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Protecting islands of excellence

The proposal of the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development to extend reservations to the other backward classes (OBCs) in Central educational institutions, including the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management, has come under sharp focus for the wrong reason — the supposed violation of the model code of conduct by HRD Minister Arjun Singh. Clearly in this case, the Election Commission has overreached itself in asking for an explanation. For quite apart from the fact that there was no announcement of any concession — the Ministry's proposal is still to be considered by the Cabinet — it would be strange if any of the Union Government's activities were to be brought to a standstill during the long run-up to the State Assembly elections. The non-issue raised by the Election Commission has also proved to be distracting, and has stilled a wider democratic debate on the merits of the HRD Ministry's proposal. The move to extend reservations in Central educational institutions to the OBCs comes in the wake of the Constitution Ninety Third Amendment. This enables the state to make special provisions for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of students in "educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State, other than minority educational institutions." This amendment was a reaction to the Supreme Court ruling that the state cannot extend reservations to any private, unaided educational institutions nor can it insist on a government quota in the admissions.

It needs to be noted that the amendment is an enabling provision empowering the state to extend reservations to the OBCs. It does not mandate reservations in any class of institutions, and the question still remains a public policy choice. If the HRD Ministry has now set its eyes on the IITs and the IIMs as institutions where reservations for OBCs to the extent of 27 per cent are to be extended on top of the existing 22.5 per cent for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, it is certainly a matter for concern. The IITs and the IIMs with their uncompromising entrance-examination-based admissions are among the most selective university systems in the world, and their students as well as the quality of training are regarded highly in international academia. It is a tribute to enlightened public policy that it has allowed these islands of excellence to flourish, with their standards uncompromised by the pursuit of even laudable social objectives. Affirmative action and reservations do involve a lowering of the bar in the admissions process, and there are certain areas such as the defence services and higher specialities in medicine and engineering where it has always been recognised that academic merit alone should count to the exclusion of all other criteria. The IITs and the IIMs certainly belong to this critically important category and the larger public interest dictates that they take in the very best and train them to standards that are second to none internationally. Rather than extending OBC reservations to these institutions, the cause of the socially and educationally backward will be better served by programmes to help them prepare and enter in larger numbers after meeting the stringent entrance requirements.

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