So, why not Rahul Gandhi too?
Rahul Gandhi had again spoken. This time on education. In Parliament. His speech was watched and applauded by ‘Mummy’, sister, brother in law and the ‘Daddy’s old pals, Suman Dubey and Romi Chopra. TN leaders, Karunanidhi “had been moved to tears by the speech and CM J mocked him (MK) for being sycophant”(Tavleen Singh). Tavleen Singh should know the goings on in the corridors of Delhi. After all she is a veteran journalist and moving in the paparazzi crowd.
Now, what ‘Rahul baba’ spoke? He said education only can empower people and he is very much concerned about people’s issues. Fine. Ms Singh writes about Rahul’s visit to Bangalore and his activities. He watched the mid-day meals scheme of the ISKCON temple, in Parliament he in fact read his speech instead of speaking (so the paparazzi political journalists giggled and winked and sneered).Let it go. Now, what he actually said? Education must be made available to the ‘toiling masses’ and the real impact of the programmes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan should be felt in the villages of UP and Bihar. “Mixing history with patriotism he also pointed out that Nalanda and Vikramshila were the Harvard and Cambridge of their time and it was important to revive the tradition of excellence in Indian education”.
Of course Ms Singh goes on to mock much of what Sonia Gandhi and her inner circle are doing to elevate Rahul to some position in the party or the government. Also the fact remains that the Congress is hesitating to put Rahul in some position by the fact he might not be able to revive the party in the two crucial states of UP and Bihar from where the future fortunes of the party can be revived, if at all. If Rahul couldn’t do it, then his image might suffer. So, so much of the hesitancy in the party to elevate him at once.
Now, the dynastic politics might not worry us. For India has enough of history to prove that dynasties don’t last long enough. Even the great Mughal dynasty didn’t survive after the great Mughals. The minor Mughals who came after Auranghzeb, they survived for as long as 150 years till 1857 didn’t leave any trace of their names! So why worry about the dynasty? Education is now is becoming more and more of the same old wine in new bottles. There are not many who really even think about the education.
The new Karnataka minister for higher education, very fresh in the job, had at least attacked the system and pointed out the Macaulay ghost still stalking the education campuses which lately have all turned out to be money spinners, as the IT campuses. The minister must be knowing for he is in Bangalore where big money, quick money is made in these campuses, it doesn’t matter whether it is IT or education! The malaise in education commerce is spreading faster and wider. In TN it is as much a business and a joke as the state’s politics is! It is old time arrack kings and the films stars who make up for high end glamorous education ventures!
Let us here see what all this amounts too. The IIMs had turned out MBAs who have been getting mind-destroying salaries! But none of our IIMs or the universities find a place in the international leagues of best education institutions! Not even our universities!
So, why brag on our education? It should be a collective shame why education planners should be keeping their mouths shut! Education is a collective outcome of our collective aspirations and dreams. We, as parents, leaders and even educators, all dream for a better future for our children, for the youth of this country and we want India in the league of super power, right?
But do we take some time off and do some introspection? No, we seem not doing this? This is our national trait, our national failure, our contradictory nature of the nation’s and individual’s traits.
What do I mean?
I mean this: we see so much social malaise, so much corruption, in Karnataka, a model state in so many respects and yet the state has a Lokayukta who raids and unearths so much corruption, the latest 5 police inspectors had amassed wealth over 60 crores! The Lokayukta has a long list of such exposures. Yet the state government doesn’t give him the permission to prosecute the corrupt officials. Becasue officials, both in the states as well as in Delhi have a system to protect themselves.
The politicians can’t be anymore plead ignorance. The very suave and honest PM can’t do a thing when it comes to combating corruption. Yes, he doesn’t speak of corruption! That is a chivalrous act on his part!
We have seen how the recent Rajya Sabha nominations were made. The very same Sonia Gandhi nominates all sorts of ‘unreliable’ candidates, all for the sake of preserving her own authority! At what cost? Enormous costs in our moral values.
Unless our education, I mean our education values, our education beliefs, our education vision evolves out of a deeply held collective value system, no amount of platitudes to reform our education would succeed.
There will be social divisions, the rich and the poor, we concede. We don’t advocate any radical solutions. Plain moderate consensus on the minimum morality. What Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and his colleagues believe in such a collective consensus? On combating corruption? On the deficiencies in the criminal justice system? In such other moral outrages?
Unless we, the leaders put our selfishness, our self survival, our kith and kin interests behind the national common good, we as a nation wont make any dent on the moral conscience of our own people.
This is the challenge before all educators, the dedicated individuals, spread far and wide in the outer reaches of the country, away from the cosy corridors of power where some hang around and manage to become Rajya Sabha members or ministers. The leaders who in the present times who dispense such favours must think twice, they must take deep breath and consider there are people all over the country, watching the doings of such morally bankrupt leaders.
This is education’s task; this is education’s core competence. Education is not for you to give me. Education is for you to understand what moral responsibilities you indulge in. Education is to measure yourself up. Education is for yourself. To clean your conscience of any immoralities you perform in the day! All for your own self-survival!
Education is this; it is this new definition of measuring individuals’ moral credibilities!
Image Source : photogallery.indiatimes.com