prasad1
Active member
an articles from Times of India by Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, TNN | May 28, 2006, 12.46AM IST
Youngsters are up in arms. "I work so hard trying for good marks and admission to top colleges. Is it fair if I am kept out by somebody with lower marks but a backward caste certificate? I am sorry that his forefathers faced iscrimination. But I have not discriminated against anybody.
Why penalise me for the injustices of history?"
Thus do many youngsters (and striking doctors) bemoan the injustice of caste-based reservations. They are not consoled by the proposed increase in college seats. They think that those seats too should be filled on merit. We need a merit-based society, they say.
I'm afraid their notion of fairness and merit is dead wrong. Rewarding students with the highest marks benefits people born in the right families, not the most intelligent or meritorious. I do not want to cast stones at others. So allow me to prove that I myself am an unjust beneficiary of an unjust system.
I have a pretty good track record. I got stellar marks in school and topped my college class. As a journalist, I rose swiftly to become editor of first Financial Express and later The Economic Times, the country's two biggest financial dailies. I had no political or business godfathers: I rose on merit.
Some years ago, I did a quickie IQ quiz in a magazine. The quiz result said I had an IQ of 130-135, a very high score, and that only 3% of people had higher intelligence. That made me feel good, of course.
But consider this. India has a population of 1.1 billion, of which the workforce is 400 million. Three per cent of 400 million is 12 million people. So, in a truly meritorious society, 12 million people should have a higher position in the workforce than me.
Do I have any merit? - The Times of India
Youngsters are up in arms. "I work so hard trying for good marks and admission to top colleges. Is it fair if I am kept out by somebody with lower marks but a backward caste certificate? I am sorry that his forefathers faced iscrimination. But I have not discriminated against anybody.
Why penalise me for the injustices of history?"
Thus do many youngsters (and striking doctors) bemoan the injustice of caste-based reservations. They are not consoled by the proposed increase in college seats. They think that those seats too should be filled on merit. We need a merit-based society, they say.
I'm afraid their notion of fairness and merit is dead wrong. Rewarding students with the highest marks benefits people born in the right families, not the most intelligent or meritorious. I do not want to cast stones at others. So allow me to prove that I myself am an unjust beneficiary of an unjust system.
I have a pretty good track record. I got stellar marks in school and topped my college class. As a journalist, I rose swiftly to become editor of first Financial Express and later The Economic Times, the country's two biggest financial dailies. I had no political or business godfathers: I rose on merit.
Some years ago, I did a quickie IQ quiz in a magazine. The quiz result said I had an IQ of 130-135, a very high score, and that only 3% of people had higher intelligence. That made me feel good, of course.
But consider this. India has a population of 1.1 billion, of which the workforce is 400 million. Three per cent of 400 million is 12 million people. So, in a truly meritorious society, 12 million people should have a higher position in the workforce than me.
Do I have any merit? - The Times of India
