Amid reports which projected him as one opposed to the OBC quota in central universities and elite institutions, Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal on Saturday said none of his references made abroad about excellence had anything to do "with either quota reservation or constitutional amendment".
"I have not talked about quota or reservation policy of the government of India. What I have said was that India must continue to have competitive edge because the world is looking towards it for high quality human resource," he said.
"I am of the opinion that in areas of research and development and in achieving excellence we should not dilute our ability to globally compete and lead the world," he said, asking how this could be viewed as his being against reservation "which is something decided in Cabinet?"
"Excellence is not against reservation. You can achieve both things. You can have a reservation policy and still have excellence," Sibal told UNI over telephone from Tunis.
He said he had not made any reference to the proposal of Union Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh.
Sibal said he wanted institutions of "cutting edge". "Is this against the Constitution?" he added.
In this context, he pointed out that institutions of excellence, where India is going to compete with the world, are in the areas of atomic energy, nanotechnology, biotechnology and institutions where "we create knowledge and producers of knowledge".
"In this century, power will not flow from the barrel of a gun, but levels of excellence achieved in laboratories," he said.
Seeking to remove the misconceptions about his remarks made at the Hannover fair early this week, he said when a television anchor asked him on camera if his references were pointed at the reservation policy, he had replied in the negative.
Explaining the circumstances, under which he had made the references at Hannover, Sibal said when he was visiting the pavilions at the fair to see what was happening in the rest of world, people there pointed out so many scientific developments. "I told them clearly that India is not a loser in the competitive edge," he said.
He dismissed as "nonsense" reports that his statement abroad was a reflection of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's concerns over the reservation issue.
