Author:
Publication: Deccan Chronicle
Date: July 10, 2006
OBC students too in 'Bharat' family
There are no Guptas, Sharmas, Pandeys, Tiwaris,
Tripathis, Shuklas, Singhs, Agarwals, Dixits and Hussains left on the campus.
The surnames that denote caste have been dropped like leaves in the autumn,
and all that remains is a feeling of oneness.
In what is possibly a unique form of protest
against reservations, a group of nearly 200 students at IIT Kanpur have dropped
their parental surnames, and adopted a common surname - "Bharat".
Chandra Shekhar Sharma is now Chandra Shekhar
Bharat, Rahul Gupta is Rahul Bharat, Dujendra Pandey is Dujendra Bharat, Nutan
Gautam is Nutan Bharat and even Akhlaq Hussain is Akhlaq Bharat.
"We are now members of one family that
has the surname Bharat, and no one can differentiate (between) us on the basis
of caste and creed," says a member of the "Bharat" family,
rather proudly.
"When Mandal II came up, we knew we had
to protest because the reservation issue goes against the concept of equality
for all. We also realised that caste politics - and not the intention to benefit
the backward sections - was the intention behind reservations, so we decided
to do away with surnames that denote our castes and adopted a common surname
'Bharat'.
We are against the reservation policy because
it makes some more equal than others," says Chandra Shekhar 'Bharat',
a Ph.D. student who is a member of the group that is spearheading the anti-reservation
programme on the campus. "When we took this decision, most of the students
were away on vacation. Now we are planning to persuade other students and
the new entrants to follow suit. We have also formed a committee to study
and work out the legal aspects of changing our names so that we can transform
our intentions into reality. We have informed our parents and there is no
resistance from their side," says the student.
The movement against reservations began in
IIT Kanpur with the FIR - the Forum of Indians against Reservation - which
has now merged into the "Youth for Equality", which has become the
national forum on the issue.
"The idea of dropping our surnames has
been widely appreciated at the Bangalore meeting of Youth for Equality last
month, and we plan to persuade our counterparts in other IITs and IIMs to
adopt the practice which has the potential of demolishing caste barriers in
society," says Chandra Shekhar 'Bharat'.
Interestingly, the students' decision to change
their surnames to "Bharat" has won them the support of teachers
on the campus. "Nearly 125 teachers on the campus have sent a memorandum
to the President and the Prime Minister, urging them not to impose reservations
at the cost of merit in premier institutions," he adds. Significantly,
even the OBC students on the campus are supporting the agitation against reservations,
and some have even adopted the "Bharat" surname.
"It is because these students understand
the importance of merit. They have worked their way to up here and would certainly
not want that someone gets admission merely because they belong to a certain
caste. We have Muslims students like Akhlaq Hussain, who have taken on the
'Bharat' surname and the alumni are supporting our efforts too," says
Chandra Shekhar. The IIT Kanpur students now plan to intensify their anti-reservation
stir from July 28 when the institution reopens after the summer break.
"We are contacting other IITs and we
may start an integrated campaign on the issue. We plan to boycott classes
indefinitely," he says. The students are also contacting schools and
organising debates to expose the "evils" of reservation. "If
in six decades of Independence, reservations have not helped the backward
classes in realising their dreams, then there is something drastically wrong
with the policy.
The average backward caste student is not
getting the benefit, whereas some elite sections are taking multi-layered
benefits. We demand a review of the reservation policy by a committee that
has no politician as its member," the students say.
