own educational institutions that do not depend on the Central government financing and yet excel. These institutions could feed their own enterprises while they select their students purely on merit without any discrimination. If the burden of bureaucracy becomes excessive they may set up their institutions outside the country.

The economically disadvantaged must be given free tuition and scholarships. The admissions to the universities and higher education need to be merit based and should present as equal-opportunity for the rich and for the poor, the majority and the minority. Significant allowances may be made to redress the injustices of the past for the meritorious students of the disadvantaged classes. Examples would be arranging free room and board, pocket money, books and journals, special tutoring and instructions to bridge the gap with the advantaged students, etc. and not merely giving OBC students an admission to a college. However, let it be stressed that the principal intent behind any and all educational policies should be for the good of the students, themselves, and for the progress of Indian society, as a whole. And, above all, at no time should India's youth be used as a political weapon wielded by the parties to further their vote-bank agenda. Good democracies help facilitate the evolution and progress of societies, and do not instigate revolutions. If care is not taken to ensure that educational structure, and policy-making, benefit the student first, and not the political party's ability to sustain its position of power, then India could very well be faced with a slow but powerful transition from "the world's largest democracy" to a state of despotism disguised as a democracy.

The allotment of a significantly large number of seats to less than meritorious minority students by reservation, especially if it is at the expense of other well-deserving students, will not result in directly proportional and significant increases in the number of highly educated intellectuals or professionals in the underprivileged classes. Neither do social promotions and the offering of phony degrees lead to a better educated or highly technically skilled population that is prepared and ready to compete in the global market. Rather, another possible solution that should be considered is for the government of India to first empower the minorities to start special universities and institutes of higher learning for their students. This enables educators and policy makers to better monitor and evaluate the progress and performance of these segments of the student population in comparison to the national standards before inundating the present classrooms filled by meritorious students with low achieving minority students. In all fairness such minority sponsored educational institutions will then be required to enroll a sizeable section of "majority" students in their student bodies on merit basis, if India is viewed as one family that is truly secular.

India is on a winning path, gaining increasing respect as a world presence. The reckless policies in the educational domain, with hidden political agenda secretly embedded throughout, will sabotage India's progress in the world market. From this point of view, the reservation policy and the quota system in higher education is a prescription for failure, both in the economic domain and in the domain of social reform. Besides, the rifts created by such policies will be capitalized upon by the political parties endorsing such reform for corrupt gains in the ensuing elections, and will simultaneously be sacrificing the futures of a large number of bright and deserving, hard working, meritorious students who will unnecessarily harbor bitterness in their hearts.

However, it must be strongly stressed that violence and revolution are not viable or even acceptable answers. Self-immolation, suicides, etc., are not constructive solutions. Eccentric fanatic speeches and weird or violent comments on the web-sites for free _expression of hostilities directed at the majority or the minority are only indications of social immaturity, besides discrediting the web-site of "Youth for Equality." Political dialogue, debates, facilitation of widespread awareness of the issues, and the bringing about of changes in the voting patterns: these are more adaptive democratic strategies. As regards the advocacy for the undeserving non-meritorious students of the underprivileged class, the political parties will probably gain some votes, but, this will lead to not much else as far as the betterment of the society.

Instead of educationists advising the politicians regarding educational policies, it seems that the politicians are advising the educationists. This trend, if it continues, will eventually irreversibly and irreparably weaken our nation's economy. The caring and concerned, compassionate, youth is emerging to begin a "Bharat Abhyudaya Yajnya" in a typical Bahrateeya peaceful manner on a national scale, viewing it not as a "kranti" but rather as an "utkranti," with heartfelt love for the poor and the downtrodden. Good education for all deserving Bharateeyas should be the primary objective to be accomplished through this Yajnya.

II Vande Mataram II

Chech the Rajiv Gandhi's speech in the Parliament on following website... its a big PDF file...

http://www.youth4equality.org/

How Can I Contribute for Youth For Equality

Have you people seen the big fight the big debate and other such program's on TV? It makes interesting viewing. Both sides make some very good points for and against the issue. The channels make their money. Have you noticed these debates never reach a conclusion, never come up with a solution? And any exercise which does not have an END RESULT is a wasted effort!

You must have seen many pro n anti quota debates on TV. So I'll ask you a question? If I give you 101 very good points for quota will you change your opinion? NO, well neither will the pro quota people (who have decided that they have done their part for equality by agreeing to quota and hypnotized themselves into believing that quota is magically going to end all inequality in our country. Because a few BC brothers will become doctors and engineers, magically all BC brothers will get uplifted. IF U SO CARE FOR OBC ETC understand that the thousands of crores of rupees that will be needed to increase seats in medical institutions in lieu of reservations can be put into use by providing assistance to SC/ST/OBC candidates financially, rather then reserving seats for them).

So , a debate is good so far as we get all possible pro quota points and blend them into our demands such that not only do pro–quota people have any reason to point fingers at us but are also forced to join in.

If you continue to debate beyond this point, you may as well keep debating till its time for your kids to get into these institutes. So stop wasting your energies fighting pro-quota people, digging up articles why quota is bad. Making a case for Merit. STOP.

Use you energies instead in finding people for YFE.

Join YFE and tell us how you can help, do you pledge to stand up and be counted in our rally? Pledge to bring at least ten people to the rally.

If you are a professional, tell us how you can help us?

If you are a Marketing Person, offer your services in thinking up innovative ways for YFE to spread its cause (spread it across the country)

If you are an Advertising Person, give YFE some catch lines, which help it to connect to people.

If you are a market researcher, help us find the extent of our reach and how we can improve.

As a Medical Doctor, educate your patients about Government's policy. Not how it's going to hurt meritorious students, but how it's going to affect the common man.

If you are a Student, make your own database of people who will be ready to come to YFE's aid. Start a mail campaign sending YFE's website link and ask them to join.

YFE members are not here to find out alternatives to reservation, there is a body which spends millions of our tax-money in doing this research; it's called the planning commission.

Ask your teachers, what are the actual steps that are needed to uplift poor of our country which were ignored for an eye wash like increased quota. Please ask your history teachers and discuss, which revolutions were successful and which failed and why? What are the do's and don't's for YFE? Ask your teachers to join and contribute.

IT people, make mailers with creativity, educating people about our cause. In Each mail that you send, put the link of YFE (www.youth4eqaulity.org) in your Signatures.

If you NGO owners, Corporate, professionals …please realize you posses vital information, your knowledge, your expertise can help us.

If you are none of these people, don't worry, find them for us.

If you wrote to YFE and didn't get a response don't be angry or disappointed.

We are a bunch of young people suddenly entrusted with the responsibility of the entire nation. We are struggling to find our feet and we need your help. Remember, we need proper planning and action and for this we need your help and guidance. Tell us what we are doing wrong and how to improve. Only when each and every citizen of this country contributes, will YFE be successful.


JAI HIND!!!.