THE STRATEGY OF SILENCE

                              The strategy of silence

In politics, the consummate players have to know when to speak and when to be silent. Manmohan Singh lost his gaddi because he maintained a studied silence at all times, hoping that the storms would spend their fury and vanish into the horizon of comparative calm. Since Rahul found his tongue after the extended sabbatical of introspection, he has decided to be loud, uproarious, brash and vulgar, hoping that the pitch and timber of his vocal fury would move some of his listeners to side with him.

Modi is a flawless player. He let the entire Lalit Modi affair fade away into the drainage system of the proverbially short memory of the public. He did not speak a word in defence. His loyal fans see a deeper strategy behind the master’s silence. The criticism reduced the carefully crafted image of those party men who could pose   a political challenge in the future, and he let the Opposition perform this odious task for him.

It is not equally evident why he lets the fringe of the Hindutva crowd get away with comments that diminish the stature of the NDA Government without even a mild admonition or rebuke.

There are several schools of thought to explain away this studied silence. The most popular belief is that he feels that such hegemonic slogans in defence of Hinduism tend to solidify the Hindu vote bank, which has traditionally been fractured into the secularists and the Hindutva lovers. To some extent, those Hindus who found it morally superior to flaunt a pro-Muslim stance on contentious issues and personalities of the past may have found it possible to saunter their way into the motley crowd of Muslim-baiters.

This kind of volte face might not apply to strong characters like Girish Karnad, who might even indulge in deliberately provocative stances in order to receive death threats a la Salman Rushdie. But such exceptions only tend to  prove the point.

The second school of thought avers that the views of the lunatic fringe are an extreme version of the basic belief held by Modi himself that Hinduism represents the highest form of civilized thinking over the millennia and across the continents. The way he has introduced Yoga into the international arena, persuaded the UN to celebrate the World Yoga Day on 21^st June, patronised the efforts  to train millions of people   in Yoga , introduced Yoga education in the schools and so on is one such initiative. 

 

At the philosophical level, he is an acolyte of Swami Vivekananda and is a great votary of Vedanta as being the acme of spirituality. He is a patron of the Vivekananda Foundation and has drafted some of his top advisers from that body.

The third theory contends that he was an RSS pracharak all his life and has been popularising the Sangh ideology by travelling from village to village. Although he was married, he has led a life of bachelorhood. He deeply believes in the theory of an Akhanda Bharat and would like India to emerge as a Hindu Rashtra.

Modi’s opponents contend that his studied silence on crucial issues gives out the wrong impression that  the statements made by the Sangh functionaries have been averred in the public domain with blessings from the PM.

This may be far from the truth. Let us take the declaration about the need for a rethink on the entire policy of reservation  made by Mohan Bhagwat as an instance. At this point of time, when the waters have been muddied by statements and counter-statements galore, it is difficult to guess what Bhagwat meant in the first place and whether it was a casual remark  or the result of a carefully thought out strategy. Did he mean abolition of reservation of seats in educational institutions and  the earmarking of posts for recruitment to posts under the Government ? If so, it could at best be a slip of tongue for a seasoned politician like the Sarsanghachalak. And Modi is no greenhorn to have instigated it or even tolerated it, considering the potential damage this would cause in the Bihar elections.

If on the other hand, it was a deeply thought out strategy to fracture the reserved category vote into families receiving the benefit of reservation for the first time and those who had already benefitted from it, that would be a completely different  matter. But then Bhagwat should have made it clear in the very first place. The explanations offered by the spokespersons might have contained the damage somewhat, but it is undeniable that the declaration gratuitously allowed Lalu to reap an unforeseen political dividend .

There are other instances of Modi’s silence. Take the appointment of the Chairman FTTI Pune which has snowballed into a long drawn out controversy. It boggles the imagination as to why the appointment of a nobody like Gajendra Chauhan, who is neither a celebrated actor nor a notable BJP sympathiser should have been made a point of prestige by the I&B Ministry.

The explanation offered that even in the past persons who were close to the establishment were appointed to such posts ` is neither here nor there. No one holds the view that a first rate film actor like say Shatrughan Sinha or Hema Malini would have elicited the same kind of response. It is not clear why a call from the PMO did not nip the agitation in the bud.

There have been numerous aberrations perpetrated by the Shiv Sena, which is an uneasy partner of the BJP in Maharashtra. The Sena has opposed any sports or cultural contact with Pakistan. Even a discussion on a book did not materialise. Such antics on the part of the Sena may be acceptable, but not the inability of its BJP partner to distance itself from such extreme viewpoints and to ensure that the events took place with the active support of the Govt. and its law and order machinery.

That brings us to the murder of a literary figure in Karnataka and its fallout in the literary world. It may technically be true that the primary responsibility for maintaining the rule of law rests on the shoulders of the State Government . But this does not absolve the Centre from its share of responsibility.The murder of this literary giant sent ripples in the entire community of creative persons and when the Centre showed complete apathy led to the return of the Academy awards and other prizes and honours  received by writers, actors, scientists and so on.

The Centre’s defence of its inaction did not cut much ice. To paint the  response of the creative community as political and confined to the favourites of previous regimes rubbed salt in their wounds. It  was no use pointing out that the Akademies and other bodies could not be held responsible for the atmosphere of intolerance , if there was any. The episode could have been nipped in the bud by registering a CBI case to investigate the murder and giving an assurance from the highest level that such dastardly acts would not go unpunished.

That said, it has to be admitted that India is inherently tolerant  because that is the nature of Hindus.Hindus  are taught with mother’s milk that the whole world is one family and that non-violence is the highest rule of righteous conduct. Thus Hindus have traditionally suffered repression and tyranny at the hands of rulers, invaders and conquerors. Many would call this cowardice, not tolerance.

After independence too, the Hindus have followed a policy of treating the minorities with kid gloves. We adopted a version of secularism which favours the minorities. The received wisdom has been that if Hindus favour the minorities, they are secular, but if they favour Hindus they are communal. The result is that the civil code of Hindus has been amended to accord with the modern values of gender parity, monogamy etc. The civil code of the minorities has remained untouched. This has caused    a demographic imbalance that has pushed the percentage of Muslims to 19% of the total population.

Many observers feel that with the ascension of Modi to power, there has been a qualitative difference in the way these policies have been adumbrated in the past. The Hindu right has started asserting itself. For a long time Nathu Ram Godse was consigned to eternal damnation for having assassinated the Father of the Nation. Now the Godse apologists have emerged from the woodwork. The defence statement of Godse has been widely, openly and extensively circulated and there are several groups who feel no hesitation in criticising the Mahatma for his pro-British , pro-Muslim policies. They defend the murder on the ground that it was the only way the Hindu interest could have been subserved.

A strong lobby is emerging that there should be a quid pro quo in Indo-Pak relations. It does not see any point in India’s unilateral generosity in granting the most preferred nation treatment to Pakistan, when it is not willing to reciprocate.

On the issue of terrorism, this hawkish lobby asserts that we should not allow Pakistan have the best of both the worlds at our cost. They are sympathetic to the Shiv Sena ideology. They would not permit cricket matches to be played, Pakistani singers to visit India on long, lucrative tours, Pakistani actors to play in Indian plays, serials and films, Pakistani books to be discussed and sold in India and so on until Pakistan shuts up its terrorists within its own boundaries.

On the issue of beef, this lobby wants that States which have not yet passed legislation that prohibits the slaughter of cows should do so at the earliest. Those which have banned only cow slaughter should extend the ban to bulls, heifers etc. Muslims should not be allowed to slaughter , keep and even privately eat the prohibited species.

The Census figures of 2011 which show a marked jump in the proportion of Muslims have triggered a debate on the need to change the law relating to marriages. They should not be permitted to have more than one wife. A special family planning drive should be launched to limit their growing numbers. There should be a strict vigil on the borders with Bangladesh to prevent the entry of illegal immigrants into this country.

Some over enthusiastic lobbyists have called on the Hindus to boycott the films having Muslim heroes. Baba Ramdev has gone to the extent of suggesting that Shahrukh Khan should prepare an estimate of his increased earnings consequent upon the conferment of awards on him and transfer the hundreds of crores to the PM/s Fund, instead of merely returning a piece of paper to the Government..

During the Bihar elections some of these tendencies came to the fore. It was suggested that if BJP won the elections in Bihar, sweets would be distributed in Pakistan. It is not uncommon for people pleading the cause of Muslims to be advised to   migrate to Pakistan and let the Hindus live in peace in India.  Some secularists have had their faces blackened with ink or coal tar.

A few years back, Francoise Gautier and Konrad Elst had bemoaned the fate of long-suffering Hindus and put forward the bizarre theory that the Hindus collectively suffered from a “death wish”. The time had come when Hindus should transform themselves into  a more assertive community and learn to be aggressive or at least militantly defensive.

Although Modi is generally silent on all these contentious issues, there are some who feel that his very presence at the helm of affairs is a tremendous boost to the Hindu morale. Some of the overt gestures he has made to Hinduism are the promotion of Yoga and Sanskrit , his adulatory references to Hindu heroes  and philosophers, his presentation of Bhagwad Gita to world leaders, his open acceptance of Swami Vivekananda as his spiritual mentor, his appointment of persons known to be close to the rightist ideology etc.He has not broken the arrangement with the Shiv Sena . He has adopted a somewhat tough posture towards Pakistan.

In conclusion, one could say that Modi has used the strategy of silence very effectively. He is not always silent, unlike his immediate predecessor. In fact, on most issues he is voluble, loud and repetitive. But on contentious matters, he often descends into a silence that seems uncharacteristic of him and allows his silence to be variously interpreted both by his admirers and detractors. Therein resides his consummate skill in communication.

2091 words

                           

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LEAVE IT TO PAPOO

Kawcaw

                                       Leave it to Papoo

Ever since my son pushed off to America, there is a gaping hole in our support system. My computer and mobile are the two epicentres of the technological illiteracy that I suffer from. When Anurag was here, he made it a point to come in the morning to partake of the amrit dispensed by my mother. He would also drop in on his way back from the office. I would invariably have some problem or the other lined up for him.

I also had the able guidance of elder grandson Achintya, who absorbed all his encyclopaedic knowledge by playing with the system. Incidentally, he also contributed to the overcrowding of the desktop by leaving helter skelter his homework, mostly copied from Google. My younger grandson Amrit did not solve any problems; he merely added to my suffering by downloading games and cluttered my desktop with the debris of games he had won or lost.

You could say that I had a permanent establishment of one and a half problem- solvers and one and a half problem-creators. So my bullock cart lurched on but it did lurch. With the exit of the brigade, I was left helpless, buffeted by the storms and hurricanes of the turbulent digital ocean.

Initially I took recourse to the expertise of the younger set whenever and wherever I could catch them: my brother-in-law Ravinder Raina: his son Manik, my other brother-in-law’s son Vinny and a host of assorted nephews, nieces and grandchildren and visitors and acquaintances. These days I admit I have become somewhat of a pest to the younger generation.

I am sure that many people of my age are faced by this sort of situation. To take an example of the kind of stuff that stymies me, my printer started showing signs of ill health some three months ago. It wailed ever and anon, “The ink is running low.” But when I brought it to the notice of my son, he blithely dismissed it at first as the preliminary signal of a temperamental machine. He took out several printouts and found them of high quality.

“You should start worrying, Daddy, when the print quality starts to deteriorate, not otherwise”, he advised.

I postponed the purchase of a new cartridge, especially as refilled ones have a habit of churning out smudged copies and new cartridges are very expensive. It was also not clear whether only the black ink was running low or the coloured one was also showing signs of strain. As I had not taken out manifold versions of coloured prints, I thought the colour cartridge could wait for a little while longer.

Two days before his departure Anurag bought two cartridges from the    Canon shop in Nehru Place, just in case. He replaced the black one and took out a print. It was first rate. He kept the colour cartridge in stock and advised me to replace it only when the need arose.

Little did I realise how much knowledge one must possess to replace a cartridge in a printer. When you open the lid, both the cartridges move on a frame three times before they come to a halt. That is the time when you remove the old cartridge and put in the new one. While inserting the new one you must remove the plastic tape that keeps the ink intact. I had that esoteric knowledge from an earlier encounter  and removed the tape. But when I operated the machine, it would not yield a copy.

To cut a long story short, I contacted Vinod Kaul, my brother-in-law’s brother-in-law, who deals with computer accessories. Several abortive visits later, Vinod was forced to take the copier physically to the Canon Service Centre. It turned out that the machine was throwing tantrums because of a dust allergy. It had to be serviced before it would come back to normal.

About 15 days ago, my wife told me in the morning, “Yesterday Mamaji had rung up around 11 p.m. Apparently your Facebook account has been hacked. Several videos containing obscene material have been inserted on the timeline”. I rushed to my PC and found the page full of videos. I opened one and found some obscene stuff. (A dog and bitch copulating, to be precise, though why an act of nature between two consenting adults should be termed obscene, I cannot fathom)

I had no clue what one did when one’s account was hacked. I thought of who I should consult. Suddenly I was reminded of a dialogue I had with Ajay Kaul alias Papoo who is the second son of my co-brother-in-law Shri Avtar Krishen Kaul. He recently took his parents first to Rameshwaram and Tirupati and then to Dwarka. A veritable modern Shrawan Kumar. When I praised him for his attitude towards his parents, he said, “Mausaji, don’t worry that Gugoo is no longer here. Any time you have a problem I am at your service.”

I said, half in fun, “You are talking like Abhinav Chaturvedi in Hum Log. He would keep on saying , ‘leave it to Nanhe!’ ”

“Yes, Mausaji, you can leave everything to Papoo”.

I rang up Papoo and told him about my predicament. He asked for my Facebook password and signed off.

After half an hour, he and his wife Shiva came to our house. Shiva said, “We have looked at your account. It was indeed full of muck. We have cleaned up the whole thing. So you can go back to work as usual.”

Papoo added, “We have coined a new password for you. It is this”. He passed on a piece of paper. “All you have to do is to inform your friends on Facebook and apologise. As far as Facebook security is concerned we have informed them of the attack. Thy will keep your account under watch. Normally there should not be a repeat attack.”

 I was amazed at the speed at which the younger generation moves. Had Papoo not been around, I would have been lying dazed, not knowing what to do first.

“What do I need to do?” I plaintively bleated.

 “Nothing. All aspects have been taken care of. You just sit back and relax. Leave it to Papoo, I promised you.”

 When it came to transferring the Tata Sky connection from Anurag’s name to mine, I thought it would be damned easy.  Anurag rang them up several times to ensure that the formalities were completed before he left. 

His subscription was expiring on 17^th October. Out of the cleanest motives possible, the company executive advised, “why not let the old connection complete its term and the new connection be taken from 17^th onwards?”

In between my wife rang up several times to be assured that the transfer formalities would be completed before 17^th October. When nobody came physically, we spent the best part of 16^th trying to get hold of an executive in the Customer Care Centre. Most of us have gone through the frustrating experience of talking to a computer. The computer gives you ten options and you have to choose. By the time you have tried to assimilate which option applies to you, it is time for a replay. Finally we succeeded in getting hold of a human being, who forwarded us to someone else, who forwarded us to someone else. Finally we were told that a work permit had been issued and the transfer would be physically completed next day.

We heaved a sigh of relief. It proved to be premature, because the work permit was cancelled by an SMS that evening. No reasons were given but we were invited to have another round of discussions with the computer in the Customer Care centre.

That is when I felt I had had enough.

I rang up Papoo. He heard me out and said,” Do not worry, Mausaji. This will be sorted out in five minutes.”

It was 8 p.m. I put my TV on. It flashed a message saying that our balance with the company was down to Rs. 13.  Soon thereafter,our transmission ceased.

It would have stayed that way but for Papoo. Apparently he rang up the company, found out that our balance was exhausted, made a payment of one month’s charges online and got the connection restored.

Does not sound like magic. But for me it was. I could not have got through to the CCC in the first place. Secondly, I do not know how to make an online payment. If payment in cash had to be made, it could only be on the next day. Thirdly, I did not know where the Tata sky office for Greater Kailash was located.

If this is not magic, I would like to know what is. For me now, anytime I have a problem I cannot solve myself, I have a second son. My slogan is, “Leave it to Papoo!”

Caution:  Lest there is some misunderstanding,Papoo’s services are not available to all the oldies who are confused by the Digital Age. He is available only to his Mausaji.

A HOLIDAY FOR RAJ

                              A holiday for Raj

These days people are on the move all the time. My Mamaji Shri R.K.Sadhu has just returned from Stockholm. My sister Asha and her husband Dev are currently in Singapore. My cousin Usha and her husband Rattan Lal Raina are visiting their son in the States.

Why am I saying all this? Today, this is ghar ghar ki kahani. Children are settling abroad and parents visit them.

Raj is special. She is bound to her hearth and home with hoops of steel and is not one of those gallivanting grahasthins who hanker after holidays and  hotels. She is happiest looking after her own brood like a mother hen. 

Sathya Sai Baba told her once in a personal interview that she would have to spend most of her time looking after the  welfare of many generations. Raj  replied promptly, trying to display her knowledge of arithmetic, “ Yes, Baba I have to look after four generations.”

Baba smiled mischievously and looked obliquely at Urvashi, our daughter-in-law. “No, five, “he said.

 Baba was right! For many years now she has had to cater to five 

generations of Kaws ranging from my mother who is ninety to Amrit who is nine. With my son’s family moving recently to Cleveland, her attention span has come down to three.

So when I recently went to Panchagani in Maharashtra, she sneaked in a holiday for more than a week.

I have been going to Panchagani now and then to participate in training programmes run for senior officers of the Government in collaboration with the Department of Personnel, Govt. of India.I have been waxing eloquent about the ambience of the place, its plateaus and valleys, strawberries and silence,   trips to nearby villages and  temples, mild climate and flowers, tips for inner governance and changing life’s agenda.

As it turned out, she got a rude introduction to the place. The flight from Delhi was delayed by half an hour and heavy rainfall and traffic Increased the time taken to get out of Pune town by another hour. It rained all the way to Panchagani and it was quarter past ten when we finally reached our destination.

Luckily the management had taken care to keep a hot case in our room with a delightful fare of dishes. The room was warm and welcoming. We had a leisurely meal and then fell into deep sleep.

Raj attended our training sittings  in the next few days and found them quite absorbing. The major theme of our sessions on inner governance proceeds to expound the central thesis advocated by Buchman, the founder of MRA. It is simply put thus: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

The teachers at Panchagani are all volunteers, trying to transform the world as per their heart’s desire. The training methodology is quite different, replete with incidents from their own lives, songs by large groups of international interns, short video films, interesting management games and so on.

There was a short visit to Grampari, a village development project, where the Director’s wife Jaishree runs various programmes of rural arts and crafts, teaching the villagers to take clean drinking water, give up drinking and to respect their womenfolk. I have been there quite often, so I let Raj go to the village, along with the other ladies who had accompanied their spouses.

She showed me the knickknacks she had bought at the craft centre, mostly bags and purses to be distributed as gifts to her many nieces.

That evening we had a talent nite of the trainees where they presented a variety entertainment programme. At dinner we had met Asma, a Kashmiri Muslim girl who has married a Gujarati boy. I asked her whether she could sing a Kashmiri song. One thing led to another and the result of this casual conversation was the presentation of a duet by Raj and Asma. Later I sang a Ghazal by Ghalib “Dil-e-nadaan tujhe hua kya hai” . And on a special request Raj and I sang on old duet “Mohe bhool gaye sanwariya “, which is a favourite of ours from our Himachal days.

Next day, we had a lecture by Anil Swarup, the Secretary (Coal) who explained how he had successfully handled the coal auctions. It was an electrifying presentation. Anil is a powerful speaker and brings both personalities and problems alive to his audience.

There was a trip to Mahabaleshwar temple on the programme. The trainees went separately and we had a car for two members of the faculty and their wives. Although it stated to rain we did not pay much attention to it, this being the season for rain. But when we reached the temple, there was a sudden and sustained downpour which made the ascent to the temple impossible. We waited for half an hour ,but Lord Shiva not showing any indication of relenting, we had to reluctantly withdraw.

On the way back we paid a visit to Maypore, an enterprise run by a Vohra, where strawberries are grown on a large scale and then converted into numerous products. In their restaurant we had a pizza and strawberry ice cream and coffee. It was yummy.

Thus the programme progressed as per schedule. We had a brain storming session with the Secretary Personnel, who had brought all his senior officers. The discussions centred mainly on two issues—performance assessment and citizen-centric system of governance. The discussions were very instructive and satisfying, with some novel suggestions coming up. Only time will tell whether any of the ideas would see the light of the day.

Soon it was time to leave. We left Panchagani with some regret in our hearts. But one thing was for sure. The holiday was a good break for Raj. Let us see when we can leave our Kaw Aul (Crows’ Nest) at Pamposh next.

_______________________________________________________

MAALISH KERALA STYLE

Kawcaw

                        Maalish-Kerala style

When I had a bout of low grade fever a few months back, I didn’t take it seriously. No one knew why I was running fever.

In the good old days they called it “P.U.O”. When, in the early sixties of the last century, my disease was diagnosed as PUO, I thought I had contracted one of those unmentionable, incurable ailments that was only whispered or aspirated, never put into words. Gingerly I broached the subject to the doctor. He looked at my face frozen in fear and trepidation and laughed outright.

I was aghast. Imagine a doctor deriving merriment from his patient’s predicament!.

“What is funny, Doctor Saab?” I asked, a trifle petulantly.

He saw that his response had hurt my sentiments.   “No, no. Believe me, I was just laughing at us doctors and the games we play.”

“Games? What games? ”

“Look here, my dear young man. PUO is no disease. It stands for Pyrexia of Unknown Origin. When the doctor finds a fever without understanding its origin, he writes P.U.O. He doesn’t wish to admit his ignorance.”

The doctors of today do not possess this brand of self-deprecatory humour. They call everything they do not understand as ‘viral fever,’ as if it is a diagnosis.

So officially I had viral. My platelet count went down. Whenever the thermometer crossed 100 degrees, I had a tablet of Crocin. I drank plenty of fluids, hoping to flush the febrile elements out of the system. After ten days, the fever subsided and stayed down. I was declared cured, but I was told not to overstrain myself as it might bring on a relapse.

This fever gave me a certain weakness in the legs, which made it difficult to walk normally. I exercised the muscles, I drank coconut water and juice, and ate apples and pomegranates and drank Protinex with my milk, but the weakness persisted.

One day, when we discussed the matter in a family council, my wife suggested we try out the Kerala Massage. We did some exploration and then located the Santhagiri Ayurveda and Siddha clinic at Saket Family Courts Complex. We had some previous experience of the Kerala system and knew that they relied almost totally on a set of massages by different names.

Very soon I had embarked on a seven day course of massages on the entire body. I had three masseurs with some bottles of oils which were heated to boiling point. Then two of the hefty ones vigorously attacked my body as if it was an object to be revamped and redeemed from its primordial state of weakness. First I lay on my back and the fearsome twosome rubbed the boiling scented oils into me through the pores of my skin. Then I was asked to lie down on my sides and then on my belly, and they did some more of the same.

The rubbing went on for nearly one hour. The warmth and the tactile sensation and the  scent of far off herbs drawn from God’s Own Country was so powerful a soporific that once or twice I caught myself snoring away to glory unaware that I lay on a plastic sheet on a bed carved out of a tree-trunk, in the ferocious grasp of muscled masseurs unknown to me.

After the massage came the bath and then the teeka on my forehead and on the crown of the head. Soon I had put on my clothes and been reunited with my wife who had waited in the anteroom. We met the doctor and he prescribed medicines, elixirs, pastes and capsules, He also suggested a diet chart which depended heavily on red poha and such other delicacies of Kerala.

After a week of this, I was shifted to rice potli treatment, in which after the oil massage, my body was subjected to momentary touches of fomentation by potlis of cloth containing boiled rice and milk.

To cut a long story short, I undertook fourteen days of Kerala Massage. I wonder whether there was any impact of the treatment, but certainly it burnt a hole in my pocket. The only satisfaction was that the cost would have been four times higher if we had gone to Kerala for the treatment. I have also noticed that wives are duly impressed if you undergo an expensive line of treatment. It shows that you are serious in getting rid of the problem.

No use telling the poor things that there is no cure for old age, as it gently creeps on one, unbidden and uninvited.

As the poet  Ibne-Insha has sung,

“Qamar bandhe hue chalne ko, yaan sab yaar baithhe hain

Bahut aage gaye baqi, jo hain taiyar baithhe hain.”

TALE OF A TREE

Kaw Caw

Tale of a tree

It all started with Mr. Khazanchi deciding to plant a neem tree at the edge of his plot some thirty years ago. Pamposh was coming up and no one could foresee the shape this Kashmiri Colony would take in due course. There were 150 plots and each was allotted to a Kashmiri Pandit. The optimists thought it would always stay that way.

With Batta neighbours on all sides, one could make believe that one was still in Malla Pora, Bana Mohalla, 2/3 bridge, Srinagar, Kashmir.

 The years passed. The neem tree grew and it developed a huge trunk. Mr. Khazanchi had its branches lopped from time to time. Naturally, he tried to save his own house from the arboreal invasion. The tree was allowed free play across the road and it slowly and gradually developed a definite tilt towards us. To the extent that it crossed the service road and started wafting scented breezes into our drawing room.

At first, we did not mind. A neem tree is, by all accounts, a useful neighbour to have. Its tiny twigs can be made into daatuns. Its leaves are bitter to taste and can be used as an antidote to diabetes.  Ayurveda recommends that its leaves be chewed and digested every morning.

But you can have too much of a good thing. When the branches enter your bedrooms and the tree drops its leaves every day, it adds to the litter in the house and makes a mess of your interiors. So whenever the inroads became too intrusive, we called the horticulture wallahs, gave them something as chaipaani and had light pruning done.

Thus historical events led ultimately to the survival of a sole fat low-level branch, with which the horticultural department was not prepared to tinker. I suppose even chaipaani has its limitations. When we found the bottom line of horticultural honesty, we made out a case for lopping of the obtrusive branch and had it forwarded to the Forest Department.

This low level branch proved to be a great hazard to life, limb and property. Because it was low, no truck which had stacked material in it, could cross. Suddenly, at the most sensitive point in the Sunday afternoon siesta, the bell would ring its shrill summons. Both I from the ground floor and my son from the first floor would come out running, dishevelled and sleepy. The truck driver would express his apologies but could we please move the car parked on the side of the road, so that the truck could bypass the low-lying branch?  After the tenth such interruption of the holiday siesta, we decided to photograph the branch from various angles and made out    a forceful case for  lopping   off the branch.

I was told that an official of the Forest Department had inspected the spot but he was not convinced.

Soon thereafter, the matter became more serious. One day, there was a huge turbulence in the air. The trees shook up and down, as if acted upon by a veritable tsunami. As my son took out his car, the neem tree lost one of its huge members, missing my son’s car by millimetres. We were shaken up by the incident, which could have had serious repercussions.

And now the coup d’ grace! A water crisis hit Pamposh, with the motors conking out every  second day. The Jal Board sent out its tankers. One such tanker, filled to the brim and thus made much heavier, took the detour and     raced its engine while standing on     our ramp. When it left a few minutes later, the ramp had collapsed and been converted into a deep ditch. We engaged the services of Mange Ram contractor and he presented an estimate for the repairs. Several rounds of negotiations later, the tanker’s momentary romp on the ramp had   cost us a hefty sum of Rs. 13,500.

Now the Lakshmi Rekha had   been well and truly crossed. I spoke to my neighbour Shri Shakdher who also happens to     be the General Secretary of the Residents’ Welfare Association. We motored up to the Shooting Range where the Forest Department is located. We were lucky to have an audience with the Deputy Commissioner (Forests), who promptly permitted the lopping of the low-lying branch so guilty of misbehaviour.

What tilted the balance in our favour? Was it the tale of woe I narrated  to the officer?  Or the story of how we had,  in the Fifth Central Pay Commission, equated the Indian Forest Service to the Indian Police Service in all respects?

Or   was it my visiting card which was a proof of my past? 

Whatever the reason,    the tree is no longer a menace to our life, limb and happiness.

_______________________________________________________  

/

The New National Education Policy (draft)

New National Education Policy for India, 2016 (draft)


Need for a new policy:
National education policies have been formulated from time to time. The last such exercise was made in 1986 and the said policy was partially modified in 1992. MHRD has already started a process of consultation and they hope to formulate a New NEP by early 2016. A quarter century does not appear to be an unreasonably short period for such a policy-bending effort.

Factors to be taken into account:
The new factors that have to be taken into account are the following:
i) The Constitutional provisions for a fundamental right to education.
ii) The Constitutional requirement that all children between the ages of six and fourteen should be in elementary school.
iii) The pledge taken in the presence of the global community that Millennial Development Goals shall be achieved within a certain time frame.
iv) The targets laid down in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and the Rashtriya Uchtar Shiksha Abhiyan.
v) The policy pronouncements about Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Digital India, Skill India, Make in India, Smart Cities and the like.
vi) The recommendations made by various expert committees about the educational system.

Changes in the situation:

Since the last review, there have been momentous changes in the situation in India and worldwide. Some of these may be summarised below:
a) The rate of change has accelerated. New knowledge is being generated at a faster pace. Individuals, societies, governments and educational and other systems are finding it difficult to keep pace.
b) The introduction of sophisticated ICT devices has transformed the educational scene beyond recognition. Classrooms are becoming passé. The emphasis is on experiential learning in project mode and group work, with the teachers acting more as facilitators and sounding boards than as transmitters of information.
c) Education is getting globalised and commercialised, and the participation of the private sector is changing the rules of the game.
d) A view has to be taken as to what part of the financial burden would continue to be borne by the Governments on equity considerations and what can be passed on to the other players like not-for-profit entities, totally private bodies with a clear profit motive and various shades of public-private participation.
e) What would be the ideal funding pattern, sharing of liability between the Central and State governments, possibilities of international agencies and foreign Governments pumping in resources, scope for private investment, both domestic and foreign etc.


SCHOOL EDUCATION:

A new National Curricular Framework:
A new national curricular framework needs to be worked out. There should be awareness and acceptance of the newly emerging realities of the Indian and global situation.

For example, the environment is being damaged to an extent where it appears that humanity is moving towards voluntary self-destruction. Gender parity and the need to protect women from rape, sexual exploitation and ill treatment  are becoming live issues.

There has to be greater emphasis on acquainting the students with the magnificent ancient Indian heritage. History will have to be rewritten with glorification of Indian heroes, patriots and freedom fighters and a more balanced evaluation of the foreign invaders who have been lionized by historians with a colonial mind-set.

Immense damage has been caused by the predominance of the western tendency to place science and spirituality as mutually antagonistic .The Indian wisdom that the physical and the spiritual are part of the same continuum needs to be taught.

Nationalism and patriotism are values that ought to be instilled in our youth. They should be lovers of their own country without being jingoistic. More than ever before, they have to be taught how to live together in harmony and peace.

While there has to be a national framework, it is more urgent than ever before that the curriculum should be transacted in the specific regional context in which the students live.

Introduction of the common school system:
We have been talking of various programmes aimed at improving the lot of the poor, but we have a dual educational system, with the children of the rich and the poor going to different types of schools. The Right to Education Act is infructuous without the adjunct concept of a neighbourhood school, to which all children have an equal right to be admitted.
The only exception is the Navodaya School, which caters predominantly to the poor and the weaker sections and at the same time provides a first-rate education.
What we need is a Navodaya School for every child, with a map of the neighbourhood each school is supposed to serve. Each child would have a justiciable right to be admitted to the neighbourhood school. It shall be the duty of the school management to admit every child currently out of school. Reasonable fees shall be charged, with the poor getting educational vouchers from a Government agency.

Policy of no detention:
Currently no child is detained at any stage in elementary school up to Class X. This decision was taken on the ground that children could not bear the stress of frequent examinations and tended to go into bouts of depression, even extending to a tendency to commit suicide.
 This might be partially true, but a ‘no detention’ policy is not the answer. While the public schools take weekly, monthly and quarterly tests, teachers in government schools have stopped teaching, as their inefficiency or idleness does not get exposed.

Traditional methods of teaching:
As the foundations of the learning process are laid during this period, time-tested techniques of teaching should not be jettisoned.  For example, there used to be a sing-song recitation of the multiplication table, which practice has been rather carelessly given up. Grammar used to be taught with examples of correct and incorrect usage. We should not have novelty in pedagogical techniques for novelty’s sake.

Response to evaluation reports:
Pratham and the Aser Foundation have been bringing out year after year the results of surveys of learning outcomes in government schools. These make dismal reading as they show that fifth grade students have literacy and numeracy skills of Class 2. This calls for special classes during the holidays to specially teach literacy and numeracy skills, especially to first generation learners.

Objectives of education:
The chief objectives of education should be threefold:
Values
Vocation
Wisdom

Values:
The values to be instilled are Truth, Righteous Conduct, Love, Non-violence and Peace.

Vocation:
Vocational education is not popular either with parents or students. A new mind-set has to be created through advocacy and public relations effort at the highest level. The attempt should be to send 80% of the school-going       population into vocations, whether through vocational education in schools, industrial training or training through master-craftsmen. What is needed is a seamless transfer of credits across educational systems, hierarchies of technical training and education and practical industrial experience. A beginning has been made with the promulgation of the National Skill Qualification Framework. This system of credit transfer has now to work across States, countries, general and vocational education streams and on-the-job industry experience.

The objective should be to make India a Knowledge Superpower, with emphasis on technical skills. For this purpose, technical education/ skill infusion should be declared to be a fundamental right.

Wisdom:
Wisdom can be transmitted by cadres of inspiring teachers who shall transfer the art of living through example, precept, yoga, meditation and applied philosophy. The role of teachers in the educational process has to be revisited. Teachers can no longer be mere purveyors of information. They should act as mentors who advise students how to learn. More than anything else they should inspire students to prepare their entire personality to live a life of creativity, innovation and service to society.

HIGHER EDUCATION

India has the second largest system of higher education in the world. The gross enrolment ratio is also quite high.

What is worrying is the small average size of our universities and colleges. They are academically and economically unviable, and operate at sub-optimal levels. Their regional distribution is also quite skewed. This last problem has been recently addressed by setting up central universities, IITs and IIMs in States where there were none. But such easy solutions merely hide the problem and do not solve it.

The real solution lies in infusion of sufficient funds into this sector by making suitable provisions in the Central and State budgets. In the absence of such resources, state Governments have been compelled to launch schemes for provision of subsidies to SC, ST, OBC and women students to permit them to join self-financing courses of study. Reservation, quotas and affirmative action are essential but these will have to be supported by a large number of scholarships, fee-waiver and effective loan programmes.

While the State Governments have been drawn into this quagmire of infinite expenditure, they are now feeling the pinch and find themselves unable to sustain the burden. Resultantly, in many States, the Central assistance under RUSA is getting diverted to cover the yawning deficit.

A few years back, the Govt. had imposed an education cess on income tax, and this had become an elastic source of funding for the education sector. This cess has been recently discontinued, but there is an obvious need to rethink this decision and in fact, take recourse to multiple sources of funding like international bodies, bilateral aid, FDI, funds available in CSR budgets of corporates etc.

Over the last two decades, the field of higher education has witnessed a degree of chaos and confusion. Although there have been private institutions of repute, there has been no declaration of a cogent policy on higher education.

The fact of the matter is that the demand for higher education has escalated at a tremendous pace due to the perceived advantage both to the individual and the economy. The budgetary provisions have not kept pace with the demand and the Government has allowed the entry of the private sector, with reluctance. There has been a stigma attached to the emergence of private initiatives, in as much as these have been seen as actuated solely by the profit motive.  Some time back, the Planning Commission went as far as classifying higher education as “a non-merit good” to justify its benign neglect of the sector.
In order to provide for an overarching mechanism for rational policy formulation, there   have been several attempts to invent such a mechanism. Thus the National Knowledge Commission suggested the constitution of an ERAHE (Exclusive Regulatory Authority of Higher Education). The Yash Pal Committee recommended a NCHER (National Commission for Higher Education and Research). The AICTE Review Committee has suggested a Higher Education Policy Panel in the Niti Aayog. None of these options has come about so far. The bull has to be taken by the horns by clearly defining the role of the private sector.
It does not seem feasible to create a combined mechanism owing to the turf battles among the various apex regulatory authorities. But it seems necessary to demarcate their areas of jurisdiction with clarity and insulate the highest positions from outside interference by delineating a special procedure for recruitment and giving them a single tenure of five years. All these bodies should enjoy greater autonomy.

It does not appear necessary to have such a vast variety of higher educational institutions. What we need is a small compact band of top-rated institutions like Central Universities, IITs and IIMs to lead the pack. The second rung can consist of Universities and deemed universities. All other brands can be discontinued.

India is only one among four countries where colleges are still affiliated to universities. The system of affiliation should be discontinued within a decade. All institutions should be regulated through a system of rating by independent rating agencies and evolve across phases of graded autonomy through a process of well-directed mentoring and development.
It should be mandatory for each educational institution to get an annual rating and a periodic accreditation through authorised agencies. Only institutions with a proper score should be allowed to continue. Those who do not improve should be merged in other institutions or closed down. Such a strict procedure will ensure the quality of our graduates and make them acceptable anywhere in the world.
While NBA should continue to be the authority for accreditation of technical institutions and NAAC the same for general institutions, both the organisations will need to be supported by a number of sister agencies duly licensed for the same by the respective apex regulatory authority.

Control, Regulation, Self-regulation and Autonomy:
While investment in educational institutions has to be made by the Government, philanthropists, industrial houses, not-for-profit entities and individual investors that does not mean that they should control the institution. At best they may regulate, but even this should depend on a rating by independent rating agencies. Better than this would be self-regulation. And the best option is that of autonomy
More than any other sector the educational sector   should apply the twin principles of graded autonomy and generous financial assistance.



Governance and recruitment procedures:

There are vestiges of colonial thinking in our higher educational institutions. For example, the Chancellor has merely a ceremonial role, as he presides over meetings of the university court and the Convocation. The University Court meets once a year to listen to the Annual Report and the Annual Accounts. Such institutions perhaps need to be discontinued.

There has been a complete bureaucratisation of the procedures for recruitment to the posts of Vice-Chancellors, Pro-Vice Chancellors, Deans, HODs, Professors and other teaching staff. The whole process needs transparency and decentralisation. The VCs should be appointed by a Search cum selection Committee and they in their turn should appoint Pro-VCs and HODs, who should appoint professors and so on.

The day to day management should be delegated to the PVCs, Deans and HODs. The VCs should concentrate on long-term vision, futuristic thinking and overall leadership.
The whole atmosphere should be one of trust and confidence. Feelings of loyalty should be generated.

ORGANISATIONAL ISSUES:

At the top of the pyramid there should be a single Ministry of Human Resource Development, covering the entire gamut of education. It should have a single cabinet Minister and a single Secretary..
The Ministry should cover the cognate subjects of culture, sports,, women and child development and so on.

The expenditure on education should be at least 8% of the GDP.

There should be a combined Central Board of School Education. The CBSE and ICSE should be merged therein.

There should be an all India Service called the Indian Education service. It should man all the senior posts in the Centre and the States.

An Education Commission should be set up in each State. It should recommend major modifications that ought to be made in the educational system of the state.

The entire policy making should be masterminded by the CABE which should give representation to all the stakeholders.

PM vs.PM

Silly point

                              PM vs.PM

(An authoritative transript of the recent hour-long conversation between Manmohan Singh and Narinder Modi.)

Modi: Sat Shri Akaal, Sardar Sahib. I hope you are well.

Manmohan: I am as all right as you permit me to be, Modiji.

Modi: I am sorry to hear a trace of anger in your reply, Manmohanji. I thought I had treated you rather well.

Manmohan: Well if you call the contrived release of belated disclosures by retired civil servants as good treatment…

Modi: This is a free country, Sir. Everyone is free to write his memoirs. Do you hold me responsible for their sensational trash?

Manmohan: You call these books sensational trash? I thought you or your aides had a hand in facilitating their publication at politically strategic moments.

Modi: Not at all, Manmohanji. I think you have misread my character a little. I thought you would have noticed that all my barbs were directed elsewhere.

Manmohan: I do not wish to sound persistent. But why should Baijal, of all people, choose me as the main target and bring me within the direct line of fire?

Modi: I am sorry that I do not know Mr. Baijal as well as you do. You might be better able to judge his motives. Let me make it clear. I do not waste my ammunition where there is no enemy target. And I do not see you as an enemy target.

Manmohan: I thought you knew of the unwritten rule which forbids a straight hit at your predecessor.

Modi: Of course, I am well aware of it. If I had not, would you be an honoured guest today at 7, Race Course Road?

Manmohan: For that I am indeed grateful. I think you have restored my self-respect to some extent. You have also started a guessing game in the media as to what the real purpose of today’s meeting is.

Modi: Let them speculate. They will never guess the real motive. I had to camouflage the whole thing by calling Deve Gowda also. The result was that he went to sleep like the Dormouse in the Mad Hatter’s tea party and I also enjoyed a well-earned nap!

Manmohan: What is the real motive? I must confess I am a little confused myself.

Modi: At the end of this conversation, I shall ask you to guess. But I have suddenly realised that I have been singularly remiss in my hospitality. I have not asked you what you would like. Chai?  Lemon juice?  Or something else?

Manmohan: I think chai will do.

Modi: What kind? Do you take sugar?

Manmohan: I will have light Darjeeling tea with one cube of sugar please.

(Modi rings a bell and gives instructions.)

Modi: Now, Sir. The media thinks you are giving me instructions on various things. Let us fulfil their heart’s desire. My first question: What did you think was my greatest mistake during the past one year?

Manmohan: Shall I be frank? I think this room is bugged.

Modi: You are right. You had yourself installed the device. But the device is deactivated for this conversation. I myself am keen that it should be off the record. Please be blunt and forthright.

Manmohan: I take your word for it. If you ask me for my frank opinion, I must tell you that your greatest blunder so far is that you do not have a Readily Available Natural Scapegoat to take the rap for your mistakes and misdemeanours.

Modi: And you had?

Manmohan: Isn’t it obvious? Have I been personally blamed for anything? The myth that was assiduously spread was that I was incapable of taking decisions. All the major ones were taken elsewhere.

Modi: You mean?

Manmohan: Obviously, I mean…

Modi: How do you call it a myth? Was it not the bald, unadulterated truth? At least, that is what the entire country still believes. You are supposed to have earned a number of lucrative pensions from the UN and its agencies. You believe in simple living. In fact, you are said to possess the original 1985 Maruti car.

Manmohan: All very true, but an elaborate facade. I may have had humble beginnings. I may have occasionally studied my books by the light of a street lamp. But I am not an absolute dunce.

Modi: You mean all this was like my chaiwala myth?

Manmohan: Is your chaiwala a myth? It has already passed into folk-lore. What did your father actually do for a living? Was he a  veritable Seth who owned a chain of tea stores across the railway stations of Western India?

Modi :( purses his lips and smiles)

Manmohan: You are not telling?

Modi: No. But we have been told again and again that Madam took all the decisions. In fact, the received wisdom is that you were incapable of taking any decisions.

Manmohan: Come on. I am internationally known as a modest man. But even I would like to claim that the economic recovery programme of 1991 was masterminded by me.

Modi:  People do give you the credit for reforms. But that is because Narasimha Rao was wholly allergic to taking decisions.

Manmohan: So he was, so he was. What do you think changed when Madam came to power?

Modi: Well, it is generally believed that decision making shifted from the Prime Minister to the Chairman, National Advisory Council.

Manmohan: Nonsense. Madam knew nuts about governance. When had she held even a puny office like that of a peon?

Modi: But your confidant Sanjay Baru has averred that Pulok Chatterjee used to discuss all the files with Madam, before obtaining your orders.  And you just signed on the dotted line.

Manmohan: Confidant, my foot! All our aides are basically time servers. I sacked Sanjay in 2008 and so he cooked up a story.

Modi: Maybe you have something there. So you think I should have a scapegoat?

Manmohan: Absolutely.  More than one, I would say. Mind you, in Amit Shah you have the perfect fall guy for your electoral reverses.

Modi: (smiles broadly) Thank you. Yeah, I think that was a good choice. He even looks like a second grade Don in a C-grade Bollywood movie. Any suggestions about the other scapegoats?

Manmohan: You have spread your net so wide you will need a string of scapegoats. One won’t suffice.

Modi: Who do you think fits the bill?

Manmohan: Some are naturals. For example, you can use Sushma Swaraj for external affairs. Instead, you sacrificed the Foreign Secretary. That was a mistake. You should never antagonize the bureaucracy. They are the most powerful trade union east of Suez.

Modi: What do you think generally about my treatment of the bureaucracy?

Manmohan: You have rightly forged a direct nexus with the Secretaries. You have thus weakened the Ministers.

Modi: So you think that was sound strategy?

Manmohan: Yes but sacking the Foreign Secretary was a big mistake. Rajiv Gandhi’s decline began when he dismissed the Foreign Secretary.

Modi : What else?

Manmohan: Your comments about bureaucrats wasting time on playing golf or bridge was a big error. These are minor vices and you should let them indulge their little foibles.

Modi: As you know, I speak plainly and bluntly. My elocution is perfect. But is this safe?

Manmohan: In these days of TV cameras recording every word and whisper you speak, such clarity of expression is fraught with dangers. You cannot claim that you are being misquoted.

Modi: So what is the remedy?

Manmohan: You have to take a course in developing a bushy growth near the mouth and learn the art of mumbling vague inanities.      Like I do often.

Modi: You, Sardar Sahib, have raised mumbling into the beard to an art form. We all envy you.

Manmohan: Thank you, but it takes a lot of effort.

Modi: Everyone thinks you are giving me lessons in economic policy. Do you have anything to suggest?

Manmohan:  I think you committed an error when you chose Jaitley as your Finance Minister. His problem is that he looks more intelligent than he is. Now, Arun Shourie looks like an absentminded professor, but inside he is as sharp as nails.

Modi: Yes, but what about economic policy? I do not have the foggiest notion of what I am supposed to do. Now foreign policy is a cake walk. You travel like a Maharajah, shake hands, wave to the crowds, fondle a child, beat a drum, play on a flute, deliver a speech full of praise for the host country and end up with a munificent line of credit. Plus in most places you have the NRI crowds to cheer you up.

Manmohan: Oh, economic policy is even simpler to handle. There are a limited number of options only. With so many predecessor regimes, most of the options have already been exercised. Economic policy essentially involves continuing the good old schemes, but changing the nomenclature. I think you are on the right track.

Modi: Our main problem is that we do not have so many names left. The Nehrus and Gandhis had an inexhaustible list. I have limited options. After you have used Sardar Patel and Chhatrapati Shivaji ,what are you left with? I have had to usurp even Mahatma Gandhi.

Manmohan: I think you have not probed this subject deep enough. You  can use   Din Dayal Upadhyay, Shyama Prasad Mukerjee, Savarkar, Golwalkar, Hedgewar and all the RSS icons. Among the living, you have used Atalji’s name. This sends the subliminal message that he has already passed into eternity. Why not do the same to your other rivals like Advani, Joshi etcetera.

Modi: That is great advice. If I exhaust the list, what then?

Manmohan: If such a contingency arises, you can call me for another cup of tea. If you ever feel the crunch in an emergency, feel free to use the names of the Sikh Gurus. We have ten of them.

Modi: That is a brilliant idea. Am I treating the minorities as they ought to be?

Manmohan: I think there you have the Natural Scapegoats in the hierarchy of the RSS, starting with the Sarsanghachalak.  You are doing well not to come out into the open, either for or against. That way you keep them frightened and docile.

Modi: One of the news channels suggested that you had secret understandings with some Heads of Government, things that were off the record. Can you share your secret understanding with Pakistan?

Manmohan: I do not think you can call it a secret understanding. We can just say that both of us understood the situation rather well.  And the common understanding is---You can discuss Kashmir till the cows come home, but you can never arrive at a solution. Both sides can blow hot and cold alternately, just take care that you don’t both blow hot simultaneously.

Modi: You think the nuclear bomb is a real threat?

(Suddenly Modi looks at the hourglass. The sand is almost exhausted. He smites his forehead.)

Modi: I am sorry. The time reserved for this meeting is over. We shall meet some other time. One final query before you leave: How do I tackle Kejriwal?

Manmohan: That is one question I hoped you would not ask. I think you need not do anything to him. He is in self-destruct mode. Like Bhasmasur, he will soon reduce himself and his AAP to ashes.

Modi: And suppose he does not?

Manmohan: Then leave him to Nanhe

.

Modi: You mean?

Manmohan: Yes I mean… PMs come and PMs go but the double A’s go on for ever

.

Modi: Thank God they are there--- permanent scaffolding against all earthquakes and tsunamis.

Manmohan: Yes. Waheguru be praised!

(They both smile broadly, and shake hands.  Manmohan Singh leaves.)

Modi : (to himself) That was a great meeting. Let me call the Social Media man and float a tweet. The media will lap it up!

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