The report on casteism in IITs by DMN is totally baseless and misinforming; Students from IIT-B responds with the cause.

SURAJ KUMAR P. SHETTY with the inputs from C SURESH and SHAVEEN GARG

The Preparatory Facts

1. Preparatory course is not for 'all' the reserved category students.    Only those who fail to score even the minimum cut off marks are    required to undergo preparatory course. The preparatory course is    extremely helpful for the Students as they can perform on par with    the people who got selected with extremely high all India ranks like    just 100 s. Such an opposition never came from the four batches of    preparatory course students here in IIT-B.
2.There is no separate coloured answer sheets for sc/st Students.    Only their colour of "envelope" is different to be able to Distinguish    and help in sorting out. IITs will not have any problem in switching to    Single coloured envelope if our fellow communities are hurt.
3.There are several examples for general students and SC/ST students    (as somebody would like to call) who are living in the same room.    They remain good friends even after single rooms are allotted to    them.
4. IIT will not permit vote-bank politicians to work on caste in its    campus on the cost of its quality. If IIT gets once into politics it    cannot come out, this is the hard fact the students here always  remember.

QUALITY COUNTS

The Indian Institutes of Technology have been established to impart quality education to the students of India so that they wont lag behind their counterparts in the western world. Naturally every student of India would Like to get an admission into these reputed institutes. But then given The existing constraints of infra-structure,etc. We can never have all The students of all the castes getting into these select institutes.

Now the crucial question is how do you go about selecting the Fixed number of students for admission and what should be the criteria. The most logical parameter is therefore the aptitude of the student in the certain subjects that will be the basic grounding for his higher Studies.

With the physics, chemistry and mathematics as The subjects that all students have till 12th standard/hsc/puc in India and these subjects being very important for any engineer, it is But natural to take these subjects into consideration. To perform best In these subjects at the IIT-JEE (joint entrance examination) is what Is expected to secure an admission into IIT and for the same purpose One can find many people beginning their preparations at least one Year ago to be confident to be among those top few who get through.

But then, given the socio-cultural background of India there are Many students who hail from the deprived social strata. To prevent the entry of these Students into IITs just for this reason could be something unjust on our Part to our fellow Indians and brethren. Hence, reservations have been Introduced in the IITs so as to ensure that such socially-deprived students In these institutes also have access to the these institutes. However it is Very difficult to expect that the most of these students perform as Good as the others,viz. Non-sc/sts. So the cut-off scores - minimum scores Required by students of any caste appearing for JEE to get an Admission into IIT - is relaxed for the sc/sts candidates. So with this relaxation, a deserving candidate from these social Classes should find it easier to get in to the institute as it Nullifies the advantage that other supposedly upper caste members might have Over them. One has to note the point here, however, that this is done At the compromise of talent/aptitude. A separate list is made for these Candidates so that they need not compete with the other putative Upper-caste members. As an additional help to them, candidates who cant Manage even with this relaxed criteria are offered the preparatory course "after counselling" so as make his fundamentals in these subjects clear Which are not sound due to many reasons including his/her background. This is also necessary because the student should not feel left out in The class when the his/her classmates are gaining rapidly and it shall Probably place him/her at par with them albeit at the expense of One year. But then it is definitely better than not getting an Admission at all or ?Saving one year and then performing very badly in the next Four years. Now on top of this, there is still a relaxation in the Number of years in which these students can finish their degree.

One can thus see the opportunity given to these candidates. Any Further relaxation, will only get in candidates who are at a much lower Level academically and in aptitude. This would not only defeat the basic Aims of the institute but also make it difficult for these students to Cope up with the immensely increasing academic requirements. If a Person cant meet the relaxed standards even after the one-year preparatory Course and still keeps grumbling regarding the opportunity given then it just Shows the mentality. This I say because I have many sc/st friends here At IIT many of them even among the department toppers/class-rankers, who Perform excellently in academics. But then there is one "bitter truth" Also: most of the students who fail in the courses at IIT are from the Reserved category.

This just poses a very important question: does one still want To relax the criteria, have things like grace marks and come up with More kinds of rules and regulations to make them clear their Courses or should all the IITs be firm regarding the minimum standards Required to get a degree here. This argument hold for girls also. One has to Agree that the number of girls in IITs is less and it is something That even the boys around complain about. But then that doesn't Mean that reservations be introduced on the basis of sex. The question That arises is the same : do you want to confer degrees after numerous Relaxations at every juncture or do you want an institute which Ensures that every student that comes out from it has a minimum level of Academic cadre; and I am very sure that any girl or for that matter any Person who puts a decent effort should be able do it, after all it is a Battle of nerves and speed, and the girls here without any reservations are A proof to this fact that they can do it. There are also sc/st students Who outperform their fellow students from the non-sc/st category. So Cribbing in this regard is just another effort by the people who couldn't Make it though the JEE to try to politicise the issue and try to get some Benefits.

They bring in various constitutional provisions in support, but What about the fundamental principle of equality that is being violated with Every new reservation on the whatever basis. There are also many sc/st friends of mine here at IIT who are Very well-to-do but still avail of the free messing, fee-waiver and so Many more benefits which are available to them just because they are From sc/st category . Isn't this a blatant misuse of the government Funds then?

There have been even more rumours circulated by these wretched People with political interests for publicity : one such is Regarding the allotment of rooms.

I can show many cases where the room allotted has one general category student and the other from sc/st, and a fact which will be a slap on these rift-creating writers is that they live together very well and remain excellent friends even after a Single room is alloted to them. The thought of caste is the last Thing that occurs to them - it occurs only when extremely foolish Articles like these crop up here and there.

Questions regarding faculty also pose the same old question that I have been mentioning all throughout: do you want an able professor to teach your student or one who is Less competent and knows that he wont be able to clear the doubts of Such brilliant students but comes in just for a good-paying job with The backing of some politicians to harm the future of many more Students including students from the sc/st category. Nobody will prevent a Person from becoming a faculty if he/she is deserving and able.

The lame excuse that these ?Thinkers and writers give, Including things like how better it would be for sc/st candidates to Approach such sc/st faculty, are nothing but a proof of the dirty divisive Politics involved, because if that is really so, why not establish a few More IITs with faculty and students from the reserved category if Getting together is all that they want. There is almost no student here in IIT who is discriminated by any faculty just because he/she is a reserved category student - in fact some of the faculty dont even know the caste of the students.

I would firmly like to assert that if quality has to be compromised then the basic purpose of the establishment of the IITs is defeated and one can better get into local colleges where there is no dearth of reservations and a person with 60% can get what a General category student with 80% even cant get.

There also seems to be some misconception that only people from The general category apply to us universities and go abroad. It is but A fact that most of the students who come through reservations and Have a decent academic performance do the same. So it is not that Applying is done only by general students. Only if it was in their grasp, These narrow-minded people, who write such articles to divide the Society instead of integrating it, would have demanded Reservations in the universities abroad too.

It is time that these great (?) Thinkers realise that reservations Are crutches which wont cure the leg. If they find preparatory course As a discrimination which in fact strengthens the students academics And reservations as a very good solution then they are sadly mistaken And better do an introspection. Let IITs be an epitome of excellence Rather than creating new rules, regulations and reservations to appease Various vote-banks at the expense of the basic purpose of the IITs; Because if quality is to be compromised then there is abundance of Engineering colleges in India which will provide similar education and have All kinds of reservations blatantly violating the fundamental Constitutional right of equality.