One of the most compelling arguments for democratic government based upon universal adult franchise, is that duly elected leaders are obliged to keep their ears close to the ground and be responsive to public opinion. But the arbitrary and whimsical behaviour of India’s unique tribe of politicians particularly in matters related to education which directly affects the future of hundreds of millions of vulnerable children, indicates no such sensitivity. Last month the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh — India’s most populous and illiterate state in which the fiscal deficit is an astonishing 9.1 percent of the state’s GDP — casually decreed the abolition of tuition fees (which were already a rock-bottom Rs.5 per month) in government schools. A few days later without any consultation with the targeted beneficiaries, he ordered changed school timings on fridays for over 100,000 schools in the state so that Muslim students could offer mid-day prayers. The latter decree was rescinded a few days later when the state’s Muslim community pointed out that they had never demanded this concession.
Likewise in New Delhi despite advice to the contrary from leaders of industry, academia and the student community, on February 5 Union minister Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi directed the managements of the six Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) to slash the already subsidised tuition-cum-residence fee payable by students by 80 percent to a uniform Rs.30,000 per annum for the academic year 2004-05. The arguments against this unsolicited higher subsidy to middle class students who are assured of very well-paid jobs upon graduation from the highly-reputed IIMs, are so many — and so overwhelming — that it’s impossible to enumerate them on this page. To appreciate them you’ll have to read our comprehensive cover story in this fiscal year end issue.
There is considerable speculation as to why Joshi has forced through this patently irrational decision. But the most obvious explanation seems the best. It’s as natural for ministers as for industrialists to aspire to build empires. And any individual in Shastri Bhavan (headquarters of the Union HRD ministry) would be tempted to have the somewhat smug and self-satisfied dons of the IIMs who enjoy enviable, low-pressure lifestyles on sprawling campuses at public expense, genuflect caps in hand. But an astute politician would resist such temptation in the larger public interest. Joshi didn’t and consequently has sabotaged his chance of returning to Shastri Bhavan after the general election in April.
The incumbent NDA government’s Rs.400 crore India Shining multimedia advertising campaign has generated almost as much controversy as the drastic reduction in IIM tuition fees. But even as pundits and pollsters discuss its pros and cons, nobody has really solicited the views of young India on this questionable splurge of public money. In our special report an attempt has been made to rectify this act of grave omission by speaking to student leaders in schools across the country.
Also, institutional managers would do well to check out our first-of-its-kind School Needs & Supplies special supplement.
