NEW DELHI, 21 May 2006 — Striking medicos took to streets yesterday for the second time over the past ten days in protest against the reservation quotas of the government for other backward classes (OBCs). Compared to their agitation last Friday, when main participants in the march to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) were only medicos, yesterday’s rally included people from different walks of life.
Apart from medical students, their parents and medical faculty, among other participants were lawyers, chartered accountants, engineers and students from Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Millia School and several schools. Medical students from other parts of the country — Varanasi, Mangalore, Bikaner, Jaipur, Rohtak, Patiala and Ajmer — also participated in yesterday’s rally.
Called “Dilli Chalo” (Go to Delhi), the rally included several thousand protesters. Led by motivational guru Shiv Khera and cricketer-turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, the protesters marched silently from Maulana Azad Medical College to Jantar Mantar, near Parliament House.
Under the banner “Youth for Equality,” the protesters carried placards like: “Reserve vs. Deserve” and “1947: Freedom from British, 2006: Freedom from Caste Politics.”
With there already being 22.5 percent reservation for low caste students in government-run higher educational institutions, an additional 27 percent reservation for OBCs will increase the total percentage of reservation to 49.5 percent. The students are thus are agitating for withdrawal of this proposal.
Students also formed a human chain to remain in order and to prevent protesters spreading over the entire road affecting traffic movement.
Along the rally route, the government had deployed a large number of security personnel and Rapid Action Force as a precautionary measure. With medicos across the country bent on intensifying their agitation, protest marches were also held in other parts, including Bangalore, Trivandrum and Bhopal.
Meanwhile, the ministerial committee formed to consider the quota issue has come out with three proposals. These include reservations in educational institutions, which are still to be built; increase the number of seats in a phased manner in existing institutions, so that general category students are not affected and extend the reservation to economically weaker sections.
