No Projects, No Assignments, No Term papers

Last semester in IITK is much different from other semesters. Most people got a job. Few are waiting for reply from some foreign universities. Some, especially those who are not satisfied with the job(or package I should say) are waiting for CAT results. There is no academic pressure on anyone since this semester's SPI is nowhere going to matter. Now they are playing phatta in front of my room(IITK lingo for cricket with tennis ball) almost whole day. The dual degree people seems to be a little jealous on B.Techs. Those who got job are dreaming of how the professional life is going to be(especially the package part of it, like how much they are going to get in-hand etcetera etcetera...). Most companies are already giving a taste of it by arranging a get-together in the coming mid-semester break.

For me this is the best semester. The best part is that there are no projects, no assignments, no term papers to continuously harass me. One thing that scares me the most in IITK is project(Assignments and term papers occupy the next scary positions). It is from 5th semester that I got this allergy for projects. I got C in 3 courses in that semester, just because my projects were not good(eventually I was 6 point something in that semester). They put me under enormous pressure, especially during the last two months of the semester, that I just started avoiding taking courses that has a project. In fact, my priorities in taking a course have been, first to see if it has a project or not, then to see if the course content is interesting, and finally to see if the instructor is interesting.

My department is very liberal in attendance policy, but almost all courses have assignments. Assignments also become a burden if somehow the course become uninteresting after sometime. In fact I hate this continuous evaluation criteria, for I prefer to study in blocks of days than everyday studying every course.

I am one of those who always saves the best for the end. I accumulated all my open electives for the last year. So in the last semester, I had complete freedom to choose any course in the whole institute. I took two BTP type courses this semester, because of the satisfaction the last BTP gave to me. The HSS course "Sociology of Development", and Economics course "Development Economics" are cool. The other course "Algebra", makes me remember the first year with >200 students in a mini-theater type lecture hall. Contact hours are hardly 3 hours per day. Although the contact hours for BTP are slightly more in my case compared to others, I love that time. So, I am spending most of the time on other things

BTP(B.Tech Project) is my most enjoyed course in IITK. My BTP being in theory, it was just thinking(and sometimes reading a few papers) and nothing else.

Reservations: What I feel.

For the sake of maintaining some amount of homogeneity in the issues I am going to talk about, I confine myself to reservations to SC/STs and OBCs.

Reservations are part of affirmative action by the State to ensure equal opportunities for growth and to protect the citizens from social injustice and all forms of exploitation. Constitution of India has clear provisions empowering the state to take affirmative action. Articles on fundamental rights were amended repeatedly to make sure they do not come in the way of affirmative action by state. The whole Part IV having Directive Principles of State Policy, though not justiciable and enforceable in courts, nevertheless reflects the responsibility the constitutional makers have put on the State. Articles 15(4), 15(5), 16(4) and 46(not justiciable) have explicit provisions for reservations.

However constitution identifies only Scheduled castes, Scheduled Tribes and socially and educationally backward classes as the ones eligible for reservations. After Champakam Dorairajan Case(1950) and subsequent 1st amendment to constitution, reservations to SC/STs was never contested. It was reservations to backward classes that had increasingly became central to the politics of Independent India.

Rise of backward castes by the end of 1980s marked a watershed in the Indian political scene. Reservations were first implemented in govt. jobs after Supreme Court approval in the famous Indira sawhney case(1992) (popularly known as Mandal case). Later it was only in 2008, after Ashok Kumar Thakur v. Union of India case(2008) that they were extended to educational institutions.

The policy of reservations is a great idea designed to create an equal society out of the hugely stratified traditional Indian society. But, as opposed to many pro-reservationists, it is not a solution. It can never be a solution. One cannot hope for an equal society while repeatedly treating the people as unequals.

The problem with the policy of reservations is the way they are implemented. They were supposed to be reviewed every 10 years(for SC/STs , constitution need to be amended every 10 years, and every 5 years for OBCs as per Supreme Court's order in Mandal commission case(1992) and in Ashok Kumar Thakur case(2008) ). But no such thing is done till now. Every time, after 10 years they were extended like a holy ritual. It is undeniable that most of those who enjoyed the benefits reservation in these 60 years are relatively well off both socially and educationally in their own communities and by any standards, can not be classified as Socially and educationally backward. Due to lack of review of the policy of reservation, there arose an elite group within each community to which reservations are available, which is cornering most of the benefits of reservations. So the benefits of reservations are not truly going to socially and educationally backward. Today, as far as I have seen, almost 80% of those entering into IIT under reserved category are the ones who do not deserve the benefits of reservation under the criteria of backwardness.

Another controversial issue was the use of castes as basis to identify backward classes. Here also, reservations to SCs on the basis of caste were never contested. In the case of backward classes, the constitution only said socially and educationally backward classes, it never talked about castes(in fact Articles 15(1) and 16(1) prohibit discrimination of citizens on the basis of caste). But India's peculiar conditions of caste system gives sufficient ground for using castes to decide backward classes. Even Supreme Court repeatedly changed its stance on this issue. In Balaji v. State of Mysore(1963) case, it rejected specification of backward classes on the basis of caste, commenting that though the caste of a group may be relevant in identifying the backward class status, the importance of caste should not be exaggerated. Same court in Rajindran case(1968) said "a caste is also a class of citizens", and then in Periakaruppan case(1973) said that "a caste has always been recognized as a class". In the subsequent cases, though it expressed concerns about inherent drawbacks in using caste for the classification of citizens into classes, nevertheless accepted it with some modifications. Anti-reservationists argue that, caste based reservations are dividing the society and only furthering the evils of caste system. This argument is not exactly true, because the very aim of reservations involve dividing citizens and give emphasis to certain divisions. It is true to a large extent, thought there are some distortions in some cases, that a large portion of population in castes classified as backward castes indeed are backward. Practically, there is no other way to classify citizens to better reflect the social backwardness.

Most anti-reservationists talk about emphasizing economic backwardness than social or educational backwardness. But they fail to understand that social backwardness is not always synonymous to economic backwardness. Though it may be that the social discrimination(based on caste) has almost disappeared in urban areas, in rural areas, caste discrimination still exists.

Another argument of anti-reservationists is regarding merit. It should be noted that merit is an outcome of socio-cultural and educational environment one experiences since birth. Merit need not be the sole criteria for admissions into educational institutions and appointments to jobs. The criteria should be something that will benefit the society at large in the long run, and not just increasing the efficiency or productivity. Tamilnadu, the only state in which reservations for appointments are more than 50%(exact figure is around 67% if I am not wrong), is one of the best administered states in the country.

Creamy layer must be excluded from benefits of reservations in the case of OBCs. In the case of SC/STs it may not be a good idea to use the criteria of creamy layer, without conducting a detailed study of effect of reservations on SC/STs . The case of ST/STs is different because, as the Supreme Court puts it, historically they faced social exclusion in contrast to social deprivation faced by OBCs.

As I already said, reservations alone can never be a solution. Mandal commission's other recommendations such as progressive land reforms, special educational facilities to upgrade the cultural environment of students such as special emphasis on vocational training and separate coaching facilities for students aspiring to enter technical and professional institutions, creation of adequate facilities for improving and upgrading the skills of village artisans, subsidized loans for setting up small scale industries, setting up a separate chain of financial and technical bodies to assist entrepreneurs were practically ignored by successive governments.

Reservations are a temporary arrangement to correct the historical mistakes of Indian society. In the long run, at some point of time, we have to remove things such as reservations which emphasize divisions among society. Otherwise it becomes difficult to develop a sense of commonness and nationhood. State must treat all its citizens equally. Moreover reservations as they are already, are increasingly becoming a cause of social unrest. The lower sections of forward classes and certain sections of Minorities are already discontent with policy of reservations. The number of castes in reserved categories are only increasing, which again questions the efficacy of reservations as a tool for social upliftment.

New classes are demanding reservations and governments are increasingly under pressure to extend reservations to them. Yesterday it was for SC/STs and OBCs, today it is for Minorities, tomorrow it will be for economically backward in forward classes and day after tomorrow it will be something else. On the whole population to which benefits of reservations are available is only increasing. Politically it is very hard to remove castes/classes from the quota of reservations.
93rd amendment empowering the state to extend reservations to private educational institutions is already raising questions regarding fate of competence of Indian institutions in this era of Globalization.

So, it is time to review the policy of reservations and look for better alternatives that would suit the fast changing socio-economic conditions of citizens of India.

Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas: Bridging the gap between Rural and Urban education

Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas are the premier schools established by Govt. of India to provide modern education to the talented children predominantly from the rural areas, without regard to their family's socio-economic conditions. Usually each district in the country(except in Tamilnadu) has one JNV. They were supposed to serve as focal points for improvements in quality of school education in each district. There are around 500 JNVs in the country. The first JNV was established in 1986.

I myself is an alumnus of JNV Nalgonda.

Unlike many other government schemes that went into the pages of history without making any significant impact on the society, Navodaya system was considered to be one of the most successful efforts of Govt. of India towards the promotion of quality education among the poor and underprivileged.

The remarkable feature of JNVs is their rural character. Almost all the campuses of JNVs (which are essentially residential) are located in rural areas, often away from any human habitation. Every year 80 students are taken into 6th class through an aptitude test that is composed of questions related to mental ability, elementary mathematics and some verbal ability. 75 % of the seats are reserved for students from rural areas. Seats are reserved for SCs/STs according to the proportion of their population in the district. Also admission procedure ensures that 1/3rd of the students are girls. They provide everything that is required to the student to be able to unleash all her/his creative energies. There is no need for any general store/stationary shop as everything from pens, refills, soaps, towel, toothpaste, shoes, bathroom slippers, uniform to mess, library, play-kits are provided by the school free of cost. They even provide traveling charges to go home during vacations. Note that all these facilities are essential to provide education at par with urban public schools since the students with rural background simply cannot afford them on their own.

The schools aim at all round development of students. Every student till 10th class has to attend compulsory classes in drawing, music and other cultural activities. Everyday 2-3 hours are completely dedicated to games and sports.

They are noted for the freedom they give to students which ultimately makes the student self-motivated and self sustaining.

The most important feature of navodaya system is the program of Migration. Under this 30% of students in 9th class are mutually exchanged between two different schools(usually the two schools belong to a hindi state and a non-hindi state). The aim of this is national integration(The tamil-lovers opposed this and hence no JNV is established in Tamilnadu). The students spends an year in a school different from that of his home district and in a different state from his home state. I myself spent an year in the remote Panna district in Bundhelkhand region. That is how I came across the vastness, diversity and a fundamental unity of people and cultures across my country.

The importance of navodaya lies in the fact that they produce not just the students of high intellectual quality but an army of citizens conscious of their responsibility and duty and dedicated towards building a prosperous India.

Reservations for girls and SC/STs also worked more positively in case of navodayas. Unlike many other educational institutions, where most of the benefits of reservations are cornered by well-off individuals or the urban middle class in respective groups, it did not happen in case navodayas. This is because of the reservation to rural areas. 90% of the reserved category students are really from economically weak background. In fact it often happens that the students from SC/STs are more than what are reserved to them.

Like every other govt institution, JNVs are also plagued with many problems. Maladministration , corruption, lack of discipline among students, deteriorating quality of teachers are some of them. Though there is excellent education up to 10th class, often 11th and 12th classes are neglected by both students and teachers. Students, though intelligent, coming out of relatively shielded and isolated environment of school, are finding it hard to survive in this world of cut-throat competition.

What I liked most in navodaya is not these facilities and not even the quality education they provided. It is the atmosphere of creativity and innovation that generally prevails in the campus in contract to many other schools(infact the whole schooling system in India). We made mathematical models out of wood, built small houses out of earth, made instruments to measure height of a water tank from the ground. I myself being from a rural area would not have been here in IIT if it is not Navodaya.

Political Party in India: Undemocratic institution talking of Democracy

"In a democratic society all roads lead to politics"
--JP

Political parties are essential in democratic polity. Political party in a conventional sense plays the role of executive when in power(also legislative functions in a parliamentary system) and act as a constructive opponent (often raising issues that the ruling parties fail to take notice of) when in opposition. Most people believe these are the only or the primary functions of a political party. But the functions of political parties are much broader. They act as bridge between the change and status quo. They act as motives force behind social change in otherwise traditional society. They act as the agents of achieving consensus among divergent opinions in a democracy. Democracy without political parties is not self-sustaining. Organized institutions espousing particular political values are essential for the survival of liberal democracy.

In India(and in many other developing countries), political parties became more or less organized mobs. They just made it look like if autocracy is loot by one(the autocrat) then democracy is loot by many. Democracy became Mob-o-cracy. In a normal party in India, one person ascends to top position having the advantage of starting the party or by some other means(often not through public support), and stays there forever. He decides what will be the policies of the party, who will be the members of the party, and expels members whoever threatens his position. After him, some other member in his family takes his position. The top leadership of every major political party in India today is consisted of this kind of persons.

There is no internal Democracy. Very few political parties have constitutions. Manifestos are not prepared on a scientific basis. There is no accountability either to the people or to the grassroots party workers from the top leadership.

In these circumstances it is money and muscle that act as prerequisites for ascent in the party hierarchy. For these parties the people became mere sources of votes. Forget about bringing about change in the society, in many cases they acted as hindrance to initiatives of good citizens. Choice of candidates to contest in elections is arbitrary, often based on the will of a few persons at the top. They leave little choice for voter and in which case voter also looks in a rational way for short term gains and votes according to primordial loyalties of caste, language, region, religion, tribe etc. This kind of political parties at best can bring change out of compulsion(like Economic Reforms of 1991, only when there is no other alternative). These have no regard for democratic procedure. All they want is power and do anything for it. A system of raw justice prevails. Honesty and survival in the party becomes incompatible. And the few honest individuals in the party are caught in a vicious circle.

Important thing is that the political parties create so much noise that any other voice from either individuals or the civil society becomes weak in front of it. It is very hard to influence the policies of the state on a large scale from outside a political party. They dominate newspaper space, television time, discussions in cyber space. So on the one hand, for any positive change they become indispensable. On the other hand their structure is so rotten that the honest and innovative citizens find it hard to enter them.

New political parties that are founded on sound principles by good citizens find it hard to survive due to the First-Past-Post System.

The only solution solution lies in the reforms in the constitution of political parties. Our constitution, which is the most extensive constitution in the world, surprisingly has no provision for controlling the internal organization of the political party. It only empowered the parliament to make laws in that regard. Accordingly parliament enacted Representation of the People act, 1951. This is the only law(as far as I know) that defines what constitutes a political party and gave some guidelines for the organization of the party. Even this is limited to funding. There is no reference either to internal democracy or to qualifications for membership. Election Commission has some powers in this regard by the powers vested on it by Article 324. But, without legislative or constitutional backing, its powers are limited.

In this context, Article 21 of the German Constitution is worth reproducing here.

Article 21 (Political Parties)
(amended 21 December 1983)
(1) The political parties participate in the forming of the political will of
the people. They may be freely established. Their internal organization shall
conform to democratic principles. They shall publicly account for the sources
of their funds and for their assets.
(2) Parties which, by reason of their aims or the behavior of their adherents,
seek or impair or destroy the free democratic basic order or to endanger the
existence of the Federal Republic of Germany shall be unconstitutional. The
Federal Constitutional Court decides on the question of unconstitutionality.
(3) Details will be regulated by Federal legislation.

Internal democracy is the most essential thing required in a party. Clause 2 in the above article is of special significance to India. In a traditional society like that of India, many parties are still professing loyalties to their caste, region, language, faith etc often against the provisions of the constitution. The first thing every citizen, every association in this country must do is to abide by the Constitution. Unconstitutional elements have no place in a liberal democracy. Parties preaching hatred against people of certain regions, spreading communal mistrust and disharmony, indulging in anti-national activities, violating the fundamental rights of the citizens have no place in the Republic of India.

Political parties, media and civil society must wake up to bring about necessary legislation and constitutional amendments. To build a formidable India, we need progressive political parties functioning according to the principles of democracy.

Also it is time to shift to Proportional Representation system. Stability is of no use if it fails to bring about desired social change and dynamism in the political space.