Reservations in education have always been a controversial and touchy topic in the country. Introduced at the time of Independence to uplift the socially ostracized classes, reservation at the practical level today is a mixed bag. The recently put up cut-off list for PhD in Mathematics at Delhi University is a good example. While the general and OBC category students are required to clear a cut-off of 94 and 84 marks respectively, the cut-off for SC and ST students is…hold your breath…zero. Zilch.

© Delhi University

Like, you could take admission into the course even if you've scored zero in the qualifying exam. In a country that INVENTED the zero, people need to score nothing to study that very subject. If Aryabhata were alive today, he'd die again of the irony. Twitter is equally amused. People are calling out DU for this huge discrepancy between the cut-offs. Seriously dude, what were you smoking?

Irony just died a thousand deaths

Aryabhatta must be weeping looking at the exploitation of his invention. #zero! Seriously? ð #DUcutoff #delhiuniversity

— zheelspeaks (@zheelspeaks) August 4, 2017

Zero attendance

Imagine one day you are the student of a professor who score 0.... #delhiuniversity what the hell #Reservation...

— Tapas (@tapas_follow) August 5, 2017

At this rate, we'll be a nation of educated illiterate

today's news : cut off for PhD in DU for sc/st is 0
why study ?
instead offer doctorate degree & appointment letter in DU directly

— VINOD AGARWAL (@weeknowthe) August 4, 2017

Hello unemployment

#delhiuniversity #DU Pretty much a similar reason why, there are so many unemployed engineers in India, even before the fall of IT market.

— Sourav Saha (@SouravsahaJDS) August 5, 2017

Shudder to think of the next Mangalyan

DU: PhD Maths cut off for SC/ST =0, Some of them will become Professor & scientists. @NamoINDIAPM @PrakashJavdekar pic.twitter.com/Oz9KbeNX2C

— Nishant Kumar (@TalkNishant) August 4, 2017

#Du PhD maths cutoff zero for sc/St , really nation is in safe â,some of them will become professor and teacher ,rest u can imagine #Shame

— Niranjan Thakur (@NiranjanThakur7) August 4, 2017

Reservations, especially in higher qualifications, have become an albatross around the economy's neck. In medical and engineering colleges, which produce a huge mass of the country's future workforce, a lot of seats are reserved according to caste and with lower cut-offs. This not only dilutes the quality of workforce being churned out every year, it renders many deserving candidates without jobs and good education. Reservations then make more sense at the secondary level and on the basis of economic status. But then, it's not exactly an easy task to change laws in a country as vast as ours.