I read this news item and was stunned. Beyond words. Five students of IIT Delhi have been expelled based on their poor academic performances. They happen to belong to the scheduled caste and lo behold, all hell has broken lose. What baffles me is that the expelled students have moved the court and the court, in turn, has ruled in their favor! Let me see if I understand this. You don't measure up to some well established, high standards of world renown and instead of improving yourself, or dealing with the fact that you just don't belong there, you turn around and blame the system. And by the looks of it, it doesn't seem to be a bad idea at all.
The Supreme Court, in its ruling has said that the IITs can neither "just cite pursuit of academic excellence as a reason to expel SC/ST students" nor "apply the grading system mechanically to backward class students, especially those belonging to SCs and STs". In other words, the SC has just made a mockery of one of the last refuges of the merit system in India and has dubbed it "mechanical grading". Maybe the IITs should consider developing a more comprehensive grading system that takes into account a student's culinary, oratorical and histrionic skills and factors in his caste and social standing and also maybe, if required, note his academic results while deciding on letting him continue or not.
Or here's an even better and more elegant solution to this knotty problem: An exclusive IITs for the backward, downtrodden classes. If, in the words of the highest judicial authorities of the land, these students are part of a "separate class by themselves", it only follows that this "class" deserves its own IIT. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome the Flexible In-n-Out Institute of Technology (FIIT)s wherein, upon entering, a student is assured of a degree at the end of 4 years, come what may. The FIIT graduates can then be tasked with building all the court buildings and judges' bungalows. My professor used to explain to the new students the pass/fail grades for the periodic safety tests to gain entry into our lab thus: "You don't want to be standing next to someone that got an F in safety". He was not a fool. Sometimes corners can simply not be cut. Period.
The learned(?) men have also reasoned thus: “It is relevant to mention that admittedly all these students had joined IIT Delhi in the academic year 2006-07 and 2007-08 after clearing All-India JEE conducted for all the IITs in the year 2006 and 2007. It shows that they were successful in securing the minimum cut-off marks earmarked for the SC/ST categories”. That is, they were good at some point in the past and hence their current dipping grades should be overlooked. By an extension, if Ajmal Kasab, the nabbed terrorist from the Nov 2008 Mumbai shootout, had been a philanthropist and a man of good standing in society till a couple of years back, should he be absolved of his latest crimes and be set free? If this argument is used as a model, I think so.
If an individual is not good enough to excel in a certain sphere of human activity, it is not a crime. And that individual, should take it on the chin and learn to cope with the truth. Not everyone is blessed with what it takes to go through the grind of premier institutions like the IITs. And if you are one such, hard luck. Go find what suits you best. But resorting to bend an already abused system and lowering the bar so that one can scrape through is just bad. It is like Sourav Ganguly asking for juicy half volleys so that he can unfurl his silky cover drives to cover up his weakness on the leg side. This judgement aims to do just that: mollycoddle failure and breed mediocrity.
Reservation is a double edged sword that can cut both ways. While I agree that the real backward folks (not the creamy layer, rich, urban OBCs/SCs/STs) need to be provided opportunities to develop, it also poses a threat, in its present form, to churn out mediocre or even downright sub-standard products that can't stand up to scrutiny in the job market. This system is doing nobody any favor besides placing a strain on tax payers' money. These students got into the portals of such hallowed institutions through a concession (the backdoor). Now to expect such concessions to continue and shepherd them through the rough seas of rigorous standards and exacting syllabi is really pushing it.
This is OK (till you learn to ride)
(Image courtesy: www.ehow.com)
But this? I don't think so.
(Image courtesy: www.strangevehicles.com)
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