This year, six new Indian Institutes of Technology were brought into being, each with 120 seats — that's a total of 720 seats। And yet, because the OBC, SC and ST quotas could not be filled up (as enough applicants could not get the generously-relaxed pass marks set for these categories), as many as 432 seats will go abegging. Consider the absurdity of the situation. On the one hand, new IITs are being created at enormous cost; on the other, as many as 432 seats — that's the equivalent of three and a half IITs — are being allowed to go waste. In Saturday's edition, we wrote a Times View saying: "To let over 430 seats in IITs go vacant is a criminal waste of infrastructure (such as faculty and physical facilities). Reservations are meant to give disadvantaged sections of society a boost. But where quotas cannot be filled because there aren't enough suitable candidates, the cut-off for general category should be relaxed so that all seats are used up — the cut-off will still be higher than for SC/STs, so no one can argue that it will dilute academic standards. As with airlines seats and hotel rooms, these seats are 'perishable', they must be filled the same year. This should not affect next year's quota." This sorry situation is the result of two major education policies framed by the Centre. The government not only commissioned six new IITs, but simultaneously increased the number of quota seats (for which there are simply not enough eligible applicants). Despite the cut-off percentage being lowered in the name of affirmative action, the students have not made the grade. The old IITs can fill some of the seats with students from the preparatory course, but the new IITs have nothing to fall back on. IIT-Guwahati director Gautam Barua said that the institute heads who are meeting later this month may ask the HRD ministry to dereserve unfilled quota seats. "There is no time this year but we may try to seek permission to transfer the vacant seats to the general category for next year," said Barua. The prospect of empty chairs in the classroom has disheartened faculty members, many of whom echoed Saturday's Times View. 'Nearly 50% of reserved seats lying vacant' Despite Centre's affirmative action by lowering the cutoff percentage for IIT exams, 432 seats still remain unoccupied. "Every IIT seat has the potential to produce a Nandan Nilekani or a Vinod Khosla," said a senior faculty from Kharagpur. "To allow even one seat to go vacant is like crushing a million dreams and aspirations." Another professor from IIT-Bombay said that the empty-seat syndrome while not new had been aggravated this year because of the "unthinking way in which the HRD ministry merrily commissioned half-a-dozen new institutes and expanded quota seats without so much as a thought as to whether or not reserved candidates would qualify". Down the years, IIT deans have faced the brunt of political interventions. When the first batch of IIT-Delhi students graduated, 47 of the 53 reserved category students failed. The dean was summoned. Recalling the meeting with the "big fat man", education minister Nurul Hassan, P V Indiresan said, "He kept his bulky hand on my shoulder and asked me, 'Professor, yeh kya kar diya?' (Professor what have you done?)" Little has changed. Only two months ago, IIT-Delhi was pulled up by the Minorities Commission for asking 20 reserved students to pack their bags because of "very poor performance".

These instances of political pressure though fairly common rarely come out in the open. IIT heads who are accused of casteism or deliberately failing reserved category students prefer to stay silent. Most are reluctant to even broach the topic of transferring vacant seats to the general pool, said a former IIT director. "Any issue regarding reserved students has a lot of political repercussions," said Indiresan. According to a government report nearly 50% of the reserved seats remain vacant. And of those who make it, 25% drop out. The situation in the next academic year is likely to be even worse. This is because the six newbies do not have the back-up preparatory course. IIT-Madras head M S Ananth said that while filling SC and OBC seats is still manageable, it is much more difficult when it comes to the tribal quota. "Despite this, these seats cannot be de-reserved as they were created as super-numeric seats over and above the existing number so as to ensure that quotas did not eat into the open category." Ananth added that transferring seats was not encouraged — except in the case of OBC quota — "because of the fear that the IITs would try to fill them up with forward candidates. It's just that the government wants us to make enough efforts to look for backward students. Hence, if unfilled, the seats have to go vacant." Old hands like Indiresan rue the fact that the government is killing its golden goose for short-term political profit.