'Reservation for backward doesn't destroy merit'

Kolkata, May 21 : Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry and senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh today questioned the rationale behind the nationwide students'agitations on the issue of reservation and emphasised on a dialogue to settle the sensitive issue.

''Reservation for backward students in higher education destroying merit is nothing but a bogus argument,'' said Mr Ramesh when asked to comment on the issue during his visit here today.

Speaking to newsmen at the conclusion of his two day visit to the city to discuss the problems facing the Rs 5,000 crore Indian tea industry, Mr Ramesh said while he strongly opposed the ''unprovoked police lathicharge on medical students in several cities,'' he also did not like the idea that ''medicos are ignoring the patients to press for their demand''.

''The medical students should be equally sensitive to attending the hapless patients and they were duty bound to attend them round the clock,'' Mr Ramesh said.

Reiterating that the UPA government at the Centre was 'constitutionally committed' to implement reservations, Mr Ramesh cited the example of Kerala where students in spite of having 70 per cent quota in the entire gamut of education, excell in all competitions.

He also claimed that the issue of reservations had been successfully implemented in the country so far and had created a large intellectual middle class whose contributions to the society could never be ignored.

Regarding the sponteneous support the striking medical students were receiving from other institutions like IITs, the Union Minister, himself an IIT product, however, felt that more opportunities should be created for the SC, STs and the Backward classes to help uplift their socio-economic stratas.

Mr Jairam was also very critical about the failure of the successive governments for being unable to set up more than six top class educational institutions like the IITS in the country in the past fifty years. Whereas China, following our pattern had established more than 100 such elite institutes in their country during past ten years only, Mr Ramesh informed and sought for immediate corrective steps.

He, however, refused to comment when his attention was drawn towards the absolute silence of the Left parites on such a sensitive issue.

UNI