Apparently, good idea but unworkable! Does he mean percentage of seats in a seat of learning, or of applicants? If it is of seats, 25% cannot be filled by applicants securing 80 to 100 per cent. Then how to select 25% from the huge number of applicants, as in each of the first two or three categories, there would be huge number of applicants, calling for lotteries. If seats are filled by this formula, politicians will not be satisfied, because their votebanks will not swell, because an applicant from a lower caste can score very low, even lower than 20% and therefore, would not qualify. The best answer to Ms. Mayawati is that already by reservations for the SC, ST and the OBCs has already hit the ceiling of 50%, prescribed by the Constitution which cannot be amended except by a two-third majority. Let our politicians find some other way of swelling their votebanks and give up this silly, ruinous way of reservation. -Bibekananda Ray from Singapore
