From: raman@cs.utexas.edu (Raman Rajagopalan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil,alt.culture.tamil
Subject: Re: 100 follow up articles
Date: 19 Aug 1992 16:32:22 -0500
Organization: CS Dept, University of Texas at Austin
NNTP-Posting-Host: bathtub.cs.utexas.edu

In article <1992Aug19.163451.29574@cs.odu.edu> raj@news.cs.odu.edu (M. P. Krishna Raj) writes:
>
>Flame wars(pyromaniac postings)  in SCT Train is going to derail
>it. There are few people around there who are interested in 
>mud slinging and humiliating others. They need not care for others.
>They are not making any points but they destroy reputation of
>SCT will lead to the reduction of readership sooner or later.
>
>Before threading a article please think twice who had posted that.
>There are few people who unfortunately act like tamil while
>they are posting article. Their names or inaccurate facts 
>show that they are not Tamils.

Well, I speak the language, in spite of having lived in the US since
I was 7, and I can even read and write in the language.  I have met
many tamilians who were in educated in TN but cannot read or write
in Tamil.  Am I tamilian in your definition?  Although I have not
lived in India for many years, I do visit every two or three years.

>There are three kinds of posting that stirred the SCT.
>
>2. Postings about Reservation:

>One gentleman posted an article regarding reservation. I said that 
>inaccurate. There were 40-50 articles which are against my assertion.
>I may not like reservation, but I can not see anything near truth
>in that article.
>
>" I have a relative who scored 98% in
>  12th board exams, and failed to secure a medical or engineering seat."
>
>" Further, I conjecture that the marks required
>  of the backward classes for admission to colleges and jobs later on
>  are low enough (40%?) to extinguish any motivation to work hard and really
>  learn (i.e., why work when the govt. promises you a free ride?)."

The article was very clear in stating that what was expressed were
opinions, not facts, and asked for *facts and statistics* from supporters
and non-supporters of the current reservation system.  It was intended
to start a discussion of possible dangers of the current reservation
system, or to help conclude that BC/SC/ST graduates are indeed qualified.

Note the use of the word "conjecture" above.  The 40% is followed 
by a "?" to reflect my uncertainty about the figure.  The 40% GUESS was 
based on my understanding that 40% is the passing cutoff in TN for a subject, 
and I was (am?) under the impression that any individual who passes the
board exams is eligible to obtain a reserved seat, with priority
given to those who score higher.

All you needed to do was to send a followup presenting the statistics
you know about, instead of sending two articles subtly flaming other
posters, but being otherwise void of useful information.  See example
below.

>
>There used to be cut off analysis in Hindu and Indian Express. 
>I am not very accurate in this. Please take this as just illustration
>if you don't like.
>

>
>The cutoff mark for BC ranges from 220 -230. Cut off mark for MBC
>around 200. Cut off mark for SC&ST is around 175.
>
>For Anna U. the cut off mark is always very high(around 225 for SC).


This is an example of useless information.  What good is posting
a cutoff figure without posting the maximum marks possible?
225 out of what???

If the maximum figure is 400, 175 is not much better than 40%, and
even 225/400 is not that hot compared to 98% marks.

If the max. marks are 300, then 200 (66%), which is first class, is
a reasonable figure.  However, if I were a manager, I would still prefer 
to hire someone with 98% percent marks.

>
>
>M.P.Krishna Raj


Now, the following *is* a piece of useful information:

>
>About 15 % of the open quota seats are taken up by the BC and 1 % by SC&ST.
>In simple terms 16% of the total seats are taken up the BC&SC who have 
>scored more than his relative.(more than 98%).

I understand that the current reservation percentage is 65%.

16 + 65 = 81%, leaving 19% for all other tamilians. 

As far as I know, there is no provision to scale back the reservations
as the BC/SC/ST groups are "uplifted".

As the open quota BC/SC/ST qualifiers increase in number, the opportunities
for forward groups will be sqeezed further, while the base 65% quota for
BC/SC/ST will remain unchanged.

Do you see this as being fair?

- raman rajagopalan
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil,alt.culture.tamil