E-Paper
Mandal memories revived
AFTER 16 years of the implementation of Mandal Commission report in the country, once again the proposal of the Union Government to enhance reservation in its academic institutions is causing widespread resentment among anti-Mandal agitators here.Many students had come out against former prime minister VP Singh?s decision to implement the Mandal Commission report in 1990.
AFTER 16 years of the implementation of Mandal Commission report in the country, once again the proposal of the Union Government to enhance reservation in its academic institutions is causing widespread resentment among anti-Mandal agitators here.Many students had come out against former prime minister VP Singh’s decision to implement the Mandal Commission report in 1990.
Almost all the students of academic institutions including Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth (MGKV), Sampurnanand Sanskrit University (SSU) and all the intermediate schools had participated in the anti-Mandal agitation in Varanasi.
Two students, Sandeep Narayan Singh (who was later murdered in 1996) and Amar Singh, had set themselves ablaze to register their strong protest against the implementation of Mandal Commission report at that time.
Amar Singh, who had received more than 40 per cent burns and spent 10 months in the SS Hospital of BHU for treatment, told Hindustan Times on Sunday that the move of the Union Government to once gain ride the same boat and to further enhance reservation was ridiculous and would boost the brain drain process in India.
He alleged that the Union Government was pursuing a policy of minority appeasement and this move was ‘politically motivated ’ which would disintegrate the nation.
“The standards of higher education institutions will decline because incompetent students will get admission in prestigious institutes”, he said and added that the Union Government should provide education facilities like free books, free admission, scholarships to the deprived ones instead of implementing quotas for them in institutions.
Singh said that merit had been ignored in the country since the implementation of the Mandal Commission report and now this new move, which would push quota up to near 50 per cent in the Central Government-funded higher education institutions, would definitely bring about fall in the standard of the institutions.
Another student, Sanjay Shukla (who had registered his protest strongly during the implementation of Mandal Commission report in 1990) said that this new move of the Union Government would deviate the nation from the path of development.
