The stalemate over the extent and ambit of the powers of the proposed Jan Lok Pal (ombudsman) between the Congress-led UPA-II government and the civil society team led by social reformer Anna Hazare, has profound long-range implications for the future of Indian society. It is plainly obvious that while civil society representatives want the proposed Jan Lok Pal Bill to legislate a panel chaired by an empowered Lok Pal with wide powers of investigation and adjudication over all politicians including the prime minister, members of Parliament and judiciary with supervisory authority over the Central Bureau of Investigation and Central Vigilance Commission, government representatives wish to legislate yet another investigative authority with circumscribed jurisdiction.
Yet in the public war of words which has broken out between the Congress party and civil rights activists over the issue, a remark of a Congress spokesperson complaining about the “tyranny of the unelected and unelectable” — an obvious reference to Hazare and his team jointly co-drafting the Bill — must not remain unchallenged. It reflects a deep misunderstanding of the grammar of democratic politics within the Congress party which has ruled India for over 40 years of the six decades since independence, and is primarily responsible for the pernicious culture of corruption which is pervasive in government at the Centre and in the states, infecting the entire body politic.
Implicit in this jibe against civil society activists led by Hazare, who are determined to invest real (cf. recomm-endatory) powers to investigate, prosecute and punish in the proposed Lok Pal, is that unelected members of civil society have no locus standi to question the acts of commission and omission of duly elected members of Parliament. And by threatening to fast-unto-death, Hazare is “coercing and blackmailing” Parliament and government to toe the line of an unelected and unelectable minority.
MPs and the political class as a whole, should desist from making a great virtue of their election and electability. For a start, under the unsatisfactory first-past-the-post electoral system, rare indeed is the MP who is elected by a clear majority in her constituency, with most receiving barely 30 percent of the total votes cast. Secondly, family-run mafias, special interest-group cabals and downright criminal elements have so befouled the parliamentary, assembly and even municipal electoral systems that most decent law-abiding citizens dread the prospect of entering election arenas. Moreover against the backdrop of the humungous Commonwealth Games, 2-G spectrum auction and Adarsh Building Society scams, and daily reports of police corruption and brutality countrywide, this narrow constitutionalist argument being advanced by the Congress party is untenable.
Hazare and his civil society team are perfectly justified in using all peaceful forms of protest to ensure that a toothless Lok Pal Bill is not hurried through Parliament by the country’s compromised political class with a vested interest in the status quo, which can only be upturned by a fully-empowered Lok Pal panel.
Higher education capacity creation failure
The high admission cut-off percentages beingstipulated by several undergrad colleges affiliated with Delhi University — widely acknowledged as India’s best varsity — from class XII school-leavers, has generated a nationwide furore. It highlights the incrementally impossible academic burden which is being imposed upon high-performance school-leaving students quite naturally intent upon entering the country’s best undergrad colleges.
Although Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal has expressed indignation about the Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) stipulating 100 percent as the cut-off pre-condition of science students switching streams to enter SRCC, the prime cause of college admission cut-offs rising to stratospheric levels with each passing year is the government’s failure to address the policy issue of a static number of high quality undergrad colleges. Despite the country’s growing population, and number of Plus Two school-leavers rising from 1 million to 11 million over the past decade, the annual intake of SRCC has remained almost static at 800 students. On the other hand, the Foreign Education Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill, 2010 which would enable foreign universities to establish campuses in India and create additional capacity in higher education, has been hanging fire for over two years. Nor has the path been smoothed for promotion of indigenous private universities. Indeed there’s a conspicuous lack of national urgency to fix the supply side of higher education.
Moreover the rising tide for admission into government-controlled (‘aided’) colleges including SRCC, St. Stephen’s and others across the country, is not unconnected with the rock-bottom tuition fees — way below the actual cost of education provision — they charge students. Successive governments at the Centre have fudged the issue of raising tuition fees in higher education, an issue over which there is a tacit conspiracy of silence in middle class India, media included. It is eminently plausible that had SRCC been permitted to charge reasonable market related or even means- tested tuition fees, its management would have generated sufficient surpluses to increase institutional capacity and/or promote supplementary campuses. Grossly inadequate government budgetary provision for education, unwarranted subsidisation of middle class students, widespread deficit of institutional fundraising skills and a sub-optimal student loans system have prevented the expansion of India’s higher education system.
Against this depressing scenario, students would be well-advised not to place too high a premium on the reputation of the country’s best-ranked colleges which are excellent only by rock-bottom Indian standards. The plain truth is that the difference in terms of faculty and learning outcomes between the country’s best and second-tier undergrad colleges is marginal. The critical factor which distinguishes employable college graduates is their self-education capability. Access to a good library, love of learning and determination to understand the dynamics of society are more important than admission into a top-ranked undergrad college.