DISTORTION: Social media including WhatsApp has been distorting history. Indeed, to her shock, editor of “The Guardian” Katharine Sophie Viner, discovered during a Google search that Germans did not kill any Jews (according to Google). All the groups claiming Hitler was innocent were postings by pro-Nazi groups. However, it is well-documented that over six million Jews were killed by Nazi Germany under the instigation of Hitler and his Nazi regime.
By Rajan Narayan
AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when the country’s most straightforward Hindi journalist Ravish Kumar deplored the poor standard of education in the country. For a Saturday following the week when the legal profession is not as safe as it is considered to be. For a Saturday following the week when the government seemed to be more concerned with providing jobs to IT professionals than the local unemployed. For a Saturday following the week when RSS is planning to have its annual meeting in Goa in January 2023 in the run-up to the 2024 parliamentary elections.
AND a few stray thoughts on Ravish Kumar who deplores the deteriorating standard of education in India. This directly refers to the quality of education. “The Indian government’s own draft education policy tells us that the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) rates 68% of our universities as average or below average. 91% of colleges are rated average or below average. These second and third-rate colleges would have produced generations of average or below-average students and scholars. A great deal of hard work must have gone into finishing off all curiosity, any hunger for knowledge and information. The youth of today’s India has been in the making for decades. The youth themselves are not to blame, except that they were asleep when the tragic fact was being scripted, and they remain asleep now that the project of their enfeeblement and enslavement is complete. The young no longer want to understand why a system made them spend lakhs of rupees studying to be engineers when at the end of it all they could not find jobs that would pay them even Rs10,000. Young Indians don’t question why scores of engineering colleges were set up and then shut down. They took loans to gain admission and study in colleges that promised them training and placement. Those colleges don’t exist anymore, but the loans are still being repaid. Meanwhile, a sweat-shop army of software engineers is slaving away in the IT cell of our new rulers. These young men and women will never be part of the glorious national history that they’ve been employed to construct with lies, hate, abuse and character assassinations. Just as their colleges disappeared overnight, they will be thrown into the dark basement of this so called glorious history.”
Back in the 60s when I was in my 10th standard the topper in the Bangalore university got a maximum of 70%. The cut-off percentage for admission to colleges was limited to a few elite qualities and did not exceed 50%. The percentage of students passing SSC and HSSC was an average of 40-50%. Now the percentage of passing is 90%. The cut-off percentage for admission even to the humanities courses in art and literature in St Xaviers college is 90%.
This does not reflect a vast improvement in the quality of education. On the contrary, it dramatizes the decline in standards. The quality of the majority of the colleges and particularly government colleges is very poor. The quality of the students who pass out is even worse. How do you expect this young man to understand issues like communalism? Those who fail or just stop studying in 10th and 12th standards are easily brainwashed.
I have a young friend who believes that only Hindus should live in India. Who believes that, unlike the Catholic and Muslim rulers, the Hindu king never demolished any church or mosque. Hindus should get preference for jobs and admissions to colleges. Which my young friend calls Hindu India.
In a similar argument, Ravish Kumar stresses that it is the poor quality of education that has led to the poor quality of politics in the country. This is why it is not your education or your service to the community — but money power and muscle power that decides the outcome of elections.
DANGEROUS LEGAL PROFESSION
AND a few stray thoughts on the legal profession which is not as safe as it is considered to be. The legal profession is as dangerous as any other profession. The general perception is that the job of the lawyer is to just present the case of his client in court. Even the courts are becoming a little dangerous with gun fights breaking out in court rooms. The riskiest job of the lawyer is to serve notice of eviction on an individual or group which may have been illegally taken over by a third party.
As in the case of the Souza Lobo restaurant which was taken over by a Delhi gang of goons. The lawyer has to serve notice to the illegal occupant of the premises to vacate as per the court order. But the tenant or the occupant may put a resistance. There is every risk that the lawyer, unless he has sought and taken police protection, may be bashed up by the takeover residents.
This is precisely what happened in the deadly attack on junior lawyer Gajanan Sawant in Porvorim, last week. The young lawyer, unaware of the risks of serving a notice of eviction, went to the premises that the court had ordered to be vacated. The shocking twist to this particular case of the eviction notice served on behalf of the court is the Porvorim police, comprising four constables in uniform, beating up the young lawyer Gajanan Sawant who had gone with his client to serve the eviction notice.
This case is not an exception. There are any number of cases where goons are hired by a third party to gain possession of valuable property. If the property belongs to a VIP the problems are even worse. Ironically, as the Supreme Course pointed out the worst defaulters are government departments. The SC has passed strictures against government departments for not vacating the premises being illegally occupied or not paying their power and electricity bills. Senior government officials have been fined for not carrying out the orders of the SC court. Forget about lawyers, even judges are threatened by politicians and political parties.
DIGITAL NOMADS
AND a few stray thoughts on the government being more concerned with providing jobs to IT professionals than local unemployed youth. The state government has announced that they will be investing Rs11 crore in creating co-working spaces for attracting digital nomads. This is the expression that become popular post-Covid-19 lockdowns.
Since it was impossible to enforce the Covid-19 rules of maintaining a 5-meter distance between staff, those in white-collar jobs, particularly in the IT companies, were allowed to work from home. Nomads describe Arab wanderers without a permanent home, they wander the desert on whim and fancy and pitch a rudimentary home for the night wherever they find themselves.
Thanks to Internet whether it is 5G of 10G it is become possible to work from any part of the world. As part of Rohan Khaunte’s ambitious plan to make Goa an international hub, he has decided to create work spaces for highly qualified technical workers who may work independently from any part of the world. According to the high flying Khaunte this will attract hi-tech employees from the world over to come and work in Goa. How this will benefit the Goan people is not of concern to Rohan Khaunte.
The state government could do much better if it invested the same amount of money in setting up of a dental technician school or any other vocational course which would provide jobs to unemployed in Goa.
RSS ANNUAL JUMBO MEET
AND a few stray thoughts on the RSS planning to have its annual meeting in Goa in January 2023, in the run-up to the 2024 parliamentary elections. Goa has always proven to be lucky for the BJP. I recall that even the late Manohar Parrikar did a khaki chaddi march from the Hedgewar school to the Campal maidan to address a meeting on Dassera day when the RSS traditionally holds its meetings.
But this latest proposed meeting in January is a special meeting of not only all the top RSS leader but also those affiliated organizations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Vidhya Bharati, Akhil Bharati Vidyarthi Parishad and 17 similar organizations. It is a matter of concerned to Goa that amongst the issues to be discussed at the meet will be “ghar wapasi” project.
This is the first big RSS meeting in Goa after its state unit was split following the removal of former state RSS chief Shubhash Velingkar. It was at the meeting of the national executive of the BJP in 2002, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister, that the Godhra incident happened and Muslim families in Ahmedabad were brutally killed. Then Chief Minister Narendra Modi was accused of turning a blind eye while the carnage took place. Although Atal Behari Vajpayee had insisted that Modi did not follow the Raj Dharma, he was pardoned by the other RSS factions.
Following the Raj Dharma means equal treatment to all communities. Indeed, this event promoted Modi from chief minister of Gujarat to prime minister of India and there’s a Goa link to this. More specifically the late chief minister of Goa and later defense minister Manohar Parrikar, after whom the just inaugurated Mopa airport has been named, played a major role.
In the 2012 national executive meeting of the BJP held at the Marriott Resort in Panaji in Goa the decision was taken to make Narendra Modi the chief spokesman of the BJP for the forthcoming elections. This was despite strong objection from senior leaders like LK Advani, the late Sushma Swaraj and Murli Manohar Joshi. This was the launching pad for the prime minister- ship of Narendra Modi.
In the recent past there is a feeling in the RSS that Modi is getting out of control. Possibly the objective of the RSS forthcoming convention in Goa is to issue a warning to Narendra Modi.
DROP IN MEDICAL SEATS
AND a last stray thought on the sharp drop in demand for post-graduate medical seats. We already noted that there are no takers for seats in engineering in private colleges. After the counselling round which follows the National Eligibility Exam as many as 3,700 post-graduate seats in medical colleges have no takers.
Needless to say that the seats refused are in private medical college. This is primarily because private medical colleges charge huge amounts for admission to their postgraduate courses. The seats for government medical colleges are of course full up. Even in respect of the undergraduate medical courses and namely the MBBS exam, of the 92,065 seats in 2021-2022, 197 seats remained vacant. Part of the problem with the National Eligibility Test is that it’s the common exam for Allopathy, Homoeopathy, Ayurveda and physiotherapy.
This is surprising as there is traditionally been a huge demand for both undergraduate and post-graduate medical seats. Is it possible that more and more students are shifting to electronics and information technology courses, which are more profitable and give value for money.