And I spoke

Well, finally on Saturday I spoke at the discussion about "The Politics of Reservations, and the Future of India".


There were a few things to note.
1. It was a very humbling experience. A few videos have been uploaded on google video, and when I look at myself - i am probably one of the worst speakers.
2. The attendance there was very low. Only about 150 people were around. Kudos to those who come - but I thought that the people who will be affected by the reservations. So, maybe it is warranted that the reservations are ok - as anyways the people in general category dont seem to be affected by it apart from a handful. So, maybe we are a minority after all.

The talks were on various topics. From a very fiery speech which left a few red ears by Saurabh, to a very clinical assesment of the type of governments by Vikrant. Docs in the panel gave thought of what they thought about the reservation issues. Did you know that the topper in medical exams from AP was not able to get a medical seat ?? Is that how what our democracy is about ?

The most impressive of the talkers were Shri Sriram (advocate) and Shri Hanuman Chaudhary (former IT advisor, AP govt. ). Shri Sriram talked about how the upper castes and communities are 'smug' and think that they will not be affected - and the current situation has been brought about by us.

Shri Hanumanji talked about various issues - a speech which was spell bounding. Regarding Saurabh's speech, he said that it was nothing compared to how our politicians talk in Parliament. I dont think that I would be able to replicate his speech here, so forgive me.

After the talks by the panel, the audience was invited. One of them was by a student in IIT, with statistics as to the current reservation. If I remember correctly, in his class 5 seats were reserved for SC and 3 for ST. Of these only 3 and 1 were occupied respectively. So, in a single section we have 3 people from general category deinied admission because there are too few SC/ST people around to even meet the relaxed limits for getting admission. And the govt wants to up the reservation limits to 50% .

However, one thing which I did realize in this speech is that everyone is willing to analyze and point the fingers, but very few are able to come forward to do anything. And this is what saddened me the most. Its easy to talk, but difficult to do. Shreyas, who helped convene the meeting also felt the same , and has blogged his feeling.