Very shockingly, student agitators have been booked under severest IPC Sections after a rather excitedly angry demonstration. For hurling eggs at a dignitary in a crowd, the police can clamp sections to indicate breach of peace of any order. But invoking IPC 307 (attempt to murder) looks mad and bad.
The whole world is laughing at the Odisha enforcement authorities who have brought shame to the State. If Bijubabu had lived to witness the passing chaos, he would have laughed it off and rewarded the agitators for showing civil courage to protest something unwelcome.
Equally hurting has been the news of over 300 students having been dismissed from taking matriculation examinations for trying to copy answers unlawfully. The news was proudly shared both by Secondary Board authorities and media agencies as if the helpless students are criminals. That the quality of imparting education at the vernacular schools has gone abysmally low is not ever discussed as a grave issue by anyone with a voice.
A very simple survey shows not one child of a lowest level Government official goes to any State-managed vernacular school. The mass education authorities keep passing sermons of the best kind to coax children to love their mother-tongue schools and what most wonderful steps are being taken to turn the schools into paradise and so on. But even low-salary employees do not send their kids to Odia-medium schools. Their children go to private English-medium kindergarten and flanky schools, no matter if ‘English’ is taught there in Odia.
So, no wonder that poorest of the poor slum dwellers, homeless beggars and, maybe, a meagre patriotic number of State officials send their children to Odia-medium schools. Any visit to a Government school would show the poor children playing noisily when the callous teacher is pleasing himself by just talking for talking sake without any anxiety if the children were failing to comprehend his crap.
The children at the vernacular schools are not able to read or write as recognising lexicon or words is just impossible for them. For all this, when the authorities proudly said they had dismissed so many students, the news hurt most citizens, given the quality of teachers. The indisputable fact is the State wastes tonnes of money by way of salary to the most horrible teachers who are not tested from time to time to gauge their knowledge and skills.
The students have no other way to pass except by cheating. Such students must be counselled and given fare opportunity to pass exams. In India, unlike in developed countries, students mug up text and vomit onto the answer sheets like parrots. They can only write; they cannot do a thing hands on. That’s why we do not have great inventors or creators. We only have great copycats.
*The recent development in the tiny island nation of Maldives has caught world attention. The first democratically elected President Mohmed Nasheed after being overthrown for all the wrong reasons has just been thrashed by police and dragged to jail for having ordered arrest of a criminal judge. That shows rule of law is in place. Nasheed had dethroned Gayuum, who ruled the island autocratically for thirty years. Then, Gayuum’s half brother dislodged him comfortably because of arrogant abuse of power. It’s very heartening that a tiny island nation close to the largest democracy in the world is now looked upon as an ideal among democracies. Rule of law has not been undermined there, irrespective of one’s standing or position; one is treated at par with ordinary people when it comes to crime and punishment.
Nasheed resisted his arrest; so, the police used physical force to thrash and shove him into judicial custody. Kahn of France, while heading the IMF, was arrested in the US for sexual assault on a young feminine menial at a hotel around a time when he was a frontrunner for President of France. Every dream was shattered because rule of law was in place. India is witnessing commendable changes these days only because of a growing awareness due to the Right to Information exercised by activists.
*Narendra Modi is beginning to err on very sensitive issues like land acquisition in rural areas. He imagines the whole country is desert like Gujarat where agriculture takes a backseat. Every other entrepreneur is a born trader. Affluent Gujaratis are not farmers; they are shopkeepers, industrialists or brokers; all that is respectable and fine.
But this money-only attitude from non-agro activities as nurtured by Modi would destroy the predominantly agrarian India. God knows who guides Modi so dangerously! The land acquisition Bill already placed in Parliament will impoverish innumerable agro-dependent communities. For any categories of activities, farmers shall not be consulted as rural infrastructure and housing for the poor are two of the pleas.
Further, the critical factor of fertility of land shall not be considered anymore. No wonder, there is country-wide outcry already. Anna Hazare and Kejriwal have demonstrated bitterest dissent on behalf of the people. The Modi administration has to wake up without wasting time. Bland economic gains degrade societies. Modi and his servile followers do not seem to realise the extreme importance of the ‘quality of life’ component in all development initiatives. Modi will begin to become less lovable from now on, unless people are plain dumb.
*The Odisha Government is busy showcasing the overhyped Nabakalebar preparations as if the festival will change the fate of the perpetually unfortunate State. All that ensures quality development is in place: abundant natural resources, simple, law-abiding people and, above all, a very robust, stable Government headed by a ‘clean’ Chief Minister.
All the same, not much has improved on the poverty alleviation, employment, housing for the landless poor, food security, and healthcare fronts. The Government is populist; it doles out sops including one-rupee rice which degenerates the youth and promotes alcoholic beverage business to rake in dirty revenue to be mostly ill-spent on low priority development projects.
The Puri temple attracts millions of pilgrims every year. But not one acceptably organised female toilet is available around the premises. There are unofficial reports of women falling sick due to pressure of the bladder on numerous occasions during temple visit. The Government plans police stations as if police deployment can solve all problems. The servitor misconduct and greed are issues that affect pilgrim flow to the temple town. As per the Record of Rights of the temple, it is explained implicitly that the servitors who are absolutely temple-dependent for livelihood need to be compensated decently. The ones that engage in any other economic activity including lucrative employment outside the temple domain, private business that fetches handsome dividends, must be identified and kept outside compensation packages. If their children come back to depend wholly on the temple services, they can be reconsidered.
*The last most remarkable step the Naveen administration has taken is truly commendable: cancelling all discretionary land allotments. This is probably one of the best of pro-people decisions that the State has taken in decades. However, why punish the allottees aloneIJ The biggest culprits are the Urban Development Ministers who have doled out scarce resources like precious ever-decreasing land which the poor and the deserving can never acquire. The allotting authorities as well as the Cabinet that took the decision to grant the anti-Constitutional authority to the executive must be brought to book and punished exemplarily.
As is amply witnessed, not much has happened to make the Ministers democratically functional. They are driven and guided by smart bureaucrats, which is not a bad idea, but what is brewing on a never-ending mode is an unfelt, unseen rebellion within the BJD outfit.
*lastly, as oftentimes told, the Modi and Naveen administrations must remove polythene and such other toxic, non-biodegradable materials from the face of our soil to let the drains become functional. The historic stray cattle across India will also survive and give us the much-needed milk for our babies. Paradoxically, India is the biggest producer of milk in the world with one of the lowest per capita consumption.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)