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Legends of Pushyamitra Shung

rohan194
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Legends of Pushyamitra Shung

While Nehruvian historians has intentionally distorted Indian history, founding greats only in Ashok & Akbar, despite several evidences of mass murders by both of these, suppressed real legends. While utilizing the time of #Homestay to read and learn a bit about some of the real legends of Indian history, came across a very fascinating Hero – Pushyamitra Shunga (185 BCE – 149 BCE). His journey is quite similar to Chandragupta Maurya, who in order to protect India from Greek invasion, revolted against Nanda dynasty and unified several parts of India.

From an unknown kid to a King:

Boy from a humble family, raised from the ranks of solider to become Senapati (Head of Army) due to his sheer talent under the last Mauryan king Brihadrath. It has been said that Brihadrath while he was on hunt, found a young boy taking head on with a wild tiger and defeating the same to protect the king. Brihadrath promptly decided to recruit him in his army and within few years, the same boy becomes his Senapati. Pushyamitra was very vigilant against raids and possible attack by Yavans (Greeks) and escalated the same to Brihadrath, last Mauryan King. However, Brihadrath, instead of preparing for any possible conflict with Greeks, was rather decided to keep mum or to surrender. Another reason why Brihadrath was not very excited was because some Buddhist monks were surreptitiously helping Greeks and he was not willing to take any action against such seditious monks due to his appeasement policy for specific sect. Worth recalling that Ashoka has made Buddhism, the supreme state religion and was followed by his successors. In order to save His country from possible Yavan invasion, Pushyamitra executed weak Brihadrath in front of the whole army and army chose to side with Pushyamtira as all the soldiers would like to fight and save their country from any foreign invasion instead of going for surrender.

Fake blame on Pushyamitra for religious persecution:

There are some Hinduphobic historians who blame Pushyamitra as a King who persecuted Buddhists. The source cited for vilifying Pushyamitra are two near-contemporaneous (2nd century AD) Buddhist chronicles, the Ashokavadana and the Divyavadana. This non-contemporary story (which surfaces more than three centuries after the alleged facts) about Pushyamitra’s offering money for the heads of monks is rendered improbable by the well-attested historical fact that he allowed and patronized the construction of monasteries and Buddhist universities in his domains.

While Pushyamitra must have punished seditious monks who were caught helping Yavans surreptitiously, exaggerated stories of the cruel persecution of the Buddhists by Pushyamitra have been refuted by historians by pointing out that pro-Buddhist officers were allowed to serve under the Shung administration and from credible historical evidences it’s clear that when the King Pushyamirta ruled, the Buddhists constructed huge Buddhist Stupas at places like Sanchi and Barhut. The Bharhut Stūpa is among the most exquisite stūpas of ancient India with extraordinary sculptural craftsmanship. It was entirely commissioned and built under the supervision of Pushyamitra Shunga. Similarly, the exceptional balustrade surrounding the Sanchi Stūpa standing resolute till date, was built by the selfsame Pushyamitra Shunga.

Evidences are also available to show that during the Shunga rule, people made big donations to Buddhist monasteries without any fear. That speaks of the spirit of tolerance which prevailed in India in ancient times in matters of religion.

The famous historian of Buddhism Etienne Lamotte has observed: “To judge from the documents, Pushyamitra must be acquitted through lack of proof.” (History of Indian Buddhism, Institut Orientaliste, Louvain-la-Neuve 1988/1958, p.109)

According to Ashokavadana, he offered 100 Dinaras for heads of buddhist monks, but the Dinara did not come into use before 1st century C.E. in India. The Srilankan buddhist text, Mahavamsa suggests that monasteries in present day Bihar, Awadh and Malwa during the rule of Pushyamitra’s contemporary Dutthagamani ruled in Lanka. Besides, a text like Ashokavadana authored by fanatic Buddhists, which is far from the truth cannot be held as a primary source. Further, the Shunga-haters cleverly gloss over the mention of Ashoka’s mass murder of Jains in the same Ashokavadana.

It is possible that some buddhist followers and monks were habituated to extreme monetary support and encouragement from Mauryan emperors and those were not given to them by Pushyamitra Shunga and started to frame him as a Anti-Buddhist.

Art & Culture under Pushyamitra:

In both art and literature, the Shung period left impress of its genius on the history of India, comparable to the glory of the Guptas. Worth mentioning that Pushyamitra’s Guru, Patanajali, one of the greatest geniuses in Indian history was a student of another very famous genius Panini, has written Mahabhashya, a commentary on Panini’s grammar and a very celebrated work on Sanskrit literary. Vidisha grew into an important center of ivory and stone carving. Patanjali wrote the famous Yoga sutra which is still followed all over the world. The teachers were recognized for their intellectual qualities. Gurukul style of education continued. Patanjali also refers to the guilds of five types of artisans – metal workers, masons, architects, cooks and confectioners. Trade and farming were conducted in an organized way. There was prosperity all around during Shunga rule.

The highlight of Shunga art was construction of railings and Toranas (Gateways), for Sanchi and Vidisa stupas. This proves that though the rulers were followers of Vedic Dharma, they patronized all other religions. Besides these, the artistic activity kept flourishing in Madhura and Bodhgaya.

Expansion under Shung dynasty:

Vidarbha (extending rule from East to West): Yagyasen (brother-in-law) of Brihadrath’s minister, imprisoned his own cousin Madhavsena and Madhavsena was also happened to be Agnimitra’s (son of Pushyamitra) personal friend. Agnimitra marched against Yagyasen, leading Yagyasen to surrender which brings Vidrabha back under Shung empire.

Extending empire till Indus river in North-West: Malavikaagnimitra (drama written by Kalidas) provides the details about a direct battle between the Greeks and Vasumitra, the grandson of Pushyamitra near Sindhu river where Greeks got defeated. And this way, Pushyamitra successfully completed the Ashvamedh Yagya. Inscriptions of the Shungas have been found as far as the Ayodhya (the Dhanadeva-Ayodhya inscription), as an evidence of performing Ashvamedh Yagya.

Historical records:

Pushyamitra Shunga’s history is recorded in the “Harshacharita” authored by Bāṇabhaṭṭa. Besides Harshacharita, “Mahabhashya” by Guru Patanjali, “Malvikagnimitra” by Kalidas, Vayu purana, Matasya Purana, etc are other prominent scriptures which informs us about Pushyamitra Shung.

References:

https://www.prekshaa.in/valour-pushyamitra-shunga

http://indiafacts.org/ashoka-and-pushyamitra-sunga-a-study…/

http://www.indiancontents.com/…/pushyamitra-shunga-founder-…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayodhya_Inscription_of_Dhana

https://www.quora.com/How-true-was-that-Pushyamitra-Shunga-…

Six Glorious Epochs of Indian History: Chapter 2 by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

When Pt. Nehru sidelined Ambedkar’s constitution and Supreme Court’s verdict to exploit caste based vote banks

Anant Chetan
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When Pt. Nehru sidelined Ambedkar’s constitution and Supreme Court’s verdict to exploit caste based vote banks

Last week I wrote an article: The one difference between the Congress of today and that of before 2014, which basically sheds light on the fact that Indian National Congress was using government powers to win elections. I quoted a handful of instances from a handful of books corroborating the statement. However, these instances were out of the blue, I wasn’t explicitly looking for them. What if I explicitly look for such instances?

This is exactly, what I did this week; look for the instances where power was abused to win the elections. Where do I start was the first question. At first I started with the recent acts that the BJP government brought like abrogation of 370 or triple talaq, or CAA or UAPA, and go backwards, so as to find who did what and in what conditions. But this wasn’t a good idea, as there were a lot of changes and dependencies. In just a few hours the list of “to read” for me exploded.

Then I realized instead of going from 2020 to 1950 (i.e. the year constitution came in effect in independent India for the first time), I should start from 1950 and reach where we are today. And it worked, it just opened the Pandora box of these instances. It was way easy for me to gather information, understand and explain it to my readers. It took me a lot of time to just understand the legal jargon, the various articles involved and supreme court judgments. I will try to explain in layman’s term. Hopefully its easy that ways.

Let’s begin.

We all know British used the principle of divide and rule. How did they do it? I have picked the following from the book “Introduction to Indian Constitution” by Durga Das. They did it using their legal acts, laws and reforms. In the year 1909, the British came up with Morley Minto reforms and the Indian Councils Act. This act for the first time introduced the concept of separate representation of Muslims. This gave wings to the Muslim League which later ask for the state of Pakistan. In the year 1932-33 the then British Prime Minister Mr. Ramsay MacDonald came up with the “Communal Award“; it made provisions for separate electorates for not only Muslims, but also for Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians, Europeans and the Dalits. This is how they planned to continue their rule, divide the population on some or the other issue.

To their disappointment, World War II happened and British came on the verge of getting bankrupt. I will not go into “who got our independence here“, that’s another debate. We somehow managed our independence from British. I mentioned it here because, after independence, the constitution was not written from scratch, there were a lot of acts taken from the pre-independence constitution, for instance the Sati-Pratha or Child Marriage etc were kept. Some parts were modified, for instance, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. BR Ambedkar decided that we will not go with the separate electorate as in the communal award, we will have single electorate but with certain reservations for the economically and socially weak classes to avoid discrimination against them. Just to clarify this is not the reservation we see today in terms of admission (27% OBC, 15% SC and 7.5% ST).

Then came 1950 the newly formed constitution came into effect from January 26, 1950. As soon as it came into effect, a lady named Smt. Champkam Dorarirajan filed a case against the state of Madras for violation of her fundamental rights. The case is known as The State Of Madras vs Srimathi Champakam.

The state of Madras had passed a general order regarding reservations in admissions.

The government reserved seats for various communities as shown on the right. These are the number of seats per 14 seats. She claimed that her fundamental rights under article 15 (1), which is “discrimination on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them” and article 29(2) which is, “denying admission into an educational institution on grounds of religion, race, caste, language or any of them” are violated.

During the same time another gentleman, a Brahmin, S. Srinivasan also filed a case saying that, “just because he is a Brahmin, he is not allowed the seat even though he scored more marks than all other non-brahmins“. From the example above, two other brahmins scored more than him so the quota was used by them and the rest 12 seats out of 14 were not made available to him because he was Brahmin. This is pretty much the same principle on which the reservation works now except that the quotas are different.

What did the Supreme Court say? To my surprise, the court accepted that the state was violating the fundamental rights of the people by imposing such laws. An excerpt of the verdict: “He cannot get any of the seats reserved for the last mentioned communities for no fault of his except that he is a Brahmin and not a member of the aforesaid communities. Such denial of admission cannot but be regarded as made on ground only of his caste. For the reasons stated above, we are of opinion that the Communal G.O. being inconsistent with the provisions of article 29 (2) in Part III of the Constitution is void under article 13. “

So no matter what anybody says on the TV debate, the reservation policy does breach the fundamental rights of not only the upper castes but the reserved castes as well. How? I will come back to this at the end, but first the more pressing issue is that if the supreme court of India gave a verdict then how is the reservation still considered constitutional?

Here comes our beloved Chacha Nehru. By 1951 Mahatma Gandhi (he was the one who supported cow slaughter prohibiting act and got article 48 in place) had died, Sardar Patel had died and Dr. BR. Ambedkar resigned as the law minister as he was annoyed with the dominance of Nehru. There was no leader with the same stature to counter Pt. Nehru. Even today, do you see anybody in Indian National Congress winning any argument with Rahul Gandhi? This is when Rahul Gandhi has lost more number of elections than any other leader. Imagine the kind of power Pt. Nehru wielded in 1951. There so no opposition parties, may be that’s why Gandhi Ji wanted Congress to be disbanded after independence. In each of the state there was Congress rule. And so, ‘apunich hi bhagwan hai’ Pt. Nehru just went ahead and amended the constitution; the 1st constitution amendment. It was literally a cake walk for him, no body to oppose. Constitution amendments come in part 20 article 368. There are a lot of interesting stories related to this that I will be sharing soon. How Pt. Nehru and Indira Gandhi exploited this feature.

So what did he change in the 1st amendment?

Although there were half a dozen additions like putting restrictions on freedom of speech and expression, article 19(1)(a) or freedom of trade article 19(1)(g) or certain land reform acts playing a Robinhood Pandey urf Chulbul Pandey i.e. taking away the wealth of the rich and well forgetting to give it to the poor(I will come up with another story on this one, it is interesting and goes past Indira Gandhi). But for this article the most important was adding a clause (4) in the article 15. Which reverted the Supreme Court judgement(Champakam case) and also made sure that the court will never interfere in any special provision that the State may make for the educational, economic or social advancement of any backward class of citizens.

So, technically, if tomorrow Rahul Gandhi wins the election and manages a constitutional amendment that says “In accordance to Article XX (what could be the value of xx? put it in the comment section) as a Directive Principle of State Policy the government of India or any particular state makes it mandatory for Hindus or lets say upper caste Hindus or Brahmins to pay a mandatory jizya tax for the upliftment of economically and socially backward classes in India”, even though this would be outright discrimination on the bases of caste, but you will lose the case, the Supreme Court would simply say “we can’t interfere in this case”.

Now, you might say, why would he do so? What is in for him? Pt. Nehru very aptly explained this in his book “The discovery of India”. For now, I will mention the three important premises mentioned by him. You could read the entire book, but you can find these three premises in the first 70-75 pages of the book. They are

  1. He is a vote getter, his own words not mine.
  2. He dislikes middle class because they ask a lot of questions and it is difficult to convince them. However, on the other hand, the rural people and who are not well off economically are easy to convince. His words “their eyes light up, they welcome me with a lot of fanfare”
  3. This is the most important premise. Pt. Nehru explains Indian population distribution in a brilliant way. According to him Indian population can be represented in the form a pyramid. Where the number of people on the top of the pyramid is less, they are richer and intellectually more sound. And as we move down the pyramid, the number of people increases but their economic/social/intellectual well being decreases. According to him Brahmins sit on the top of the pyramids.

So, if winning an election is your priority, what do you do? Do you do the right thing or do you make sure that the base of the pyramid is not upset with you and stays with you? Now, correlate this to the first amendment; he amended the constitution to win support for a larger number of voters sitting at the base by violating the fundamental rights of the lesser number of people on the top of the pyramid. Simple but clever electoral politics.

I am in full support of reservations to uplift the backward classes. Every body deserves a chance to make the best of his/her life. The constitution before the first amendment specifically mentioned reservations in the government employment but not in education, and this makes a lot of sense. The state was supposed to find ways within the constitutional limits to uplift and there are many. Its just that they aren’t as easy as giving reservation as a freebie. The governments have been running away from the issues of the socially and economically backwards in the shadow of reservation.

Nehru’s style of reservation does not uplift any community, it only uplifted him and the other politicians who rely on caste based politics. Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru indeed was the pioneer of the art of using Caste based reservations as a tool to win elections.

If his reservation policy was working then

  1. Why is the number of classes in reservation category increasing rather than decreasing? 2399 backward castes in 1955 to more than 5013 in 2006? Read more for details: When or How does a child become “caste-literate”?
  2. And more importantly, how many students from any backward caste have reached supreme court in last 70 years claiming he/she did not get a seat even though he/she scored more marks than all the OBC candidates or SC/ST candidates? Exactly like S. Srinivasan did in 1950. Please have a look at the example proving this case: Caste based reservation violates fundamental rights of even reserved castes!

If this reservation system remains as is, even after 170 years, the case would still be the same.

Exact same thing goes with land reform acts, the constitution before the first amendment clearly stated that if the state takes up the land from rich, he has to be adequately compensated. The first amendment added clauses 31(A) and 31 (B) brushing courts aside (No Judicial Review). I will come up with a complete story about the cases but not here, it is already reaching two thousand words. I don’t want to make it too long.

Is it not surprising that USA has less than 30 amendments in around 300 years of its independence even when it was the first written constitution, and India on the other hand has more than a 100 amendments in less than 100 years of independence? The surprising part is that when Indian constitution was being drafted the constituent assembly referred to around 60 constitutions from various countries including the ones from the UK and the USA. Was Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru in his individual capacity smarter than the entire Constituent Assembly that drafted Indian Constitution put together? Constituent assembly that included legendary leaders like Sardar Patel, Dr. BR Ambedkar, Dr. Rajendra Prasad? I don’t think so.

Please let me know your questions, queries or observations via comments. And if you do find merit in the article please do share it, your sharing would be a motivation for me to come up with the other stories that I have found. So far, only four of my articles (Demonetization, Rafale deal, World Cup 2019 and Covid-19 scam) have reached one million mark. I know this could be the fifth one, I hope it becomes the quickest to reach that mark. Appreciate your support.

Thanks for reading! Please stay tuned for my next story where Pt. Nehru and Indira Gandhi amended the constitution for their benefit.

#CongressOccupationInIndia

Indian education system: A major hurdle in the path of Atmanirbhar Bharat

Sanyam Kaushik
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Indian education system: A major hurdle in the path of Atmanirbhar Bharat

The term education in India is so misinterpreted that after listening to this word one can only think about a combination of 2 years of pre-elementary, 12 years of school education and 4 to 7 years of graduation and post graduation.

We could barely find a bunch of students who had never criticized this education system, otherwise almost all students had would have criticized it at least once in his school era. Yes, it’s true that Indian education system is a highly criticized education structure but what are the major flaws in it? So basically, this system is built up on a structure which is made to give a job seeker as output. It is the machine that doesn’t give gold as output when we insert potato from behind. It provides vast theoretical knowledge but lacks skill development and experiential knowledge.

It leads in creation of such an ecosystem which makes the student’s mind a well’s frog whose knowledge is confined till its well and have no idea about the infinitely large world outside that well.

There are many students who even thought beyond this system and had dreams of starting a billion dollar company but this system never taught them what’s the next step to approach towards their aim, after dreaming. Most of the time many students among those ended up by again joining the same herd of sheep.

Now, we know that in the field of electronics (especially Smartphones), China has dominated a large market in India as there are only a few alternatives of Chinese smartphones in Indian market. India, which is becoming digital at a very high pace has also decided to become self-reliant. 

If India wants to achieve dreams of both Atmanirbhar Bharat and Digital India then it requires major Indian brands in the field of electronics (especially smartphones, laptops etc.) 

It’s also a fact that the field of electronics requires great innovation and creativity, which our education system doesn’t work at.

So, I would not hesitate to say that Indian Education system is a major hurdle or obstacle in the path of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

लव जिहाद

kaunjaatho
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लव जिहाद

लव जिहाद का शाब्दिक अर्थ है प्यार के द्वारा जिहाद या प्यार के लिए जिहाद, अब ये दोनों बातें तर्कसंगत नहीं लगती, तो इसका तीसरा अर्थ है जिहाद के लिए प्यार का उपयोग, ये अंतिम वाला सबसे सटीक मालूम पड़ता है, थोड़ा जिहाद पे चर्चा करते हैं ये क्या है इसका शाब्दिक अर्थ, और इसका मजहबी मौलानाओं द्वारा अंधाधुंध प्रयोग। “जिहाद” शब्द का प्रयोग पहले बार सुरा 22 आयत 39 में किया गया है (फारूख खान और नदवी) इसका प्रयोग उन लोगों को सबक सिखाने के लिए किया गया है जो तब के मुसलमानों को तंग करते थे (उपर लिखे लेखक के अनुसार) पर इसका असली उपयोग मक्का से हिजरत करने के बाद मदीना आने पर कुरेशों के कारवां को लूटने के लिए किया जाता था और माले ए गनीमत को हासिल किया जाता था, जिसने औरतो भी शामिल होती थी उन्हें बांधी या लौंडी के रूप में रखा जाता था।

अब दूसरे शब्द पर आते हैं जिसके अर्थ है प्यार, प्रेम, ये मनुष्य मात्र को मिले उन आभूषणों में से है जो उसके जीवन की एक अमृत तुल्य रस से भर देता है। अब इन दोनों शब्दों की संधि करने पर जो परिणाम आपको मिलता है वो उस विष के समान है जो समुद्र मंथन करने पर, “भगवान शिव” ने ग्रहण किया था मेरा इस विचार को विष समान कहने का कारण आपको निम्नलिखित संदर्भों से स्पष्ट हो जाएगा, इसके लिए हमें गत दिनों में हुए अपराध की विवेचना करना जरूरी है, प्रथम दृषांट उतर प्रदेश के मेरठ के थाना दौराला में हुई एकता देशवाल की निर्मम हत्या का है जिसकी हत्या पिछले वर्ष उसके प्रेमी शाकिब और उसके परिवार के द्वारा गर्दन और एक बांह काट कर की गई, इसमें युवती का इतना ही दोष है कि उसे 80 के दशक की हिंदी फिल्मों की तरह मां बाप का विरोध करके मेहनत से अपना घर बसाना था, पर उसे क्या पता था शाकिब उसे अमन बनके जन्नत के प्रवेश द्वार के तरह देखता था पर सच्चाई सामने आने पर उसे धन के लोभ में प्रभु की शरण में भेज देगा। नाम परिवर्तित करके 19 वर्ष की हिंदू नवयुवती को अपने प्रेमजाल में डालकर उसे मार देना क्या लव जिहाद नहीं है।

दूसरी घटना भी उतर प्रदेश के मेरठ जिले की है जिसमें विवाहित वसीम कुंवारा दिनेश बन गया हिंदू लड़की को फांसने के लिए, नकली आधार कार्ड बनवा लिया, फेसबुक आईडी नकली बना ली और इस प्रयास में वो हिंदू युवती की अनभिज्ञता के कारण सफल भी हो गया, निरंतर दो वर्ष तक उससे दुष्कर्म करता रहा और उसका अश्लील वीडियो बना कर वायरल कर दिया, मामला पुलिस तक पहुंचा आगे आप opindia हिंदी पर पढ़ लीजिए, क्या आप इन घटनाओं में समानता देख पा रहें हैं युवक मुसलमान नाम बदल कर हिंदू युवती को प्रेमजाल में फसता है और उसकी हत्या कर देता है या दुष्कर्म करके वीडियो वायरल करता है और अगर युवती मान गई तो नाम, “सुमन से सलमा” हो जाता है।

अब आप बोलेंगे की ये तो दो ही घटनाएं हैं तो तीसरी घटना दिल्ली के बुराड़ी की है जहां एक हिंदू युवती नेहा अपनी मर्ज़ी से मुसलमान युवक नफीस खान से विवाह करती है और नई उमंगों से नए जीवन की शुरुवात करना चाहती है पर विवाह के कुछ समय बाद ही उसकी सारी उम्मीदें धूमिल पड़ना शुरू हो जाती है क्योंकि वो पहले से ही विवाहित था, वो उसे मारता पीटता, क्योंकि नफीस खान तो खान था जिसे उसके, “आलिम ए दीन या किताब हवा हवाई” बताती है कि औरत तो भोग की वस्तु है वो आपकी खेती की तरह है इसीलिए वो उसे गोमांस खिलाकर उसका धर्मांतरण करना चाहता था पर वो बाहदुर निकली।

इसके एक और पक्ष पे ध्यान दे तो आप पाएंगे की युवतियां अपनी आजादी को छोड़ कर खुद को इन काले तंबुओं में क्यों लपेटना चाहेंगी, इसका मूल कारण उनकी धर्म के प्रति अनभिगत्या और ऐसे बेहरूपियों के द्वारा दिखाए गए सब्जबाग हैं आप अपने बच्चे को सभी प्रकार से कुशल बनाने चाहते हैं पर उसे इस समाज की इन सच्चाइयों से परे रखते हैं, उन्हें सही और ग़लत में अंतर करना आता ही नहीं, किसी भी युवक या युवती पर कोई भी चीज थोपी नहीं जा सकती, उन्हें प्रभावित किया जा सकता है और जब उनका सामना सच्चाई से होता है तो वो दूर निकल जाते हैं उन्हें या तो आत्मसमर्पण करना पड़ता है या मृत्यु, बच्चों के बालिग होने पर उन्हें अपने अनुसार कुछ भी मानने और करने का अधिकार है लेकिन उन्हें पहले उस विषय या मजहब का अध्यन करना भी उतना जरूरी है हां अगर उसके बाद भी वो जाने चाहे तो उचित है।

अपनी बच्चियों को इस अभिशाप और कुरीति से बचाने के लिए उन्हें वैचारिक स्तर पर शाशक्त बनाए, उन्हें तर्क करना, उन्हें समाज में फैली कुरीतियों, उन्हें अपने अधिकार, और उनके प्रयोग की अधिकतम सीमा, परिवार का जीवन में महत्व, फैसले लेने के लिए जरूरी समझ और सुदृढ़ रहकर उनपर अडिग रहना सिखाएं, उन्हें धर्म की तार्किक शिक्षा दे, इन बोने कथाकारों और धर्म के ठेकेदारों के भरोसे ना छोड़ें, उन्हें सबका सम्मान और खुद की रक्षा का महत्व समझाएं।

अंत में इतना कहना चाहूंगा, आप प्रेम करें आप स्वतन्त्र है पर किसी को अपने प्रेम की परीक्षा उनकी नीच और गलत मानसिकता से ना लेने दे, यदि वो कामपिपासू व्यक्ति आपके यौवन और शरीर से ही प्यार करता है तो आपको इस सन्दर्भ में सोचना होगा, क्योंकि आयु की वृद्धि के साथ ये बदलती हैं तो क्या उसे उसका उन्माद नए व्यक्ति की तरफ आकर्षित नहीं करेगा, कृप्या सोचिए और शेयर कीजिए।

India’s moment has arrived!

kumarr260
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India’s moment has arrived!

On the eve of independence, we, the people of India, assumed that India’s moment has arrived after centuries of colonial exploitation. We made our tryst with destiny to remove poverty, illiteracy and ignorance and to feed and clothe the naked masses. But by 1991, we reached the brink of a financial crisis with rampant poverty of 48% population below poverty line, and social strife over mandal (caste) vs kamandal (religion) polity. On the other hand, our counterparts like South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand , Taiwan, etc. who had attained its independence at the same period grew substantially.

Collective Indian society has a habit of learning from their mistakes only when we reach our tipping point. We cooperated with British for our own exploitation and later protested against them when suffering increased. Similarly, by 1991, we adopted the socialist model of development, with slogan of GARIBI HATAO, but this only led to license, quota and permit with inefficient public sector organisations, rent seeking bureaucrats, crony socialism causing economic crisis and wasteful distribution of financial resources of schemes meant for “poor”. Again, we learnt from our mistakes and led to liberalisation, globalisation and privatisation reforms, which saw rapid economic development making India the second faster growing GDP after China by 2008 , and rapid poverty reduction to 22% by 2012.

However, India again grew complacent since 2009 global financial crisis. Cases of crony capitalism replaced crony socialism as seen in scams like 2G, Coal, CWG, etc.. NPAs of banks increased to 12% of its total assets by 2016 due to political interference and favoritism to loyal business houses. However, to legitimize the loot, UPA government also gave the poor some share of its loot through free food, free wages (for inefficient work without asset creation in NREGA), loan waivers for farmers, etc. Over time, the wealth creation was forgotten and wealth redistribution was prioritised. Business were regulated by retrospective taxation and privatisation was pushed to the background. Foreign policy was complacent, so attacks from Pakistan or China were responded with requests and hollow statements. This undermined India’s capacity in the strength of its institutions to provide security, stability and transparency. Inevitably, India growth rate declined to its pre-liberalisation era of 4% in 2018 due to legacy of such policies. Thus, while China has become the 2nd largest economy with 16 trillion $ GDP, India is still lagging at 2.8 trillion $ GDP.

But the present government stands in sharp contrast to these policies discussed above. It has shown tremendous willpower and the capacity in economic, political and foreign policies provided by internal and external factors, which provide an unique opportunity for India to seize the moment and become a superpower. In the following discussion, I will highlight how India is uniquely placed in this scenario and then provide insights on how to reap the moment adequately.

These are a set of internal factors, under the guidance and decisive leadership of the Prime minister, and external factors, due to USA- China rivalry led by American President, Corona-virus pandemic and China’s own mistakes.

Internally, government has been following a pro-business policy, and has also given them respect as wealth creators, as was spoken from the Red fort address from our Prime minister. In a country, where business class vaisyas occupied the lower hierarchy than Brahmins and Kshtriyas, the society never appreciated the businessmen as wealth creators. Rather, capitalists were shunned as greedy exploiters who are looking to suck people’s blood for profits. This is changing as seen by rising number of youths, who want to become an entrepreneur, rather than government employees, with support from government under Start-Up India programme. The most celebrated example is Dr. Roman Saini, who quit IAS (most coveted government job in the country) to become an enterpreneur and created a unicorn company, Unacademy.

Further, government has reduced corruption substantially, especially at top policy and decision making level. This has promoted transparency and level-playing field for all businesses. This incentives competition and innovation to improve quality and earn profits. This is welcomed by all investors, especially foreign direct investments. This has also promoted honesty in the policy making of the state governments, as they face a tough competition to demonstrate their integrity , against Narendra Modi impeccable integrity. Thus Delhi Chief Minister recently said when his ministers were alleged to have indulged in corruption that “I don’t need to track my ministers honesty, because Modiji will do this (of upholding honesty) job for me”.

Even at the grassroots level, the benefits of government schemes were diverted by middlemen-politician-bureaucrat nexus. As 2011 CAG report and quote by former prime minister said, out of every 1 rupee spent by government, only 15 paisa reaches the poor. By using Jan Dhan–Aadhar–Mobile, government has provided direct benefits transfer to the poor beneficiaries. Thus, in-spite on lower growth rate in allocations for welfare schemes , as seen in slashing of MGNREGA funds recently or LPG subsidy, the actual money has reached the poor and led to savings of 90000 crore. This has led to good economic and good politics, which economists and opposition often fails to recognise. It has increased government acceptance in lower classes, leading to increased votes. This has provided absolute majority to ruling party and also political stability. This is sine-quo non for ease of doing business. With weak opposition, this party should and would continue to rule for at-least next 10-15 years , at the centre.

The toughest challenge any democratic government faces is in terms of labour reforms. While meeting labour demands for higher wages, safety, security, etc helps get more votes and quite lucrative for any political party, his had led to trade unionisation and frequent strikes and protests, leading to adverse business climate and fierce opposition to privatisation of PSUs. The most glaring example is West Bengal, which has turned from India’s largest industrial centre during independence, to a underdeveloped state and a hub of unemployed local youth turned goons, whose source of income is political patronage and violence. The present government argues that the strict laws prohibits business environment and thus no demand for labour is created. Thus, laws which were meant to protect the labour ends up harming their interests. Therefore, the government has shown the courage by rationalising labour regulations like scrapping minimum wages, increasing shift hours from 8 to 12, labour codes, etc. Thus, labour reforms will help provide competitive labour wages and thus, promote greater investment and employment.

Additionally, privatisation of PSUs will reduce inefficiency and fiscal support for loss making PSUs, and improve work culture of government organisations while attracting best technologies and return on assets. What most government in the past have failed to do , the present government has shown the willpower by privatizing AIR INDIA and BPCL among others, irrespective of the labour protests. Further, those sectors, which were considered to be “Holy cows” meant to be reserved only for the public sector like railways, defence and space, among others, have been opened for private sector, with FDI reforms to bring more capital and technology and boost indeginous production and exports.

Further, taxation reforms like GST has created a unified national market and reduced cascading affect of taxes, while reducing tax inspector Raj. Further, corporation tax have been reduced to 22% and angel tax has been withdrawn, which has made it among the most tax competitive regime in developing countries.

Critics point about the economic adventurism of the government over demonetisation. Among others, being that it was a wrong policy leading to economic downturn. Nevertheless, the government can be considered to have the courage and the capacity to take risks to promote economic development. This is in sharp contrast to status-quoist government in the past, who wanted to entrench their powers and positions with nexus between corrupt bureaucrats, black marketers, money hoarders, etc which this government has unsettled.

Further, infrastructure development has been expedited by the government. Land acquisition, forest clearances, single window clearances , and PPP model of financing and development has improved the incremental capital output ratio. The 100% electrification of villages, six-laning of highways, dedicated frieght corridors, improved electricity generation with increasing emphasis on renewables, logistics policy, etc. has improved India’s competitiveness and will boost exports in future. Our transport minister recently remarked “India has achieved the record of building 20 Kms of highways per day, and will strive upto 40 Kms per day”– a milestone unparalled in the world, except China, which can achieve it undemocratically, unlike democratic India.

Lastly, the recent announcement of fiscal stimulus of 20 Lakh crore, with most of the funds being allocated to provide cheap credit to small and large businesses, like MSMEs also shows the priorities of the government. While the opposition was demanding an income transfer of Rs 7000 to 12000 to poor households, the government has resisted this temptation as it would have led to increased consumption without creation of productive capacity to meet the demand. This would have increased inflation and reduced investment. Instead, the government has chosen to provide cheap loans from Rs 10000 to small vendors like vegetable and kirana stores, etc to upto Rs 10 lac loans to MSMEs and moratorium on loans for corporates. This shows that the government wants to promote investments and not fall prey to political populist measures and provide instant gratification to the masses. This will be key in further promoting economic development of India.

Thus, these factors has strengthened India’s micro-economic fundamentals, which would go a long way in promoting macro-economic growth in the long run. As Prime Minister said, India is making quantum jump , and not incremental changes, in its economic policies and therefore it has laid the RED CARPET for businesses and enterpreneurs, both domestic and international to invest in India. It can be said that government has laid the background to create an Atma Nirbhar Bharat (self reliant).

But whether India becomes Atma Nirbhar or not, depends not just on how India acts but also on global developments, especially in USA, China and Europe, and the recent global Corona-virus pandemic. So we shall discuss the global context and examine how India perfectly aligns itself in the global scenario to become the next economic powerhouse. This shall be discussed in the next article.

And the winner is: We the people

Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan
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And the winner is: We the people

The proceedings before the Division Bench of Justices Vineet Kothari and R. Suresh Kumar, Madras High Court, on the challenge to the conduct of Tenth Standard State Board examinations from 15th June, 2020, made fascinating reading. No one in his right senses was arguing against the precept and practice of ‘examinations’ in schools. Surely, not the High Court. The one question the learned judges posed was pointed and poignant. It could not have possibly nailed the options better – being evaluated by the State Government.

That was, “Whether the State Government could guarantee that not one student taking the examinations would not contract Covid-19?”. It was too tough a poser to be answered straight and honest. That possibly clinched the issue for lakhs of students and their families to heave a huge sigh of relief. Let us critically examine the question shot by the Learned judges, on a constitutional construct.

Ordinarily, it is a policy decision for the Executive to take a call. Whether to hold the examinations or the schedule thereof? Judiciary has little say in it. The Court cannot be expected to weigh the available choices and decide for the Executive. The ‘inputs’ necessary, such as medical advice, views of health experts, logistics support, compliance with social distancing norms, travel of students and their parents to the venues and back, the attendant risks, and provision of security support to teaching and support staff, the whole works, are exclusively with the State. The implications arising from the conduct or non conduct of such examinations also, is within the purview of the education department, within the domain of the Executive. Judiciary is hardly qualified to step into the shoes of the State and make the decision for them.

We earlier had the spectacle of the TN State Government, ‘compelled and constrained by financial stringency’ choosing to open TASMAC shops to vend liquor to the thirsty tipsters. The Madras High Court chose to intervene, not wholly barring the re opening of the Bars, but by imposing several conditionalalities, which the State felt ‘were practically neither necessary nor possible to implement’. Surely, the High Court did not ask any ‘guarantee from the State that not one drunkard would get afflicted by the Pandemic virus’. Not a logical question then, as the option lay with the customer to go stand in a serpentine queue or not. Not so with school children, under compulsion to sit for the examinations, despite these extraordinary times.

That we live in abnormal times is undeniable. Even the High Court chose to ‘resume sitting of Judges from Court halls/chambers’ though on the videoconferencing route, but had to abort and abandon the attempt within a week, as a few judges themselves contracted the virus. The Division Bench must have factored in the quicksilver stay order granted by the Supreme Court to its TASMAC order. Notwithstanding the noble sentiments involved and the ‘popular support’ for it, the interim orders of the Madras High Court did not pass muster before the robed brethren on the national pulpit.

So, the High Court played safe and cautious. They did not choose to ‘make the decision for the Executive’ which they were aware may run foul of the constitutional scheme of power sharing . Instead, they engaged the State in a bout of or exchange of volleys. They kept returning the serves from the State vigorously and kept passing them on the net, with difficult return of serves. The State kept standing up assuming that they could prevail as they too had the interest of the children at heart, and ultimately it was the territory of the Executive, which they cannot be seen to be yielding, no matter what. Obviously, at the back of the mind of both the State of TN and the High Court would have been the curt interference by the apex court, in the matter of TASMAC issue.

It was a strategic battle of nerves between not actually competing interests, for larger good, with lakhs of school children and their families, caught in the middle of the muddle. Adding to the discomforting query posed by the High Court on the ‘guarantee’ from the State, was the allied poser as to what other States, similarly placed, had chosen to do. Possibly aware that Telengana was the most recent State to skip examinations this curriculum.

The twin missiles served from the Bench, were sufficient for the State to pivot from its rather exploratory rigid stand, to go ahead and cancel the slated examinations. In fact, they have gone beyond and cancelled examinations for eleventh standard and even left over examinations for Plus Two as well. Well done.

All is well that ends well. It was a battle of wits in which neither the Executive nor the Judiciary won. Neither was seen to be giving a quarter. Yet, not being seen to be holier than thou. It was in the end, a win for pragmatism. Neither side lost. Everyone, all the stakeholders won in the end.

It was smart strategy from the High Court to have not rushed into any interim order. It may have been tempting to do so. It would have earned plaudits for it had popular support. But the High Court tactically held back and the result is a huge relief for the citizens.

In fact, as it was the third round of a similar challenge, it may have been easy for the High Court to nix it. But it is to the lasting credit of the Learned judges that they did not rush into a decision either way. but chose to play thrust and parry with the State. Yes, let us also applaud the State for not standing on prestige to vindicate their turf supremacy. This was not that occasion. We can afford to wait for normalcy to return, for an exciting turf war of such genre.

It required statesmanship not oneupmanship from the Executive and the Judiciary to demonstrate that ultimately who and what matters is We The People.

(Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan- Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court).

क्या आपको जानकारी हैं महाराष्ट्र में कोरोनवायरस के 82,968 से ज्यादा मामले अब तक पाए गए हैं!

HARSH THAKUR
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देश का सबसे बड़ा कोरोनवायरस हॉटस्पॉट महाराष्ट्र ने आज 90,000 से अधिक मामले दर्ज किए हैं, जिसमें राज्य की राजधानी मुंबई केवल 51,000 मामलों का प्रतिनिधित्व करती है।

हालांकि, कुल 90,787 लोगों में से 42,638 लोग पहले ही बेहद संक्रामक बीमारी से उबर चुके हैं। महाराष्ट्र सरकार द्वारा उपलब्ध कराए गए आंकड़ों के अनुसार, पिछले 24 घंटों में 2,259 लोगों ने सकारात्मक परीक्षण किया, देश भर में रिकॉर्ड 9,987 मामलों में एक चौथाई।

पिछले 24 घंटों में मरने वालों की संख्या बढ़कर 120 हो गई, जो कुल मिलाकर 3,289 है, जो राज्यों में भी सबसे अधिक है।

आर्थिक राजधानी मुंबई में अब 51,100 मामले हैं, 1,760 मरीजों की मौत हो गई है। विशेषज्ञों ने कहा कि एशिया की सबसे बड़ी झुग्गी धारावी में सिल्वर लाइनिंग का मामला था। महाराष्ट्र सरकार ने अपने सरकारी कर्मचारियों को सभी सरकारी कार्यालयों में काम करने की अनुमति देने के बाद पिछले सप्ताह एक और सतर्क कदम उठाया। कल से 10 प्रतिशत कार्यबल के साथ निजी कार्यालयों का संचालन शुरू हुआ।

प्लंबर, इलेक्ट्रीशियन, कीट-नियंत्रण और तकनीशियनों जैसे योग्‍य लोगों को काम शुरू करने की अनुमति दी गई है, जिसमें सभी अनिवार्य सामाजिक दूरी और सुरक्षा मानदंड हैं। लेकिन जमीनी हकीकत को देखते हुए, राज्य में अभी भी धार्मिक स्थानों, शॉपिंग मॉल, होटल और रेस्तरां खोलने की योजना है, जिन्होंने देश के अन्य हिस्सों में काम करना शुरू कर दिया है।

पिछले हफ्ते, महाराष्ट्र ने लगभग 84,000 मामलों में चीन की रैली को पीछे छोड़ दिया क्योंकि देश ने 2.5 लाख का आंकड़ा पार किया था। भारत में अब 2.66 लाख से अधिक मामले हैं – लगातार सातवें दिन 9,000 से अधिक मामलों की रिकॉर्डिंग।

अमेरिका, ब्राजील, रूस और ब्रिटेन के बाद COVID-19 महामारी द्वारा भारत पांचवा सबसे हिट देश है। देश ने कुछ दिन पहले स्पेन को पीछे छोड़ दिया।

What is Maharashtra missing in this Covid-19 fight?

Akshay
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What is Maharashtra missing in this Covid-19 fight?

Corona Virus pandemic has left the whole world crippled. Despite its epicentre in China, it has caused severe damage in developed countries like USA, Italy and Germany. These are the countries which are best regarded for their healthcare systems. But this new edition of Corona Virus has paralyzed their systems like never before.

One thing which was widely said that India would not be able to fight this pandemic effectively as we have the dense and slum population. So at community transmission level Indian health system will fail to withstand the spread. But our Indian-ness has helped us to overcome those understandings. We are defiantly having a bad time dealing with the economy, migrant labours, industries but talking about lives we have done fairly well as a whole country. cause yes all lives matter.

But when we talk about Maharashtra alone, the newly formed Maha-Vikas-Aghadi government is trying to contain the situation. But the lack of the understandings between the three heterogenous allies is stopping CM Uddhav Thackeray from taking tough decisions. On the other hand, DyCM Ajit Pawar still seems upset with his own Uncle Sharad Pawar. Even Sharad Pawar who is the guardian angel of the government is silent. Yes, his silence is disturbing for many. And as always congress is at hibernation just waiting for the right time. So it has all landed on Shivsena Itself meaning Uddhav Thackeray has to deal with all alone.

CM Uddhav Thackeray lacks administrative experience and the ability to deal with Babus. Hence the execution part of the Maharashtra government is largely ineffective. But well-managed media and PR agencies are doing a good job to protect CM’s image.

Despite all Maharashtra People are missing Fadnvis for one thing which is CM Medical Assistance Cell. The cell was formed by then CM Devendra Fadanvis to assist the poor people of the state in medical emergencies. The cell went on being very popular among the people as it actually helped people in need. The responsibility of the cell was born by one of the much-respected officer Omprakash Shetye. He was then CM’s Officer on Special Duty with the special charge of CM Medical Assistance Cell.

This cell was no less than an angel for the people in Maharashtra. Earlier the maximum assistance amount was just 25000 but then CM Devendra Fadanvis increased it to whooping 3lacs per person. Omprakash Shete made sure that the amount goes in the right hand. He did many good reforms such as transferring amount directly to the hospital amount through NEFT. Patients had to submit the quotation from the hospital and after the background verification, the amount would directly go to the hospital account. If the treatment is not done within the given period the hospitals were bound to refund the remaining amount.

He enforced all the charity hospitals to reserve seats for the poor and the charity act. He connected all hospitals on a single website which showcased the real-time availability of the beds. Hence poor people could actually get good treatment. He imposed heavy fines on the hospitals denying to cooperate. Because of his efforts, poor people could get the treatments in the hospitals like Leelavati, Bajaj, DY Patil, Jaslok, Bombay etc where poors feared to step in.

Even the costly surgeries like Heart Transplant, bone marrow, kidney transplant were carried out as special cases. Even in some emergency cases, the CM Medical Assistance cell arranged air ambulance.

Many times the head of the cell went out of the way to help patients in need. In many cases he raised funds from the individuals, NGOs, CSRs, to help people. In four and a half year, he managed to raise and donate 600 Cr under CM Medical Assistance cell and 900 Cr from Charities totalling to whooping 1500 Cr. The cell helped 21 lakh patients from all over Maharashtra.

The cell raised money from various temple trusts like Shirdi Sai Baba Trust, Suger industries, CSR, Tata Trust etc. They took extra efforts to bring in the donations and made sure it reaches to the needy people.

And unfortunately, this cell was shut down by the new government. The government should have used this cell effectively. The expertise of the man who took this cell to a new height Mr Omprakash Shete would have proved beneficial. But sadly Hundreds of people have visited the seventh floor of the Mantralay with hope to get assistance but the notice on the door says cell is closed and do not inquire.

वो इधर की उधर लगाने वाले विदूषक कब बन गए, पता चला क्या?

Meenakshi Dikshit
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वो इधर की उधर लगाने वाले विदूषक कब बन गए, पता चला क्या?

सुबह से शाम तक हम सभी को सोशल मीडिया के माध्यम से अग्रसारित किये जाने वाले अनेकानेक चुटकुले, मेम्स और तमाम मजाकिया सन्देश मिलते रहते हैं. कभी हम हंस पड़ते हैं कभी यूँ ही अग्रसारित कर देते हैं, कभी बिना देखे ही डिलीट भी कर देते हैं. हँसी का व्यवसाय चलता रहता है. ऐसा ही एक सन्देश मिला, आप भी सुनिए –

दरवाज़ा खटका, कोई अन्दर आया.
कोरोना लॉकडाउन में कौन आया,
पति घबराया सामने देखा तो नारद मुनि को पाया.

नारद ने इधर उधर देखा, पत्नी का पता पूछा,
पत्नी के रसोई में व्यस्त होने का इत्मिनान किया,
फिर पति से प्रश्न किया,

लॉकडाउन में पत्नी सजती संवरती है क्या,
पति ने असमंजस से कहा, क्यों?
मुनि ने कहा, यदि तुम्हारे घर पर होते,
न सजती है न संवरती है, तो जब तुम नहीं होते,
तब क्यों संवरती है?

जब तक पति कुछ समझता, मुनि अंतर्ध्यान हो गए.

ग्रुप में अग्रसारित इस सन्देश के नीचे सभी दर्शकों/पाठकों/रसिकों ने जम कर हंसने वाले इमोजी लगाये थे और एल.ओ.एल. लिखा था (श्री कृष्ण की अनुकम्पा से ये सभी स्वयं को हिन्दू मानने वाले हैं). बहुत सर धुनने के बाद भी इस सन्देश में हंसने लायक कुछ न मिलने और मजाकिया सन्देश के नाम पर नारद मुनि को परिवारों को तोड़ने वाले अधम चरित्र के रूप में प्रस्तुत किये जाने से उत्पन्न खीझ के वशीभूत मैंने, “क्लियर चैट” का बटन दबाया और देवर्षि नारद के प्रति इस अक्षम्य अपराध के विरोध में कुछ न करने के अपराध बोध से मुक्ति पायी लेकिन ये दिन मुझ पर कुछ भारी था. “क्लियर चैट” किया ही था कि पारिवारिक द्वंद्व से उलझ रहे एक मित्र का फ़ोन आ गया. चर्चा के बीच उन्होंने बहुत सरल भाव से एक तीसरे व्यक्ति पर टिप्पणी की, “एक वही तो है हमारे घर में नारद मुनि, इधर की उधर करने वाला”. स्पष्ट है यहाँ भी मैं देवर्षि नारद का बचाव करने की स्थिति में नहीं थी.

अपने इतिहास के प्रति हमारी अरुचि, अनभिज्ञता और अनास्था ने आदि प्रजापति ब्रह्मा के मानस पुत्र देवर्षि नारद, जिनके लिए श्रीमद्भागवत गीता में स्वयं श्री कृष्ण कहते हैं मैं देवर्षियों में नारद हूँ को आज एक अधम विचार वाले, परिवारों को नष्ट करने वाले व्यक्ति के रूप में घटिया चुटकुलों का नायक बना दिया है. हमें लज्जा का बोध ही नहीं होता. ऐसी बातें पढ़कर हम आनंद लेते हैं, अग्रसारित करते हैं. हम एक पल ठहरकर सोचते भी नहीं कि, कौन थे देवर्षि नारद? संभवतः वर्षों से देवर्षि नारद की ऐसी छवि देखते देखते हम अभ्यस्त हो गए हैं, उस छवि को यदि चरणबद्ध रूप से और बिगाड़ा जाए तो हमें पता ही चलता. हमने स्वीकार कर लिया है कि नारद मुनि बस ऐसे ही इधर की उधर लगाते रहते हैं.

न जाने कितनी फिल्मों, धारावाहिकों, पुस्तकों ने देवर्षि को लम्बे समय तक विदूषक के रूप में प्रस्तुत किया है. शिखा के नाम पर सिर पर खड़ा एक एंटीना, वाणी में ऋषि के गाम्भीर्य के स्थान पर सतही वाचालता, ज्ञान चर्चा और दिग्दर्शन कराने के स्थान पर इसकी उसकी लगायी- बुझायी करना, नारायण –नारायण कहने का भाव ऐसा जिसमें भक्तिभाव का नहीं  चालाकी और षडयंत्र को क्रियान्वित करने का भान हो, भंगिमा सदा विदूषक की . स्मरण नहीं आता कि कभी हमने इस पर कोई आपत्ति की हो.

इसका कारण निश्चित रूप से अपनी पहचान के प्रति हमारी उदासीनता रही है. हमने देवर्षि नारद को विदूषक के रूप में स्वीकार कर लिया. कब किया इसका कोई लेखा जोखा नहीं है. न तो हमारी पाठ्य पुस्तकों में था, न परिवार ने बताया कि देवर्षि नारद त्रिकाल दर्शी तत्वज्ञानी हैं, वे वेदव्यास जैसे ऋषि के मार्गदर्शक हैं. देवर्षि नारद वो महान गुरु हैं जिन्होंने बालक ध्रुव और प्रह्लाद को अपनी शरण में लेकर बाल्यावस्था में ही ब्रह्म ज्ञान करा दिया. वे आदि पत्रकार हैं  सम्पूर्ण देवलोक में ज्ञान का प्रवाह करने वाले हैं.

इस स्थिति को बदलना होगा. अपनी आस्था के प्रतीकों को पहचानना होगा. उनको जानना होगा. उनका स्वरुप भ्रष्ट होने से बचाना होगा. उनके उपहास का प्रतिकार करना होगा. ये हमारी सभ्यता के अस्तित्व और पहचान का युद्ध है. हम सब योद्धा हैं. हम सब को अपने अपने भाग का युद्ध लड़ना ही होगा.

Will Introduction of online courses change the teaching workload?

Rakesh Kumar Pandey
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Will Introduction of online courses change the teaching workload?

Introduction

It can only be delayed but it can neither be stopped nor the increasing spread of the use of online teaching tools can be limited into our education system. The COVID 19 pandemic has only allowed the online education tools to spread even more aggressively and much ahead of what it was probably destined for. When social distancing requirements have become the norm, teachers and students are left with little choice but to start using these tools. Teachers are rightly not very happy about the effectiveness of such tools due to the disappointing status of connectivity which has only added to the misery of the students who are already struggling to deal with the lack of tools of online education such as laptops, desktops and smartphones. That less than fifty percent attendance were reported by many in the online classes conducted by the teachers of Delhi University hardly promises any encouraging sign for the use of online tools in education in near future.

Recently, the central government has decided to recommend teaching in a mixed mode in the institutions of higher education wherein both, offline and online components of education will be adopted in teaching. Recently, the government agencies (UGC/AICTE) have decided to allow credit transfers from online courses to the tune of twenty percent for all undergraduate programs in the country. There is an apprehension in the university circle that this percentage might increase in future. Teachers organizations have suddenly swung into action to oppose such a forced move.

Past Experience

Teachers had earlier opposed the introduction of semester system in 2010 but it was imposed against the wishes of teachers’ organisations by steamrolling one of the best teachers’ movements that Delhi University historically witnessed. In this movement, all the political groups working in DU had participated wholeheartedly. Next, DUTA (Delhi University Teachers Association) tried to stop the move to implement FYUP (Four Year Undergraduate Program) but that also met with a similar fate. FYUP was later withdrawn when the then government showed a rare political will and the semester system was reintroduced much to the relief of those who had earlier fought against the introduction of the same system. Then CBCS (Choice Based Course Structure) got introduced again against the wishes of DUTA and the syllabi was further modified last year despite protests. Teachers did not participate in the exercise related to LOCF (Learning Outcome based Curriculum Framework) in DU that led to revision of syllabi. There are innumerable instances where DUTA has shown almost a reflexive opposition to any change either being suggested or being imposed. Such examples have been widely discussed and quoted to convince the world outside DU that teachers are wary of any change/reform in the education.

Identifying and addressing real concerns

In hindsight teachers and their organizations must have been silently realizing by now that a forced change is always worse than a change in which the stakeholders have participated. For quite some time now, teachers have resorted to boycotting all exercises related to introduction in the course structures as DUTA decided to oppose those moves. Later teachers have widely felt that one could have come up with much better syllabi to teach, even in those avoidable course structures, only if teachers had participated in the exercise. This is only because teachers avoided to discuss their real concerns and instead have always tried to defend their opposition by covering and packaging their arguments in trying to identify the ‘real intention of the government to destroy or withdraw from funding education’. This time again the history is poised to repeat itself when the move to increase dependence on online mode of education is set to increase despite opposition. Instead of summarily rejecting a move that is being justified for the requirement of maintaining social distancing in the tougher time ahead, we must try to identify and address our real concerns.

Policy makers are seen themselves offering this solution almost apologetically in want of another better option. They have also not hesitated in accepting that online teaching can hardly substitute classroom teaching. Therefore, teachers’ organization must move ahead and look for their other real worries now otherwise we would again be forced into accepting a system later rather grudgingly that could have been customized to our requirements with some honest effort. For the sake of maintaining standards in education, it must not be allowed to enter the system without our preparedness. Although never accepted explicitly, one of the most haunting apprehensions of teachers’ organization in this regard seems to be that online education might reduce the workload requirement of teachers in education. I think, it is the right time to address this issue once and for always. Let us discuss as to how would the workload requirement be estimated when online mode of education will get introduced?

Workload estimate

While it might be true that the policy makers might have also wished that by introducing online teaching in the present system, the requirement of teachers will also get reduced in due course of time. Instead of opposing such a move that can be easily justified in the time of pandemic wherein the lifesaving strategies include having as lesser classroom interaction with students as possible, let us try to work out an actual estimate of teaching workload for online teaching. It has been a well-established fact that students belonging to the age group of higher education, require constant monitoring, encouragement, counselling and consultation to successfully and meaningfully complete an online course. Keeping this in view, those students who would opt for online courses must be put under the continuous mentoring and personal care of teachers. They must help them out in understanding and carrying out timely submission of assignments.

Each student doing one paper under the mentoring of a teacher would on an average require one to two hours per week of the teacher concerned. If analysed properly, introduction of online education might increase the requirement of teacher but then to maintain the social distancing, the government is hardly left with a choice. However, a parity can be achieved by restricting the number of online options so that teaching can be carried out without increasing the teacher-student ratio that was required in offline mode.

Importance of Internal Assessment

With the innovative and increasing use of technology to cheat during traditional examinations our method to evaluate students, needs to be seriously re-looked into. Checking the scripts on a large scale have invariably exposed its futility and unreliability. Evaluating scripts on a large scale by engaging a large number of teachers can result in lack of concentration of evaluators that may defeat the very purpose of evaluation. Increasing demands to show the evaluated scripts through RTIs is set to expose all evils of this system in a near future as courts may rule in the favor of students any day.

Internal assessment of students that requires the teachers to group students in five-six categories has been widely accepted worldwide as the best method of evaluation. Best universities rely on an extraordinary recommendation of a teacher even if a student fails to get good grades. I would prefer the annual examinations to mechanically evaluate students for their capabilities to deal with multiple choice questions only because it can be evaluated technologically without errors. These scripts can also be shown easily to those who would choose to file RTI. However, the real evaluation of their abilities to communicate, comprehend, express, innovate, perform in team activities, individual tasks, quizzes and puzzle solving exercises can be carried out best only by their class teachers assessed in a continuous manner. A mix of these two would reasonably estimate the real capabilities of a student.

Teachers must also realize that real assessment of the capabilities of students will always need a human analysis. To claim more and more space for human touch and teachers’ intervention, now internal assessment must be given its due weight of at least fifty percent in the examinations. Rest fifty percent evaluation can always be done mechanically and in a time bound manner carrying out online/offline tests using MCQs in a proper technologically monitored environment.

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