Manish Anand/ SNS
For long India’s politicians lamented the slowdown in the country’s progress, attributing it to the brain drain of the late 70’s and early 80’s when a huge amount of young talent made an exodus to greener pastures, a la the USA. Unfortunately, neither did they take into account the reasons which contributed to the exodus and nor are they doing it in circa 2006. If at that point in time United States welcomed immigrant talent with open arms, allowing it to contribute to its intellectual property, today you have similar opportunities in Europe, Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, China and even small countries in Africa, acknowledging India’s strength especially in the field of Information Technology.
It was the extraordinary reservation policy of the Tamil Nadu government in government jobs and professional institutions which pushed Tamil Brahmins to the wall. When seeking admissions in state engineering and medical colleges became an onerous task, they began scouting around for options in USA, Europe and the Middle East and, in due course, made their mark in a land which respected their talent and allowed them to be adopted by the nation in return.
If past trends are any indication, another brain drain of much higher intensity is on the cards, with the Union minister for human resources development, Mr Arjun Singh, hell-bent on “mandalising” professional institutions. “The government has failed miserably in developing educational infrastructure at the highest level these past years. With more than 50 per cent reservation being pushed through, the general category students are left with practically no choice but to head to the US for higher studies. A much larger brain drain is imminent with professional institutions coming under the ambit of excessive quota,” said, Mr Vikash Aggarwal, an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus. Add to this are the plethora of private players in the market with foreign universities aggressively wooing Indian students with not just top of the line professional and educational courses but also facilities of loans, easy repayment options et al.
No formal assessment has been made quantifying the kind of work that Indians have done in the USA or the quality of intellectual capital that the Indian community has created in the last three decades, be it in the field of medicine, law, IT, science and technology, military science, research, business or economics. NASA is driven by Indian engineers’ talents. Indians constitute more than 25 per cent of Microsoft’s staff strength at its Seattle headquartres. Some of the finest doctors across USA are of Indian origin. Sam Pitroda, the blue eyed man from Rajiv Gandhi’s inner coterie and also probably the Indian with the highest number of patents is a prime example of what India could have gained by holding him back. Afterall the STD revolution in India, especially in the rural hinterland, is thanks to him. Although attempts are being made to involve him in the Knowledge Commission, we have still lost out on the man’s genius which could have steered things back home in India.
Historically, it is immigrants who have given America its hugely distinct character and contributed in a major way to its wealth creation. If they as a nation have monopolised the world politically, economically, and militarily, it is because of those millions of people who abandoned, unrecognised and unrewarded in their own homeland, chose to toil in a nation which at least recognised their potential and allowed them to blossom and prosper, in the process contributing to their rising GDP and development.
Ironically in India, no one has bothered to question the plank of social and educational backwardness on which the reservation policy is being pushed. Had the plank been justifiable, the reservation in government jobs and educational institutions would have uplifted a vast chunk of population in a broad based manner. However, the fact belies the justifiability of the much milked plank for what are largely political compulsions. According to a senior bureaucrat with the Central government, “the benefits for the scheduled tribes have been mostly pocketed by the Meena tribes of Rajsthan and by those in the North-east region. The former are the most affluent section in Rajsthan with most being landowners. The North-east tribes have never been socially backward and have still enjoyed financial assistance by the state and Central government. Scheduled caste tribes of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Kerala, and other states were left behind in the process of social empowerment through the reservation policy,”
A Union Public Services Commission member while interviewing a candidate from the Meena tribe in an All India Services Examination was curious to know why he was claiming quota facility when he hailed from an affluent family. “You have already claimed the reservation facility in Rajsthan and now you are a sub-divisional magistrate. Why are you claiming the facility once again? The smug response was, “since the facility exists, I might as well claim it,”
A 2002 batch IAS officer had the modesty to acknowledge that it was the mindless reservation policy that allowed him entry into the prestigious IAS along with his three brothers who too would never have been able to make it had it not been for reservation. He humbly said, “I know I do not deserve to be in the service. Having been in the company of the general category students who were preparing for IAS, I could clearly see that I lagged behind in practically every area. Yet, inspite of my father being the director general of police of a state and the fact that I went to the best school in Bhopal, I still availed of the reservation policy and exploited it as a matter of right, first for IIT and then IAS.”
After 50 years of India’s independence when the practice of reservation should either have been done away with or revamped, we have in a regressive manner embarked on a path which will only lead to greater chaos and not to forget a mass exodus of talent in the form of Brain Drain. All is still not lost. The youth is a very potent force in any country, moreso in India, which is on the verge of an economic boom with the front runners being its young people.
A critical review of the policy can instill hope. Parliamentarians must rise above the small gains of petty vote bank politics and examine the efficacy of the policy in totality. “At least the government could ensure that the quota policy benefits one member in a family and the facility is taken just once in a lifetime by a beneficiary,” said a senior Indian Revenue officer, frustrated with endless benefit that the quota policy bestows on its beneficiaries. However, politics based on populism can hardly be expected to do the needful to bring in sanity in reservation based politics. It was understandable when a junior doctor sitting on hunger strike at AIIMS in the Capital bemoaned that no politician has visited them despite more than 100 of his colleagues collapsing due to the hunger strike. The hurt and disappointment of the youth who feel that they are the new untouchables, since they have taken a stand that is politically untouchable, could hurt the country’s growth and development, unless quick steps are not taken to address these specific concerns.
For long India’s politicians lamented the slowdown in the country’s progress, attributing it to the brain drain of the late 70’s and early 80’s when a huge amount of young talent made an exodus to greener pastures, a la the USA. Unfortunately, neither did they take into account the reasons which contributed to the exodus and nor are they doing it in circa 2006. If at that point in time United States welcomed immigrant talent with open arms, allowing it to contribute to its intellectual property, today you have similar opportunities in Europe, Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, China and even small countries in Africa, acknowledging India’s strength especially in the field of Information Technology.
It was the extraordinary reservation policy of the Tamil Nadu government in government jobs and professional institutions which pushed Tamil Brahmins to the wall. When seeking admissions in state engineering and medical colleges became an onerous task, they began scouting around for options in USA, Europe and the Middle East and, in due course, made their mark in a land which respected their talent and allowed them to be adopted by the nation in return.
If past trends are any indication, another brain drain of much higher intensity is on the cards, with the Union minister for human resources development, Mr Arjun Singh, hell-bent on “mandalising” professional institutions. “The government has failed miserably in developing educational infrastructure at the highest level these past years. With more than 50 per cent reservation being pushed through, the general category students are left with practically no choice but to head to the US for higher studies. A much larger brain drain is imminent with professional institutions coming under the ambit of excessive quota,” said, Mr Vikash Aggarwal, an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus. Add to this are the plethora of private players in the market with foreign universities aggressively wooing Indian students with not just top of the line professional and educational courses but also facilities of loans, easy repayment options et al.
No formal assessment has been made quantifying the kind of work that Indians have done in the USA or the quality of intellectual capital that the Indian community has created in the last three decades, be it in the field of medicine, law, IT, science and technology, military science, research, business or economics. NASA is driven by Indian engineers’ talents. Indians constitute more than 25 per cent of Microsoft’s staff strength at its Seattle headquartres. Some of the finest doctors across USA are of Indian origin. Sam Pitroda, the blue eyed man from Rajiv Gandhi’s inner coterie and also probably the Indian with the highest number of patents is a prime example of what India could have gained by holding him back. Afterall the STD revolution in India, especially in the rural hinterland, is thanks to him. Although attempts are being made to involve him in the Knowledge Commission, we have still lost out on the man’s genius which could have steered things back home in India.
Historically, it is immigrants who have given America its hugely distinct character and contributed in a major way to its wealth creation. If they as a nation have monopolised the world politically, economically, and militarily, it is because of those millions of people who abandoned, unrecognised and unrewarded in their own homeland, chose to toil in a nation which at least recognised their potential and allowed them to blossom and prosper, in the process contributing to their rising GDP and development.
Ironically in India, no one has bothered to question the plank of social and educational backwardness on which the reservation policy is being pushed. Had the plank been justifiable, the reservation in government jobs and educational institutions would have uplifted a vast chunk of population in a broad based manner. However, the fact belies the justifiability of the much milked plank for what are largely political compulsions. According to a senior bureaucrat with the Central government, “the benefits for the scheduled tribes have been mostly pocketed by the Meena tribes of Rajsthan and by those in the North-east region. The former are the most affluent section in Rajsthan with most being landowners. The North-east tribes have never been socially backward and have still enjoyed financial assistance by the state and Central government. Scheduled caste tribes of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Kerala, and other states were left behind in the process of social empowerment through the reservation policy,”
A Union Public Services Commission member while interviewing a candidate from the Meena tribe in an All India Services Examination was curious to know why he was claiming quota facility when he hailed from an affluent family. “You have already claimed the reservation facility in Rajsthan and now you are a sub-divisional magistrate. Why are you claiming the facility once again? The smug response was, “since the facility exists, I might as well claim it,”
A 2002 batch IAS officer had the modesty to acknowledge that it was the mindless reservation policy that allowed him entry into the prestigious IAS along with his three brothers who too would never have been able to make it had it not been for reservation. He humbly said, “I know I do not deserve to be in the service. Having been in the company of the general category students who were preparing for IAS, I could clearly see that I lagged behind in practically every area. Yet, inspite of my father being the director general of police of a state and the fact that I went to the best school in Bhopal, I still availed of the reservation policy and exploited it as a matter of right, first for IIT and then IAS.”
After 50 years of India’s independence when the practice of reservation should either have been done away with or revamped, we have in a regressive manner embarked on a path which will only lead to greater chaos and not to forget a mass exodus of talent in the form of Brain Drain. All is still not lost. The youth is a very potent force in any country, moreso in India, which is on the verge of an economic boom with the front runners being its young people.
A critical review of the policy can instill hope. Parliamentarians must rise above the small gains of petty vote bank politics and examine the efficacy of the policy in totality. “At least the government could ensure that the quota policy benefits one member in a family and the facility is taken just once in a lifetime by a beneficiary,” said a senior Indian Revenue officer, frustrated with endless benefit that the quota policy bestows on its beneficiaries. However, politics based on populism can hardly be expected to do the needful to bring in sanity in reservation based politics. It was understandable when a junior doctor sitting on hunger strike at AIIMS in the Capital bemoaned that no politician has visited them despite more than 100 of his colleagues collapsing due to the hunger strike. The hurt and disappointment of the youth who feel that they are the new untouchables, since they have taken a stand that is politically untouchable, could hurt the country’s growth and development, unless quick steps are not taken to address these specific concerns.
