The HRD ministry’s proposal to raise the reservation quota of students in the professional institutions and central universities to 49.5 per cent from 22 per cent has raised quite a clamour. But some important issues have been lost in the debate. Nobody seems to be raising the basic issue why we still require the crutch of reservations to enable students from the deprived sections to stand on their feet even 60 years after Independence. What has happened to the tall claims of affirmative action aimed at raising the educational and economic standards of the SCs, STs and OBCs, so that their children are able to compete on their own merit? Arjun Singh’s proposal has been derisively described as Mandal-II. As the Mandal Commission report is said to be the source of the ‘reservation syndrome’, I as the former secretary of the Commission would like to point out how unfair various governments have been to the Commission’s recommendations.

During its discussions the Commission was fully aware that reservations were only a palliative, and 27 per cent reservation in educational institutions and government jobs was only one of several recommendations. Briefly, the other important recommendations were: the radical alteration in production relations through progressive land reforms; special educational facilities to upgrade the cultural environment of the students, with special emphasis on vocational training; separate coaching facilities for students aspiring to enter technical and professional institutions; creation of adequate facilities for improving the skills of village artisans; subsidised loans for setting up small-scale industries; the setting up of a separate chain of financial and technical bodies to assist OBC enterpreneurs.

... contd.