THE AMBEDKAR PANDIT NEHRU CARTOON

The cartoon illustrated above has created an uproar in Parliament with MPs cutting across party lines condemning the cartoon which was first published in 1949 in Shankaar's Weekly. The cartoon shows Pandit Nehru with a whip in his hand standing behind Dr B R Ambedkar who was then the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution. The purpose of the cartoon was to draw attention to the long and inordinate delay in the drafting of the Constitution. Of course another more contemporary reading of the cartoon is possible in these post-colonial times. A high caste man like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru whip in hand is threatening the Dalit leader, Dr B R Ambedkar. I must say that Dr B R Ambedkar stood miles above Jawarlal Nehru in intellectual stature and showing Ambedkar sitting on a snail with Nehru behind him holding a whip can be construed today as demeaning depiction though this was not the intention of the cartoon when it was published more than six decades back. I can understand our illiterate MPs shouting in Parliament as they were interested in diverting the attention from more important issues. However, the Indian public intellectual and academics do not come off too well in the episode either. A few years back when Arjun Singh was the Education Minister the NCERT books prepared during the NDA Administration were "detoxified" meaning that an ideologically tinged view of history and politics was introduced in the writing of the textbooks. Excecutive intervention was sought by the like of Yogender Yadava, Romila Thapar and K N Panikar to rid the textbooks of what they in their personal opinion considered "saffron" version of history. Having allowed the state to intervene in the process of textbook creATION, NOW THEY CANNOT CRY FOUL. Kapil Sibal immediately announced the removal of the offending cartoon and constituted another sarkari committee to whet the remaining textbooks. The Indian academic must learn that he or she cannot be selective in dealing with the students and the curriculum. Having allowed the Government to intervene in the process of textbook writing and using political muscle to mandate a point of view that is closely related to the Congress perception of politics and society, the affected academics cannot now declare that academic freedom is being curtailed. Academic freedom was lost the day the govenrment starts appointing its henchmen to write textbooks and makes men like Yogender Yadava the demi god of a dsicipline.

CAN CHIDAMBARAM GET AWAY BY QUOTING CHRIST: A CASE OF THE DEVIL QUOTING THE SCRIPTURE

P Chidambaram the "Home Minister" of India has become the source of acute embarassment to an already tottering regime. His Anti Terrrism Centrer failed to take off, not becaust the State Governments did not think that there was a need for a counter terrorism center, but because of the absolute lack of credibility enjoyed by P Chidambaram. At the barest minimum, the Home Minister of India is a tall political personality like Vallbhahi Patel or even L K Advani. Two former Home Minister of India have even become Prime Ministers: Guzrilal Nanda and Charan Singh. P Chidambaram lacks political stature as he was defeated in the last Lok Sabha elections from Sivagangai constituency and got the certificate through fraud. The Hon'ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu refuses to engage with P Chidambaram as a political figure primarily due to the legitimacy of his election. The UPA regime has devalued the position of the Home MInister by appointing politcal zeroes to that position. Shivaraj Patil who was defeated fro Latur was made Home Minister and his sartorial elegance was the only thing that this man is remembered for. Chidambaram does not even have satorial elegznce. His Tamil style veshti and tight fitting shirt makes him look ridiculous and with gun toting cammandos follwing him he does not enen appear menacing,a s he ought to' Chidambaram is in the news all for the wrong reasons. His December 9th statement ignited the fire in Telengana nd it is raging since. His particiapation in the 2 G Spectrum Scandal has become well known and the March 25th Note only reinforces public perception that P Chidambatram is certainly guilty of wrong doing. If Dr Subramaniam Swamy has been making wild and baseless allegatins as claimed by Chidambaram then let him sue the harvard educated lawyer in Court. The fact that Chidambaram duck a toe to toe confrontation with Swamy itself shows that there is something amiss in the S[ectrum deal and the Government has not been able to come clean on that issue. The BJP being the principle opposition party can raise the issue of Spectrum, the Arilcel_Maxis deal in which the son of Chidambaram also figures. In parliament Chidambaram said: God forgive them for they know not what they are doing. These words uttered by our Lord and Saviour as he suffered for our sins on the Cross uttered the moment before life fled are extremely significant for a Christian. The criminal party called Congress whc=ich pratices fake secularism has made it its right to insult religious beliefs. How can this fellow called Chidambaram, a Home Minister be may be by default, equate himself with our Lord and Saviour. He has insulted Christian beleifs by quoting the immortal words of Christ in defence of him misconduct with regard to the Spectrum Scandal. All Christian organisations must condemn the implied equvalence between this dhoti clam Hravard lawyer and our Lord and Saviour. I say to Chidambaram indulge in your sky high corruption but do not drag the blameless name of Christ and do not take the name of our Saviour in vain.

THE KILLING OF CPM ACTIVIST IN GOD'S OWN COUNTRY: KERALA POLITICS IS TURNING VIOLENT

Shri T P Chandrasekharan, an activists of the CPM and a follower of V S Achutanandan, the former Chief Misister of Kerala was brutally killed near Calicut yesterday. The life and death of this 51 year old Party activist illustrates the perils of Indiasn political life. By all accounts this man was a committed party worker who joined the Student Federation of India and rose through the ranks. Extremely popular with grass roots workers, this activist had built up a following for himself in the Communist stronghol;d of Onchiyam. In the recent polls his Revolutionary Marxist Party won the Panchayat polls and this seems to have alarmed the faction led by Pinyari Vijayan. Even the Congress Home Minister of Kerala T Radhkrishnan has hinted at the involvement of the Pinyari Vijayan faction in the killing. The CPM and the Muslim League both practice the politics of violence in Kerala with great abandon. Who can ever forget the brutasl killing of Balkrishna, the schoolmaster who was killed in front of his students in the classroom about a decade back. The highly politisised nature of Kerala society has led to a situation in whcih political violence has become the tool for maintaining control over the cadres. The frequent hartals and strikes have given Kerala the reputation of being a state on the brink of anarchy. I cannot understand why politics cannot be conducted in a civilised manner in Kerala. I must say that Tamil Nadu too is given to violence. Shri T P Chnadrasekaaran was travelling on his two wheeler when 3 or 4 men armed with country bombs and sharp weapons waylaind him and hacked him to death. One more loyal party worker was sacrificed on the red altar and I am sure that within days there will be a retaliatory killing and the spiral of violence will spin out of control like what is happening in Rayalseema, Andhra Pradesh. Political parties which patronise criminals like the Congress party, the Communist factions and other parties must be banned from the Indian political scene.

UGC's API SCORE ARE A FRAUD: INDIAN EDUCATION IS BEING UNDERMINED

The UGC is the nodal body that regulates Higher Education in India by manipulating the fund flow. The mandate of the UGC does not exceed beyond dsibursement of grants and settlement of University accounts and yet over the years has inveigled itself into every aspect of University life in India. Even the Ministry of Higher Education defers to the UGC on matters relating to finance, policy, academic appointments, service conditions of teachers and scores of other issues. The result is unmitigated chaos in the field of higher education. An imaginative and energetic Vice Chancellor can ceratinly work creatively within the confines of the UGC system, but by and large the gargantuan bureaucracy of the UGC is so stifiling that VC's just give up.

The fate of teachers caught in the jaws of the UGC is far worse. The UGC is very good at devicing policies that are self defeating. For example a few years back they relaxed the NET requrement for just 6 months obviously to help some interested persons. The NET which is a nation wide eligiblity test seems to have lost somne of its sheen as certain selct centers seem to generate extremely good results. The shift to OMR based assessment from this May exam seems to be a step in the right direction but whether it would test a candidate's understanding of thge theorectical aspects of the discipline is open to question. The concerns of state universities are not addressed at all. Now that the NAAC assessment has become more or less mandatory for getting UGC funding, it is time to make the process of decision making more transparent. The NAAC had an extrmely notorious criminal as its chairman about a decade back and it is time to have people in palce who can lead higher education.
The UGC recently introduced the API scoring system for assessing teachers in institutions of higher education. In no other part of the world do we have such a barbaric scheme of assessing intelletual workers. Instead of encouraging quality teachiung, which the need of the hour, the API scores are apportioned for (a) attending conferences/seminas (b) taking part in consultacy (c) participating in public private initiatives (d) publications and (e) extra mural activities. If scores are givrn for participation in National and Internatiional seminars, there is a strong temptation for teachers to neglect class room teachiung in order to acquire a "participation certificate" usually by proxy. We reached a situation in which faculty members are rewared for everything except teaching which I assume to be the fundamental job of faculty members. Publications are a whole new ball game. Papers canibalised fromn the  term papers and seminar papers are endlessly recycled and faculty members get points for this chartade. India does not rank anywhere in terms of knowledge generation and by encouraging "publication" at the cost of teaching the UGC has embarked on a self defeating policy.

Univrsities in India are at the cross roads. Under imaginative leadership such as the one in the University where I teach, the institutions can change for the better. In most Universities education has become purely notional.