The Immorality of Affirmative Action

It's surprising to hear the views of many on the whole reservations scandals. Quite a few people I talk to are quite okay with affirmative action as a concept, and oppose this just because they're going too far. Well, they are going too far, that's a foregone conclusion and because of that they'll never be able to push in the new quotas. However, the existing Affirmative Action quotas for SC/ST will remain, and because the majority of us seem to be okay with this immoral grotesque concept, the government will get away with it for the next 50 years as well. Strangely enough, there won't ever be any "upliftment" of the classes this policy tries to protect.

AA is an inherently immoral practice, and is tantamount to theft. Before I go any further, I'm going to clear up what AA is.
Affirmative action, in short, is a policy where because a particular community has historically been ill treated, as a compensation to them and to "level the playing field", reservations or relaxed cutoffs are created for the same in institutions with government affiliation.

In an institution where it is clearly stated that the only way to get in, no management quota through donations or whatchamacallit, is by merit through an exam, the policy of reservation undermines that very examination and principle, that the best will get in, irrespective of anything.

But lets put that aside, and look at AA from all its parts. First, the historical ill treatment arguement. They had a shitty life, still do, and therefore they deserve more than you do. Bullshit. My grandparents had to run from Lahore after partition, and came to Jammu with next to nothing. Thousands, if not millions of Punjabi's can claim the same fate, you can ask around how many of your parents or grandparents started off life with nothing. Not everyone was priveledged enough to be born into Brahmin Government Jobs, agreed, but not everyone claimed to be victims of their fate. Like the Punjabi's post partition, the Sikhs during India's Greatest Bitch's Dictatorship, The Sindhi's, Kashmiri Pundits, Indian Muslims in Gujrat or UP, communities abound that haven't exactly had the easiest time in life. Some of them have had the gumption to get out of the rut, and move on. None of them have had Affirmative Action. That people have had a hard time is no excuse to give them a better time now, at the expense of people who have had nothing to do with their suffering. I don't even know what an OBC is (the constitution isn't exactly clear on the matter either, neither is the mandal commision), leave aside discriminated against. The only community I have actively discriminated against is Communists, and quite frankly they've already got reservations, it's called JNU.

The next arguement, which is kind of silly to go into, because the first one is already a load of rubbish, is that quota's in Central Tertiary Institutions, with particular reference to IIT is going to level the playing field. Baaaa wrong again, kiddos.

To even think of getting into IIT, you need to have done science in 11th and 12th. To have do science in 11th and 12th, you have had to have made it To 11th and 12th. To have reached 11th and 12th, you must have passed your tenth, and to have bloody done that you must already have been in school and umm...not have been failing. To meet all these wonderful requirements means that you probably haven't been to the shittiest of government schools, and as a result have been given access to a decent standard of education. Now, if all these wonderful things have been met, there is no difference in the level of opportunity between you, and the SC/ST/OBC person attempting the paper. Sure, he may not be going to a fancy coaching class, but then again, he may. But that's pretty much like anyone else of any income level who's not SC/ST/OBC. So is this helping the downtrodden chappie never given an opportunity? I doubt that. Show me a statistic that says that any of these communities have opportunities upto 12, and then they suddenly dissapear, and I'll start to believe it. What it does then do is give people fortunate enough to have an SC/ST/OBC certificate to walk into an institution with pretty much any mark they like. Isn't life charming. What it further incentivises people to do is get that very certificate to give them easy access. Has it leveled the playing field, then? No, it's made it quite uneven actually. Because now the poor soul bereft of a certificate, irrespective of his income value, education or intellegence has given up his right to a seat in a college he's made it on merit, because the government has decided that some people are more equal, and more deserving than others.

It's theft, larceny plain and simple. Have the gumption to say so, instead of half heartedly attacking the government for having Gone Too Far.

EDIT: A lot of people ask and question me in very moral tones of voice how I can possibly be against AA. They then tell me how it's needed at a primary school level, to "level the playing field".
To answer to that, I'd just like to point out that providing quality primary education to SC/ST/OBCs is not affirmative action. Its an existing duty of the government, as dictated by our spanking new fundamental right to a basic education. I'm all for a government that secures its citizens it's fundamental rights, the Congress led UPA sadly is dedicated to snatching them away.