The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Junior doctors threaten to launch indefinite strike from today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 29, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Junior doctors threaten to launch indefinite strike from today

Staff Reporter

Procession taken out against Union Government's decision on reservation

OPPOSITION: Medical, engineering students and IIT alumni protesting in Bangalore on Sunday against the Union Government's announcement on providing reservation in higher educational institutions. — Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

BANGALORE: In the most vociferous protest so far in the city against reservation, a large number of anti-quota protestors took out a rally to register their anger against the Union Government' decision to go ahead with 27 per cent reservation in higher educational institutions.

Medical students, engineers, alumni of Indian Institutes of Management and the Indian Institutes of Technology, doctors and software professionals and parents, who came together under the banner of "Youth for Equality," shouted slogans against reservation and the Union Human Resource Minister Arjun Singh.

Rally

The protesters, who took out a rally from Chikka Lalbagh to Banappa Park, held placards that read "Don't divide the nation in the name of caste," "50 per cent reservation, 100 per cent politics", "HRD - Human Resource Destruction," "UPA-Ugly Political Agenda" and "Do not blame us if we migrate."

Most of them wore black headbands while some of them had "Say No to Reservation" written on their foreheads and cheeks.

Achievement

One of the oldest participants in the rally, 62-year-old, R. Nandakumar, a retired bank employee, said the Government needed to show the people what it had achieved so far through reservation.

"I am not against reservation. I want to know what the nation gains through it," he said.

Arya, a consultant radiologist at a private hospital, said: "We saw a revolution during the Quit India movement and we are seeing it again now. History is repeating itself."

Brain drain

Arif Ali Sayed, a student, said reservation in higher education would only force more doctors to apply in the United States and United Kingdom to pursue their studies.

"Even if doctors want to serve the Government, they are not being helped to do so," Mr.Arif Ali Sayed said.

Level playing field

M. Sayed, who has benefited from the quota system, says that while it is essential at the undergraduate level to give students from different backgrounds a level playing field, it is unnecessary at the higher education level.

"At the end of the degree course, we are all at the same level. So what is the need for reservation?" he asks.

Boycott

Students of the Bangalore Medical College, including undergraduates and junior doctors, said that they would boycott classes as well as work in the outpatient department of hospitals associated with the college from Monday.

"We are planning to go on an indefinite strike from Monday. We may also go on a hunger strike," said Sashant, an undergraduate student of BMC.

`Gimmick'

The Resident Doctors Forum of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences said the Centre's decision to increase seats in the institution was a "gimmick." M.P. Arun, a second year student, said: "The Centre is trying to appease us by adding a few seats. But this will not work. We do not want reservation in the institution as it will bring down our standards."

Pamphlets

The pamphlets distributed at the rally said that the figures over which the Mandal Commission's proposals were based dated back to the 1931 Census report and thereby rendering the current implementation of reservation "illogical."

It also said while the Mandal Commission had put the percentage of OBCs at 52, the National Family and Health Survey had estimated it at 29.8 per cent and the National Sample Survey, which was the latest known research, at 32 per cent.

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