Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s chief scientific advisor and chairman of the steering committees of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) C N R Rao has said that he was “neither consulted nor asked” for his views before the Government decided to increase seats in Central institutions as part of its OBC quota formula.

“I am not at all against reservation per se, intelligence is neither a prerogative nor a gift endowed only on a particular community,” Rao told The Indian Express tonight, but added that the manner in which it was being done was “very crude and without finesse.”

“Increasing seats is not an easy task,” said Rao. In fact, “galloping ahead” on a complex social issue like this, he said, “is a mistake they are making...a difficult situation has been precipitated without a proper discussion with people who know about education.”

That’s why today, he said, few are listening to the saner voices of the middle ground.

Rao, chairman of the influential Scientific Advisory Council, said the decision to increase seats has long-term and deep repercussions on the country’s scientific base.

“There are a lot of meritorious people in the SC/STs and OBCs, only an opportunity has to be given for them to blossom,” said Rao, adding that in his long career, he has nurtured several people who were not from “gifted” backgrounds.

That said, Rao made it clear that increasing seats is a “stupendous task (which) today is being presented in a highly oversimplified fashion.” He regretted that those who have run large educational institutions and know the reality of nurturing universities are “not being consulted. Where will you get the trained faculty to teach these additional students? It is not like hurriedly recruiting soldiers during wartime, manning institutions of excellence needs careful selection, can’t be done overnight.”

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