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4-member panel on OBC reservation
by Chandrika Jain

      New Delhi/Ahmedabad: The Central Government on Wednesday announced the formation of a four-member committee to take stock of the controversy arising out of the proposal for reservation of seats for other backward classes in institutions of higher education. Making the announcement in Parliament, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said the committee members would be Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Finance Minister P.Chidambaram and Law Minister Hansraj Bharadwaj. He said that the committee would be tasked with the responsibility of looking into into the proposal of the twenty-seven percent reservation for the Other Backward Castes students in the higher educational institutions in the country.

    The Prime Minister's statement came shortly after Union Minister Oscar Fernandes assured protesting medical students in New Delhi that the government would take all efforts to resolve the problem. Fernandes met a group of seven striking resident doctors, each representing a medical college. The protesters once gain demanded the formation of a judicial commission to look into the issue of reservations. Even as Fernandes was in talks with the agitating students, representatives of the pro-reservation Indian Justice Party sought to press their claims for seats, but police moved in swiftly to arrest about 50 of them.

     The government said it would push ahead with the controversial move that will see nearly half the seats in the state's top higher educational institutes, including medical colleges, reserved for lower castes and tribes. But it tried to mollify critics by saying it could consider increasing the size of the institutions to preserve seat allocations for non-quota students competing on merit. A similar move in 1990 to reserve more government jobs for lower castes caused many upper caste students to immolate themselves, increasing overall caste tension. In Ahmedabad, over 400 medical students under the banner of "Equality for Youths" took to the streets to protest the reservation of seats. At present, government-funded colleges have to allocate 22.5 percent of their seats to the so-called Scheduled Castes -- formerly untouchables - and tribal students, who are eligible for admission with lower grades. The government's latest move proposes an extra 27 percent for other lower caste groups. The anti-quota protests, led by upper caste students and junior doctors, have hit medical services in several Indian cities. In New Delhi, exhausted patients slept in the heat outside hospitals waiting for treatment and had to attend disorganised makeshift medical camps set up by striking doctors and interns. Though caste discrimination is banned in India and punishable by law, lower caste groups still face prejudice, harassment and even violence in rural parts of the country and smaller towns.

    Meanwhile, Delhi's striking medicos are continuing with their door-to-door campaign to sway public opinion to their cause. They visited residential colonies and metro trains in batches to explain their stand. A student carried a megaphone and others held placards emphasizing that Union Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister's proposal to increase the reservation quota by 27 percent for OBC students was unjust to meritorious students. With the students requesting earnestly for victory of merit as against caste for reservation of seats in the prestigious institutions, citizens expressed their solidarity and participated in the signature campaign.

Arjun says quota irrevocable

      New Delhi/Sambalpur: The Indian Government on Wednesday said it would go ahead with its move double the proportion of seats reserved for lower castes and tribes despite protests. Medical care in national capital New Delhi and also at state-run hospitals in the western state of Gujarat and West Bengal in the east was disrupted, leaving thousands of patients stranded without treatment. However, Arjun Singh, the human resource minister, said though the government will try to do a balancing act, the proposed quota remains irrevocable. "There is no question of going back on what we have proposed. What we can try to do is make efforts to not to create any more tensions and come out with a balanced solution," Singh told lawmakers in Parliament. In New Delhi, students, striking interns and doctors set up makeshift treatment centres in the open. The move was aimed at making sure some patients were treated while underlining the protest, they said. Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss threatened to replace the protesting doctors if they did not join work. In New Delhi pro and anti quota groups clashed while protesting against and in favour of reservation. Main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, meanwhile, asked for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention to resolve the issue on merit. In Sambalpur, students took out a protest on cycle rickshaws. On Tuesday, in Bhopal, some shaved their heads. Protests have spread to more cities across the country, with more and more students from top medical and engineering colleges joining the chorus against reservation.