Reservation Issue

I'm broken. I feel like a foreigner in my own country. The government's decision to implement the 50% reservations in all educational institutes, without giving the slightest consideration towards the interests of the meritorious students has come as a shock for me. My faith in democracy is fading now. Democracy is an institution which allows us to voice our opinions and needs through the form of peaceful protests. But its almost as if all protests were in vain. Had these protests been staged by some OBC groups, they would have received the highest political attention. But these protests by the "politically non-important general category" middle class have failed to achieve anything. The only thing proven was how one can make a fool of himself through innovative forms of peaceful protest in this country. The government has simply decided to pacify us by hollow promises of increasing seats, which, going by the current faculty shortage and lack of infrastructure, seems to be a highly improbable right now. However, the quotas will be brought into place with immediate effect. What can one make of this? These quotas are nothing more than a political gimmick. If, even after 60 years, these reservations have failed to achieve their goal, it clearly means that they are flawed or their implementation is flawed. Which exactly is the case, because these quotas are being used by politicians not for upliftment of backward classes, but for their own upliftment.