Quota protesters on a silent rally on Monday. Picture by Amit Datta

Medical students belonging to other backward classes (OBC) emerged at the forefront of the anti-quota protests in the city on Monday.

Terming the proposed 27 per cent reservation for OBCs a ?political hogwash??, Ravi Yadav, an OBC final-year MBBS student at Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital, said: ?This quota will serve the OBCs no purpose, though it apparently aims at our uplift.?

?The number of school dropouts is alarming among the OBCs. Giving us reserved seats in higher education without unhindered access to primary education is nothing but political gimmickry,? continued the member of Youth for Equality, the organisation that is coordinating the demonstrations. It brought out a silent rally on Monday.

Another OBC member of the organisation and an intern at the hospital, Chandra Bhanu Pratap, said: ?We have prepared a detailed paper based on media reports to show that reservation will not do us any good. Instead, it will create a rift by offering privileges to a select few. We will distribute the paper among the masses and oppose the quota plans tooth and nail.?

Students of Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) and Guru Nanak Institute of Dental Science and Research, a private institute, have also decided to back the protesters.

?We support the movement since it is for a just cause. Reservation does no good,? asserted Sumanta Basu, a third-year B.Stat student at ISI.

Some students of the institute visited National Medical College, where students and junior doctors are on an indefinite relay hunger strike since May 18.

The students of the dental college, on the other hand, began a class boycott and hunger strike.