'Affirmative'? yes, but not enough 'action'.

'Bhrat Ratna' B.R.Ambedkar did not anticipate reservation to become this big a debate, in my opinion.

We all know his oft repeated rags to riches tale. Bright, lower caste student becomes a barrister , fights for the so called 'un-touch-able-s' and participates in the freedom movement, goes on to chair the Constitution Drafting Committee, becomes the first ever law minister of Independent India and does all this while he opposes Gandhi and the India National Congress.

The Indian constitution proclaims proudly that all citizens have the right to speech, the right to protest peacefully, the right to say anything against anyone. I don't think these are guaranteed anymore. Forget politics, try cursing at Rajinikanth in a movie theater- I won't be surprised if you have a broken nose after that.

So in a country where the universal laws of the constitution are itself not properly implemented, an affirmative action policy going wrong is expected.

In which-ever country reservation exists (most countries call it affirmative action), it exists as a means for a minority people to come up socially. Reservation in India however, helps the majority of the population. In fact right now, near about 70% of the population of Tamil Nadu is eligible for reservation under some category or the other.

Enough of blasting away against this policy, lets look at it from a different perspective.

Reservation was supposed to be a policy that would allow "historically backward communities" to come up. In fact reservation does not work properly (like many of the government's noble schemes), because it is not advertised well. The people who require it most, don't even know that it exists and, the people who know that they are eligible for it, probably do not require it at all. So anyone who says caste politics is the only reason for reservation's existence today, is clearly not looking at the full picture.

Now setting a time limit for reservation, to act on its own and bring people up?

1. It didn't work before
2. The idea is very passive.

In fact reservation itself is very passive policy.

The creamy layer policy looks like it is our best solution, but tell me, in a country which has a per capita lesser than the annual consumption of colas in the U.S, how do you define a creamy layer. Moreover, if people can get their caste status changed, naturally they'd find means to evade income tax, which is the main factor in calculating the 'creamy layer'.

My point of view for a long time has been this: reservation will never work on its own, it needs another policy or action to be successfully implemented. So how do we resolve this?

Government funded universities/colleges, is my reply.

Queer? Well here is the situation today. The money that the government allots to these universities is from the tax we pay. What happens to it? It goes to work in I.T or goes abroad - 'thank you tax payers'.

Instead what should we do. We should mobilize the students. If students from every university there is in India, would contribute (say during their course of study) to the development of villages or towns, and spread the message that eduction is the most efficient means to climb up the social ladder - viola we have a solution.

Not just government funded institutes, even private institutes should adopt this plan.

SASTRA has a set-up similar to this, so do a few other colleges. We've all heard about it. And what are the NSS, NCC for ?

The problem with the existing plans is, they are sporadic efforts, inconsistent and even if consistent, small scale.

I would suggest large scale implementation, every student should contribute to the development of at least one socially backward child.

Reservation should be locale dependent. If you've lived in a village or a town all you life, you should be given first preference for reservation.

I know my idea is a bit rough and needs to be contemplated upon. At least that is a start. Instead of saying I'll give you so many seats, the government should say I'll help you so much, and reserve a few seats too.

Reduce reservation, increase out reach and active propagation. That's my idea.

Your welcome to disagree or build upon this idea. After all what are youth forums for?


Cheers
Kaber

WIT-Y??-NESS!!

WIT-Y??-NESS!!(ThE wisE witnesS... and wonders become mandatory!!)
""It all started when the bitter pill was left only with its side effects, and the physician too old to diagnose. The sufferers, the patients of ignorance. "

The youth forum up in SASTRA…

Time : Enough of learning for life inside the class rooms….

Start learning to live… the society awaits!!

5 pm to time you can sustain sensibility!!

Venue: GNV 103..[so u r making it there next week??!!....meet you!!]

The topic of reservation had always those head punches and blows of applause…the for and against and the neutral. But what happened this evening(jul 14) was quite off the track, as expected.. obviously!! To create that difference. The doses exchanged were in action. The symptoms detected.Kumar Abhishek begun a very out of the blue story of how the monkeys and the bananas remained separated.And no wonder how the wise primates around munched on to the debate. Reservation ,that just had to be a guest for about some 15 years, has started sort of ruling the entire nation. Talent never had any space to demarcate a cause or purpose.This was the pricking point that the people ágainst' stood for! The entire deviation from representation to recommendation soared up since 1970s. And the financial crises never effectuated. Just another reason to give the grasshoppers a chance over the ants. Students expressed their anguish, á society where hard work was not a big deal at all….!!!!

But why should it not exist? People still need time.. a country that just keeps waking up after every yearly tremor… be it the tsunami, the earthquake or the very frightening polls. And those silent over the valleys, tuned just to the music of nature, away from the bells of awareness, still go for any job in bada shehar.'People with the for had their very modest opinion of why not??. They said, they stood for it because …the crisis now is just a major misinterpretation, while the actual system, the concept is rather genuine! They stood for reservation and its maestro marvels, though they themselves had been the victim of this catastrophe!

And the institution, built just with the bricks from their hands. While the lucky few get the warmth. The difference between the implementation and the way things have grown with their own meanings these days…brings in the scions of this disease . So why not eradicate the disease from root, quoted the strong neutral, And if some say this is inherited..(the old saying of…'jaani it happens only in Indyeah!!)… why not go for the technology that's at your doorstep. To broaden the mind… and furnish with eternity… with limits where sky becomes a lesser parameter!!

So the prevention quite in our hands ,before the story of the end traces its begin. People keep doing different things, winners do things differently…but its only the legends that make the difference. And the implementation…in the hands the ones whose life has been implemented irrelevantly!

jingles...

-- Avipsha Das

The Floodgates Open...

It was An evening filled with tension and an atmosphere set to turn a passive audience into a compassionate mob, the youth forum had finally embarked on a full fledged journey – a mission to transform the ordinary into the inspired, to feed compassion into the minds of the otherwise numb and to set alight a spark that men of great honour and stature failed to keep alive.

Setting the mood for the hour was Avinash (Final Year IT) with a seemingly crisp insight into his work, its consequences, hurdles strategies and more importantly his undying spirit of resistance, a virtue that very few men seem to inherit, fewer develop and least of them adopt. The message was clear and ringing, “Resist as long as your shoulders can take the weight and your knees the strain, when the pressure cracks you – shift the load onto your back and wait for the next one to carry it on”, something we’ve been taught since kindergarten but yet seem to unheed.

The tone of environmental consciousness continued with the courteous Shreshtha Jain (III Year) advocating vegetarianism and an animal-friendly campus, however my thoughts on the subject are somewhat divided, if plants maybe reared to be slaughtered why not animals ? isn’t the food cycle an entirely natural process ? then why go against it? Setting those questions aside and a few people apart, most were convinced (and so was I ) that the college’s lack of an animal friendly policy was another roadblock to be run down.

When the tone of environmental consciousness had engulfed the forum entirely, and vibes of impending reform were being sent about, a bombshell of a topic was dropped for discussion – “Reservation in educational institutions”.

Although it was specifically stressed that the topic in concern did not relate to the need of reservation, it was obvious that the passive audience had now become a restless mob at the mention of the topic that has been talked about for the last 60 years in millions of institutions,debates,parliamentary sessions, coffee house meetings and numerous interviews. A topic that every kitchen,classroom,office and drawing room’s walls are tired of listening to. But for whatever reason the discussions continue, the ideas resonate and the anger flows. Analysis was stressed upon, but our mob was in no mood to listen. Although segregated into three sufficiently distinct units, the underlying notion seemed to have been, we have to live with it but change it we must. Some resigned to this ‘fact’, many advocated changing its basis and others simply vented on why it is and why it shouldn’t be here.

If you ask me, I was tired of all the drama and the ignorance.

For those who screamed that reservations are pointless and unnecessary since it is a pretty large loophole… perhaps it is, but burning a haystack for a straying rat is plain insane.

Something fascinating however was how 75% of the forum was against reservation 10% neutral and barely 10 of around 75 for reservation. If reservation is a stain on the flowing white robe of justice,exploited by so many how is it that less than 2% of that classroom advocated for it ? Were they reserved candidates ? Nope , none of them. In a class of 75 from various years, not a single student was a reserved candidate and yet 75% of the class was advocating against a cause that barely existed.

Keeping myself in check, let me tell you several (other :P) valid points were also raised – time span of the reservation allotted, economical and academic background of the candidates, the analogy of the bitter pill, and how far we’ve come from the needs of 1949 amongst so much more from the ever enthusiastic crowd.

And now for an honest apology… all those of you who mentioned your names, pardon me for not having taken them down, and those who didn’t - please do!’

Like nearly all parliamentary sessions the forum would convene again to hopefully ‘analyse’ reservation rather than advocate abolishing it or otherwise.

The end of the session signified the beginning of a new chapter in the history of sastra that perhaps may never end.

Cheers, and those who didn’t attend… Go on, attend and realize what YOU feel about anything instead of blindly nodding to Barkha dutt!!!

Welcome!

Students are the strongest shoulders upon which the weight of the future of nation can be safely put. History stands a testimony to the fact that nations have experienced revolutions fuelled by the inquisitive minds of the student community.

Today India is flying with Her golden wings and Her nationals are bringing Her laurels everyday! But what would keep Her going? A poorly focused leadership and lack of sense of belongingness towards the nation can curb our feathers and can make us fly an ordinary flight. How the nation and its growth would sustain without a progressive leadership? And thus never more than today, India needs its students to rise to the occasion and pay the attention which Her ploitics deserves!

In our own humble way, we at SASTRA came forward to generate more political awareness amongst the students and encourage open discussions on the areas which are of national concern. And this is what Youth Forum @ SASTRA is all about. Its the platform which we want to develop for us students in order to bring the leaders out and practice nationality in its real spirit.

Please join us in this effort to produce the leader who will take the nation forward tomorrow and set the example for the leaders of day after tomorrow.