Twisted Logic #2 - Reservations

Vote bank politics, Youth for Equality, AIIMS doctors on strikes - but are reservations really bad for the non-backward general public?

My proposition: Reservations will be great for the country, but not really by uplifting 'backward' classes.

Explanation: Reservations/Quotas is a very controversial and divisive topic of discussion today. On one side are the 'backward' people who claim a right to quotas vis-a-vis reparations for apparent years (or do they say centuries?) of oppression. On the other side, is the general 'forward' public that claims that quotas will destroy the value for merit, and that too in furtherance of caste-based, vote-bank politics and not any genuine philanthropic sentiment.

But everyone involved in this debate seems to forget one thing - For the most part colleges (and really the whole educational system) here is really bad. From Day 1, the value imbibed by students is that one has to go through school, college, a master's degree etc. to get a good job. Note that the purpose of education is not to make you a better person. It's to get you a better job. And even working with that assumption, there is only a minute segment of the whole 1 billion+ population that gets to go to genuinely excellent institutions like the IIMs and IITs.

My theory is that once 50% reservations become the status quo, good students will be forced to look at options abroad (U.S., U.K. etc.) where they will actually get a good education!!! (gasp!) And in the U.S. at least, the concept of financial aid ensures that no student would be left behind merely on account of the inability to pay huge fees. And as long as the current trend of reverse brain drain continues, this would translate into a growing segment of our population getting a better education than they could have hoped for in India in the first place. And this country desperately need people who have a broader world view, and some international experience.

Hence proved.

Disclaimer: By no means, do I disrespect, discredit, or deny the existence of genuinely excellent educators and educational institutions in our country. They are there, but unfortunately as the exception rather than the norm.