This is not new. I was travelling in Spain about 7 years ago and met an Indian and his family on a train. He was not from a lower caste family (I don't know enough about India to be able to identify his caste) but he asked me about US affirmative action and told me that Indian preferential practices were destroying India. Lower caste people, regardless of their ignorance and lack of preparation, were being shot ahead of people who had studied and worked for years.
Of course, one of the problems with India is that, like its parent, Britain, it has an economy where a state job is the best job of all, so it was able to enforce its stupid affirmative action policies much more thoroughly than they have been enforced in the US.
I recall a few years ago some upper-caste dude set himself on fire and killed himself in protest of lower castes getting more college slots.
That guy REALLY didn't like the affirmative action program.
Re your post #2. your comment made a good point about incompetent people being promoted beyond their capabilities because of AA.