Reservations about Reservations: A Letter Sent To Arjun Singh

Here is a letter sent to Arjun Singh by my cousin:
To,The Honourable Arjun Singh,
Minister of Human Resource Development,
Govt. of India.

Dear Sir,

I am writing to urge you to reconsider the proposed Bill introducing further quotas at the IIT/IIM. With these additional quotas, the number of "reserved" seats at these institutions shall increase to over 49% of the total.

I am writing to you in my capacity as a Professor of Mathematics at McGill University, Canada. In my professional assessment, the claim of admissions purportedly be "merit-based", i.e. via entrance examinations, rings hollow when many of the applicants are selected on the basis of caste/race/gender/religion. A glaring example of how standards fall when such dubious practices occur is the United States SAT examination. This is ostensibly an "entrance exam", but since other factors are routinely employed, the value of this examination is zero. Undergraduate degrees in the engineering and hardsciences at most American universities pale in comparison to those obtained in IIT. Internationally, in the mathematical sciences, the unwritten rule is that oneshould snap up Indian applicants from IIT before anyone else.

Indeed, graduates from India command much respect in the international research community precisely because they have actually taken, and survived, some rigorous examinations and coursework. Our only true competition in many fields of engineering and science comes from Chinese students graduating from some select universities there. IIT and IIM are universally recognized as providing an extremely talented pool of graduates, and I am certain that the proposed reservations will have a very negative impact on this reputation. This is particularly important since China is not introducing such measures.

The Indian Institutes of Technology (of which I am a proud graduate) were instituted as non-political centres of engineering excellence. It is not within their mandate to be testing ground for dubious social-engineering experiments.

I am acutely conscious of the grave imbalances and obstacles facing the OBC/SC/ST community in India. I believe that providing a solid primary education is a far more important and pressing need in this regard; it is proven to be much more cost effective, rupee for rupee, than trying to push at the graduate level. That isn't where the problems begin.

If we plan to introduce 49% reservation at institutes of higher learning, we only benefit 1700 people each year, at the cost of incalculable damage to the international standing of our top brand. For these reasons, I urge you to reconsider the proposed legislation. It will be an act of immense political courage on your part, but will be your lasting legacy.

Sincerely,Prof. Nilima Nigam
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Mcgill.