IBNLive Chat: OBC quota, is this the end of merit?

HARD TALK: CNN-IBN's National Affairs Editor Diptosh Majumdar discusses issues on quota.

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Aparna:Do this present generation of the so called forward class stand a reason or a cause or a source for the unseen suppression under gone by the past-OBCs or SCs ?

Diptosh Majumdar: I agree with you. It's a deep sense of hurt. Any deprived society anywhere in the world have gone through it. But in the 21st century, caste war will be slowly replaced by the war of city versus the countryside. We have to ensure that city and the countrywide are not cut off from each other.

Raju: Sir, what's your take on this decision?

Diptosh Majumdar: I am not wholly against it. I wanted only 12 to 13 per cent quota for OBCs half of what we have actually allowed but not to this extent. We cannot send such a huge demoralizing signal to the people. Fifty per cent reservation is a little too much.

Radhakrishnan: is this the death knell for merit.

Diptosh Majumdar: No not the death knell for merit. That won't happen. I think governments will now open up education to private sector. We definitely need more colleges and those colleges will be without quota. Though there is a constitutional provision going by the past amendment that the government can enforce quota even in private colleges.....but more educational institutions is the answer.

Mfdmohit: Has supreme court laid any guidelines for defining 'creamy layer' or this work has been left to government.

Diptosh Majumdar: They have fallen back on the 1993 Indira Sawhney judgement of 1993. That judgment allowed 27 per cent reservation in government jobs for OBCs. The creamy layer was left out. Refer to that judgement please and the notification that followed.

Shyam: I was going through the whole debate, and it seems Diptosh is of the view that, whatever been happening in India since years should continue in this 21st century also..and one should crush meritocity - is not this correct?

Diptosh Majumdar: No Shyam, read my answers carefully...there are no black and white answers to this entire debate....it's all quite grey....so please don't dismiss as taking this side or the other......it's not such a simple business.....had it been so simple then we would have spoken one language in casteless, single-religion India....India can never be simplified.

Nitin Kumar: Diptosh why are you pre-assuming that reservations means less merit or no merit at all? I think this thought process needs to re-aligned.

Diptosh Majumdar: That's a good observation. I think I have partially erred in that. But only partially. Tell me why bring in the concept of reservation at all if you are depending wholly on merit? Are they necessarily compatible terms. I think not. They are terms, which confront each other.

Deepak Saxena: What is the future of next generation in India in terms of education and employment?

Diptosh Majumdar: I think government has to give the private sector a free play in education. So those who can pay will go to the private sector colleges...let the private sector set up engineering, medical and management colleges. Let them compete with the government colleges in quality and competence. Let quota exist only in the government colleges.

Kun: Hi Diptosh I hv a straight forward question "India is a poor country with the richest men in it." To what extent do you think the introduction of Reservations in general benefit to minimize the above quoted reality?