Outside a small clinic in india, a doctor’s signboard reads:
“Dr. R—, M.B.B.S. (PASS OUT – OPEN MERIT).”
At first glance, it looks like a quirky typo. Look again — and it’s a mirror.
A mirror to a country where merit has been reduced from a principle to a plea, from a quiet strength to a shouted defense.
When even a doctor — a symbol of hard-earned excellence — feels the need to advertise that he made it “without quota,” it’s no longer a statement of pride. It’s an obituary for fairness.
🧠 THE NEW india FLEX: “OPEN MERIT”
In the india of 2025, “open merit” isn’t a system — it’s a badge of survival.
What should have been the norm has now become a novelty, so rare that it’s worn like a luxury label.
Doctors, engineers, civil servants — many now subtly (or not so subtly) flaunt that two-word disclaimer: Open Merit.
Because in a nation where opportunity has been filtered through caste arithmetic and political calculus, even honesty in achievement needs a tag to prove its authenticity.
It’s not arrogance. It’s exhaustion.
⚖️ HOW MERIT BECAME A MINORITY
Reservation began as a noble correction — a ladder for those long denied the right to climb. But decades later, it has morphed into a labyrinth of entitlement and vote-bank manipulation.
The result?
Merit — once the foundation of progress — is now the minority voice in its own country.
When a student who scores 98% is told to “try next year,” while another with 72% walks through the gates of a premier institute, something deeper than fairness is fractured.
It’s not just a seat lost. It’s a message sent — that equality of opportunity is negotiable, but equality of outcome is not.
🩸 THE SILENT ANGER OF THE DESERVING
You won’t see protests. No angry mobs.
Just quiet resignation — from the ones who studied in candlelight, who memorized textbooks while others memorized surnames.
They learn early that talent is not enough; you need the right tag.
So they stop expecting fairness and start competing for scraps of recognition — a job letter, a foreign scholarship, or maybe just two words on a clinic board that say: I made it without help.
That’s not pride. That’s a protest in disguise.
💥 THE politics OF PERMANENT VICTIMHOOD
India’s reservation debate has been hijacked — not by the needy, but by the greedy.
Entire political dynasties thrive on keeping communities permanently victimized, ensuring the ladder never ends because climbing it would end the votes.
Meanwhile, the word “merit” has been demonized — painted as privilege, as oppression, as elitism.
But merit is not privilege. It’s discipline, hunger, and sleepless nights.
It’s the one currency that should never have been devalued.
🧩 WHEN FAIRNESS NEEDS MARKETING
“PASS OUT – OPEN MERIT.”
That single line is more than a qualification — it’s a cry for acknowledgment in a system that no longer rewards quiet competence.
Imagine needing to prove that your success wasn’t sponsored by politics.
Imagine turning merit into marketing copy.
This isn’t progress — it’s poetic tragedy.
🚨 THE WAKE-UP CALL
No one is arguing against opportunity.
But opportunity must be a bridge, not a crutch.
If the ladder of social justice becomes an elevator for the entitled, then the very idea of equality collapses.
We cannot build a great nation by punishing its best minds or guilt-tripping its hardest workers.
The day we treat merit like privilege is the day mediocrity becomes policy.
🕯️ EPILOGUE: WHEN MERIT NEEDS A DISCLAIMER
So yes, only in india do doctors display “Open Merit” like a trophy.
Because in a land where the line between fairness and favoritism blurs every election season, being truly deserving is no longer enough — you must also prove it.
When merit needs marketing, society needs therapy.
And until the day we restore faith in pure, unassisted achievement, every “OPEN MERIT” board will remain both a badge of honour and a national shame.
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