Indian-American professor attributes Air India crash to reservation, gets criticized on social media

An Indian-American professor named Rajeshwari Iyer has set the internet ablaze after assigning the responsibility of the cause of the Air India crash that killed more than 270 individuals to India's reservation system.

Iyer, who studied in India, put up a recruitment notice by the Airports Authority of India for air traffic controller posts, with the caption, "Even the post of 'Air Traffic Controller' has reservations. Means: In India, freeloaders are more important than safety."

The post was made a day after the London-bound flight AI 171 crashed in Ahmedabad just minutes after takeoff.

Iyer also added, "We lose many British citizens including Indian citizens. 241 perished in a plane crash. What a sorry system (sic)."

While there were a lot of netizens who backed her, others criticized her for supposed caste bias and for using a national tragedy to advance ideological positions.

"The crash occurred because of malfunctioning of Boeing Dreamliner, produced by a USA company, due to loss of thrust. No fault of crew. So relax a bit. (sic)," a user posted on X.

Another writer said, "Firstly, let's not jump to conclusions yet. Secondly, hope where one day such super brains and naturalized citizens of other 'first world' countries (through parents or own) like you, set right the shortcomings of this nascent Indian democracy and do everything so that it emerges out of decades of colonialism and outmoded thinking and depredations."

Certain online users also referred to previous air accidents that involved non-reserved category professionals, questioning her assertion that reservation-based recruitment was at fault.

Iyer, an alumni of premier institutions like NIT Puducherry and IIT Delhi, also caused a similar furore last year by asserting that Brahmins are the most exploited Indians.

Last year in September, Iyer posted on X, "Brahmins are less than 2% of the population. They are the most exploited and abused among all Indians. Nevertheless, 60% of all Nobel Prizes taken by Indians were Brahmins."