BTN: Issues that affect you:: 29th June 2009 - The Victory Day for merit in America; :: Shouldn't India learn a lesson and reinstate and respect 'merit' .

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HT Editorial	Issues that affect you:: 29th June 2009 - The Victory Day for merit in America; :: Shouldn't India learn a lesson and reinstate and respect 'merit' .
Blog	Posted By: hindtodaynews on:6/29/2009 10:48:52 PM

29th June 2009 will be remembered as a Victory Day for merit in America; India must learn a lesson and reinstate and respect  'merit' .

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act,  makes it illegal to base hiring decisions on the basis of "race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.''

City of New Haven conducted a test for promotion for its firefighters. Those who wrote the test were white Americans, Latinos and African-Americans.

But, when the scores were out , non of the African-Americans were qualifying for the promotion because they secured less marks than their white and Latino colleagues.
As a result of that too many whites and Latinos and too few African Americans met the standard for promotion.

The city, worried that it would be sued by black firefighters, voided exam results and did not promote any of the white firefighters, even though they scored high enough to get a promotion.

The firefighters cried injustice and  filed a lawsuit; fought 6 years this case in spite of losing in a high court.

Today, US Supreme Court, in a  5-to-4 ruling struck down the decision of a three-judge federal appeals court panel and rewarded merit.

The court's conservative majority found that the city of New Haven broke the law when it weighed the test results in a way that made race an asset for blacks and a liability for whites and Latinos.

Compare this in Indian context - caste is an asset for  SC/ST/OBC and a liability for Brahmans and other non-reserved categories.

e.g. In a typically University job, if a Brahman gets promoted to a Section Officer from a Senior Assistant at the age of 50 , a much junior SC/ST achieves the same promotion at the age of 35 or 40. Isn't it unfair ?

Writing the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy of US Supreme Court wrote that the city saw the results and voided the test "solely because the higher-scoring candidates were white." That, gave an unfair, race-based advantage to black firefighters who scored poorly, "to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions.''

They also observed that "Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer's reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions ". i.e. The city of New Havana was wrong to take such a decision out of fear of a probable law suit by a black firefighter.


In India, thousands of  meritorious students are suffering because their caste become a liability in admissions, new jobs and promotions.

Shouldn't India follow suit America and correct the injustice introduced under trademark  Social Justice. How can it be justice when someones caste and religion becomes a liability in getting a job or college admission ?

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