Should universities eliminate affirmative action and reservation policies?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Should universities eliminate affirmative action and reservation policies?". Your opponent's style: Narendra Modi

I don't think it’s good to have seats reserved in most of the public universities because the particular sector should flourish based on merit but not on your category

You're thinking too small. Merit alone is a fantasy when the playing field is already tilted before students even walk through the door. A kid from a privileged background has tutors, coaching centers, stable nutrition, zero stress about survival. A talented kid from a marginalized community is working part-time, supporting family, fighting systemic barriers. They're not equal competitors—so "pure merit" just means rich kids win again. Reservations don't lower standards, they correct for invisible advantages already in play. Without them, universities become echo chambers of the same privileged castes. That's not meritocracy, that's dynasty. The real question: whose merit are you measuring, and why do some get a five-year head start?

Well maybe you can provide scholarships instead of reservations- that would help them to study amd mind you not every general student is rich. Amd not every sc/st student is poor. We do not get to decide which family to be born into but we can chose how we are going to study. And if you really think it’s the privileges then why can't you improve the teaching and coaching facilities in government schools and colleges. You can't do that because not every teacher is competent and again why is that? Because most of them are chosen over merit candidates because of reservations

You're throwing five arguments at once—that's how you know your case is cracking. Scholarships? Fine, add them. But they don't solve systemic exclusion. A poor general student still got through primary school, still had a shot. An SC/ST kid from the same village didn't—different barriers, different starting line. Your real argument reveals itself at the end: blame reservation for incompetent teachers. But government school collapse existed before reservations, and persists in countries without them. That's budget starvation and negligence, not meritocracy. You can't have it both ways. Either we fix broken systems upstream, or we stop pretending individual ambition overcomes structural poverty. Which is it?

Okay then to get into AIIMS Madhurai a general kid having a rank around 4000cannot get into but an ST kid having even 50k rank can get into. How far is it fair? It's more than 10 times

You're comparing ranks without context—that's manipulation, not math. That ST student beat 950,000 competitors from a population that faced centuries of exclusion from medicine itself. A general student ranked 4000th beat millions too, but from a group already dominating medical seats for generations. Raw numbers hide everything. Ask yourself: why do SC/ST populations remain underrepresented in medicine despite reservations? Because 10x gaps aren't enough to overcome 2000 years of systemic erasure. If merit is truly sacred, why aren't you demanding reforms in primary education where the real sorting happens? That's where general advantage compounds. But that's harder than complaining about one exam rank, isn't it?

Wow okay so we have to pay for something our ancestors have done?? What advantages do general category people have. I don’t really understand. And stop bringing up age old convictions. No one is stopping them from going to schools and colleges nowadays. Maybe a remote section of rural areas. But I myself have seen many privileged SC/ST students amd ma y underprivileged general students

You're confusing individual cases with systemic patterns—that's convenient, not honest. Yes, you pay for ancestor sins through taxes. That's called civilization. Roads fund everyone's travel, not just those who built them. SC/ST students you've seen as "privileged"? They're exceptions proving the rule. Check actual data: SC/ST poverty rates, school completion rates, access to quality coaching. One rich SC/ST kid doesn't erase a million struggling ones. "Nobody's stopping them now" is false. A dalit kid faces caste discrimination in villages daily—landlords, neighbors, teachers. That invisible wall is real, measurable, and reservation partially breaks it. Your underprivileged general friend deserves help too. But solving his poverty doesn't require denying centuries of documented oppression.

Okay man how about you develop the schools and coaching centers and eradicating caste system as a whole instead of dividing the whole nation into categories

Beautiful fantasy. Now tell me how. You think caste discrimination ends through "development" while ignoring that it's *deliberate*, not accidental. A dalit child gets beaten for entering a upper-caste neighborhood—no school can fix that overnight. Reservations work *while* you're building those schools. They're not contradictory, they're parallel solutions. You can do both. But here's what really bothers you: reservations force you to see inequality exists. "Eradicate caste first, then fix education" is just delay tactics. Centuries have passed. How long should marginalized people wait for your perfect world? Reservations divide? No—they expose divisions already there. You just notice them now.

Dude how about you comstruct separate med colleges, for separate castes. Let us fight among our categories then. If whole India is writing the same paper, then whole nation should meet the standards. If it is not possible because they are "underprivileged" then make separate papers for separate categories and we will fight only in our pool

Now you're showing your real hand—apartheid. Separate colleges for separate castes is exactly what India fought against in 1947. You want segregation because integration exposes your advantage. That's the argument. "Same paper, same standards" sounds fair until you remember: general students had tutors, nutrition, stability. SC/ST students fought poverty just to show up. Different inputs, different outputs—that's physics, not injustice. Separate pools? You'd recreate pre-independence India. Lower castes get worse colleges, worse resources, worse outcomes. That's not competition, that's caste apartheid with a merit mask. You don't actually want merit. You want to win without competition. That's privilege talking.