India's reservation quotas

It is difficult to judge at what point society throws off the yoke of past sins and truly focuses on building a country. Quotas whether in the US, thanks to EEOC, or in India sets the tone for lowering the overall standards of society. We are content to accept "good enough" in lieu of the "very best". Why don't we make schools and colleges free to the "oppressed" but base admissions to professional institutions only on merit?

India should expand educational opportunities so we can retain the academic integrity of the better schools and yet give everyone an opportunity to get a sound education. The Ivies in the US are as competitive as the IIT's are in India but there is no paucity of alternatives. India has a gap today - the IIT's are very good but then there not enough of the other schools to make up, in quality, quantity or affordability.

Education will eliminate the centuries old biases which the educated Brahmins imposed on society to maintain their hegemony and the British very wisely retained to manage a vast country. Our fatalistic religious tendencies have helped embed these prejudices into our DNA.

But which problem does India tackle first - the infrastructure issue a la Eisenhower in the fifties without which we will suffocate or education? Both are critical and I would argue that the former should be the province of free enterprise and the latter the responsibility of government.