Here are some recent news stories:
* [[http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=72885|IITs to increase intake by 54%]]
* [[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1913881.cms|Anti-reservation stir restarts]]
* [[http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=72743|PMK wants quota rollout in 'one go']]
* [[http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=72749|BJP promises quotas in minority institutes if elected into power]]

Unfortunately, I missed the [[http://youth4equality.org/images/blackday.jpg|black day]] :-(

If you want to help out and/or show your support, visit the [[http://youth4equality.org/aspx/default.aspx|Youth for Equality]] website.

I **strongly urge** all those who feel this is wrong to join [[http://youth4equality.org|Youth For Equality]] — their website has lots of information, so make sure you’re convinced before you join. They sum up my feelings well:

//The youth of today feels that they have been abandoned by their own country. Despite the intensity of the protests and the ongoing negotiations, the UPA government has decided to push through with its proposed 27% quota for OBCs.
ARE WE LIVING IN A DEMOCRACY OR DO WE HAVE TO BOW DOWN TO THIS AUTOCRATIC REGIME???WE WILL NOT GIVE UP OUR STRUGGLE-WE WILL NOT STOP OUR PROTEST-THE STRIKE WILL CONTINUE. WE HAVE BEEN BETRAYED!

Students have been on an indefinite hunger strike for 11 days and have been starving themselves to death, but this shameless government ruled by senile fools shows the audacity to have a party to celebrate 2 years in governance!!!

We will fight this unjust,baseless and populist policy till we get justice

“Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai,
dekhna hai zor kitna bazuein katil mein hai!” //

Its time to join hands. //BE HEARD//.

So I quickly hacked a simple shell script that sends an email to the President, the HRD Minister, the editors of some news papers etc. The script should work on any regular Unix-like workstation.

Download: [[http://floatingsun.net/code/be-heard.sh|be-heard.sh]]

Run it as: ”bash ./be-heard.sh”

It works for the version of ”mail” installed on my machine. Some older versions don’t support the ”-a” option. In that case, just edit the file and delete the ”-a” option. I’m working on an alternative version in Python which will hopefully be a little more portable.

When you run the script, it will ask you your name and email address — these will be used to compose the email. Feel free to change the text of the email in the script. If you have recommendations for adding any more email addresses, please let me know.

I hope all of you will download and run this script. If you feeling more adventurous, you might want to run the script periodically. Of course, that way you risk being classified as spam by the recipients, but thats the trade-off of getting noticed — its your call. SPREAD THE WORD!!

Since the bash script was giving a lot of problems on older software, I hacked up an equivalent Python script. This should, hopefully, be a little more compatible with systems. The only requirement is standard Python installation, and a local sendmail process (which you will usually have on a Unix-like workstation).

Download: [[http://floatingsun.net/code/be-heard.py]]

Usage: python be-heard.py ‘Your name’ ‘your email’

**Note that your name and email address should be entered within single quotes**

I’m not completely against the “idea” of reservations. Infact, done in the right place in the right amount, it might actually be a Good Thing. But therein lies the biggest problem — reservations are rarely done in the right places, let alone the right amount.

I think it is far better to focus such efforts in primary and secondary education, rather than higher education. Our democracy should try and ensure that each child has the opportunity for a basic education. Reservations should be about equal opportunity, but they should not supercede merit. The work force of the country is not child’s play. Anyone wanting to work //must// demonstrate sufficient merit for the task, irrespective of what caste he/she is from.

I’m not trying to discredit reservations. I’ve also read the story about reservation success stories. All those are fine. In all cases, you will notice that people came through for the opportunity they were given. They were not free-riders. The current reservations system seems to based on the premise that you can “jump start” people into success. Consequently, for the bulk of the junta out there, the quota system has just become yet another short-cut to the system, yet another kind of bribe. It is no surprise that [[http://www.deeshaa.org/2006/04/04/education-matters-part-1/|people consider "obtaining" an SC/ST certificate]]. Clearly, something is amiss.

The other part of the equation are those who belong to the SC/ST, but don’t really “need” reservations. I have several very good friends who are in this category. I sometimes feel bad for them, because atleast from my point of view, belonging to SC/ST has been somewhat of a stigma. Both parents and children in school would make conscious efforts to not bring up the fact that they were from SC/ST. I think the system as it stands is very unfair to such people. It seems all their achievements are undermined by the fact they are SC/ST. No one says it up front, but the minute people find out, at the back of their heads they’re thinking “haan, tabhi iska itna achha rank aa gaya hai”.

I have also seen several people who got into IIT on account of being SC/ST, and suffer. Yes, I said suffer. Because some of them didn’t want to or had planned to come to IIT in the first place. Some of them were simply unprepared. You can’t just make up for years of lost education in your first sem at IIT, it doesn’t work that way. Its degrading for these students, who are shoved into one of the “premier” institutes. Some people make the best of the situation and come out victorious. Others are crushed, their self-respect and confidence depleted.

Who really is benefiting from this system? Most certainly not the people who the system was //intended// to benefit. But I can understand that its a game of numbers and statistics. Picking isolated examples from here and there, one might construct a case either way. I can also buy the argument that in a democracy the size of India, there is bound to be some collateral damage, but in the grand scheme of things, everything will even out and we will come out a better nation (though it would be better if we had some numbers to back this wishful thinking). **But 50%?** Thats just insane!!

I hope the HRD ministry is not deaf. I hope the press will sense all the discontent floating around this proposition, and make sure that the government listens. I hope that the people on both sides of the camp realize that increasing reservations to 50% in higher education will //not// solve **any** problem, either in the short-term or the long-term.