Please find my comments inline ...
Jitu bhai, most of this boils down to what you have seen or believe in versus what I have seen and believe in. Neither of us can have conclusive evidence to prove it either ways. If you haven't seen people putting too much hope on "magic solutions", doesn't mean the factor doesn't exist. I know cases of hopes being put on not only "bas abki baar mil ke rahegi" reservations, but even things like change of govt (falaane ki sarkaar mein falaana banda bharti karwayega). Now, I am not saying this is highly prevalent. I don't know about that. But it'd be naive to say the factor didn't affect anyone at all in last 17 years.
To rephrase your question for an individual, what should the answer be if someone asks you if he should focus on his studies or participate in the andolan? My answer would be studies. It is not a question of 1-2 days of shram-daan, my experience is that one gets sucked into these things. Especially the youth, who have a disproportionate belief in their ability to change the world.
On the Yadav analysis, I agree that no. of successful candidates increase and also the merit in OBC increases- I had clearly not said anything against that. However, the conclusion that it is because they are working harder is a leap of faith. The number of successful candidates increases as apart from general, they are now also competing in a reserved category, where everyone is not there- so their probability of success is higher (Assuming their efforts remain the same.). Efforts going down and having the benefits of reservation is a complex equation with 2 opposing forces- we can't decide here what the end result would be in terms of successful candidates. Anyways, as I pointed in my reply to Sunil as well, I believe it is going to be a long term trend and not an overnight change. My observations have been on SC/STs who have had this for a longer time. Plus, I am aware and you should note, it is only a theory from my side and not a "factor proved beyond doubt", though based on logic and not dogmatic believes! There is no evidence to prove or disprove this theory, atleast for OBCs.
Point 3, I was NOT talking about emotional value of how General category would see us. If the general category discriminates against the reserved (have quite a bit of anecdotal evidence on this), then it affects the reserved category person's ability to get a job/promotion. And it may affect even those who though an OBC, cleared an exam through general category, as people get stereotyped.
पॉइंट ४, मैं मानता हूँ की लोग अपने लिए सबसे बेहतर काम चाहते हैं. पर इसका यह तात्पर्य नहीं है की लोग भेड़-चाल से प्रभावित नहीं होते. हम सब अपने आस पास क्या हो रहा है उससे प्रभावित होते हैं. इसलिए संभव है की एक जाट गबरू को दिल्ली पुलिस में जाते देख के दूसरा भी गाँठ बाँध ले की उसे वही करना है, और फिर उससे तीसरा. काफी हद तक यह अभी भी होता है. गाँव के बहुत बच्चे काफी पहले से सिपाही, मास्टर, आदि की तरफ अपना दिमाग बना चुके होते हैं. अब यह लोग किसी इंजिनियर से भी प्रभावित हो सकते हैं, और कुछ समय से ऐसा हो भी रहा है कि गाँव में शिक्षा के महत्व और डॉक्टर-इंजिनियर जैसे क्षेत्रों ने थोडा जोर पकड़ा है. पर उसके लिए इनके सामने वैसे उदहारण ज्यादा होने चाहिए. हम दोनों में से किसी की थेओरी शून्य या सौ प्रतिशत सही नहीं हो सकती. आशा है आपकी थेओरी ज्यादा कामयाब रहे. पर मेरा उद्देश्य सिक्के का दूसरा पहलू दिखाना है.
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