"Backward movement"

Not just IIMs, IITs and Central universities. Top academic institutes, cutting across various fields, from medicine to law, film to fashion, hotel management to mass communication, are set to come under HRD Minister Arjun Singh’s plan to impose 49.5% quota by adding 27% for OBCs.

Prominent among these institutes to be covered under the quota regime are the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (Pondicherry), Christian Medical College (Vellore), National Law School (Bangalore), Indian Agricultural Research Institute (Pusa), the Indian Institutes of Mass Communication (Delhi and Dhenkanal), the National Institutes of Fashion Technology and all the Institutes of Hotel Management. Sources told The Indian Express that to implement the OBC quotas, the HRD Ministry is coordinating with key ministries of the government under which these educational institutes fall: Health, Law, Information and Broadcasting, Agriculture and Textiles. This comes after Singh announced on Wednesday that almost half of total seats—49.5%—in IITs, IIMs and central universities, including Delhi University, will be reserved for OBCs, SCs and STs. At present, 22.5% seats are reserved for SCs (15%) and STs (7.5%). The final orders to implement another 27% reservation for OBCs will be announced after elections in five states are completed.

HRD minister Arjun Singh, sources said, has, in fact, informed his Cabinet colleagues to implement the order after the Constitution was amended in the winter session. A new Clause 5 was inserted in Article 15 of the Constitution allowing advancement of socially and economically backward sections through special provisions for their admission to educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the government. While the amendment gives a right to all states—and also empowers the Centre—to take adequate steps to ensure the upliftment of the socially and economically backward classes, this could lead to lesser number of seats for the ‘general category’’ students. To this, HRD minister said: “We have asked the IIMs to increase their intake (of students).’’ In other words, all these institutions will face a cascading effect of seat increase regardless of the infrastructure needed to maintain standards.