Page 82 - EW July 2024

Postscript

Exit poll duffers in Ayodhya would prove to be a trump card in General
Election 2024. However a low-caste Dalit candidate of
NE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF GENERAL Elec- the Samajwadi Party who is unlikely to be granted entry
tion 2024 is blanket of silence over the wide off into the grand new Ram Mandir by its powerful Brah-
Othe mark prediction of the media — especially telly min priests who famously declined to permit President
Murmu to participate in the inauguration ceremony star-
talking heads — on the outcome. Every TV news chan-
nel had predicted that the BJP would cross its 2019 Lok ring PM Modi, trounced the two-term BJP candidate.
Not that this is entirely good news. Nehruvian social-
Sabha tally of 303 seats and that the 40-party National
Democratic Alliance (NDA) of which BJP is the standard ism which ruined the high-potential Indian economy for
over half a century after independence, may bloom again.
bearer, would bag 390 (out of a total 543) seats with According to Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, wealth
several channels endorsing Prime Minister Modi’s boast and job creators and highest tax papyers (Ambani and
that the Modi Sarkar would cross 400. On June 4 when Adani) are enemies of the people. Taxes and national
the votes were counted, BJP won 240 seats and the NDA savings should be canalized into white elephant public
293, just crossing the majority 272 threshold. How could sector enterprises to be squandered by business -illiterate
all TV channels many of whom had elaborately dressed babus. If this resurrected star of the Nehru-Indira dy-
up their studios and summoned expert psephologists to nasty throws a spanner in the works, India will be back to
conduct exit polls, have got it so wrong? square one. Therefore your editor’s schadenfreude about
The cardinal error of their over-paid anchors and the mighty being cut to size is tempered by déjà vu fear.
market research experts nurtured on rote learning and
blind imitation of Western television news channels, is to
assume that voters emerging from polling booths tell the Palaces-schools conundrum
truth about vote casting. Well aware of the huge pow-
ers and proclivity of government, i.e, the ruling party, to
victimize those against it, most electors tend to choose BLINDSPOT OF LEARNED ECONOMISTS AND
pundits who discuss, debate and analyse the Union
discretion over valour and profess to have endorsed the A — and to a much lesser extent state government
ruling party candidate. Although upper middle class vot- — budgets, is the substantial expense incurred by govern-
ers aware of their constitutional rights may be inclined ment under the head ‘establishment expenses’. In Educa-
to reveal political preferences, the vast majority of the tionWorld where thrift is venerated as a virtue, we have
citizenry is only too well-aware of the vindictiveness and been repeatedly whistle-blowing about enormous amounts
insolence of office of government lackeys and local mafia often exceeding 20 percent of total government revenue,
dons who may well target voters who come on record being routinely expended under this amorphous head.
about their voting preferences. With each passing day, evidence is emerging of un-
In the circumstances, it would be advisable for poll- bridled spending buried under establishment expenses
sters and media personnel to pose indirect questions re- by government ministers and officials. Lavish expendi-
lating to burning issues such as inflation, unemployment, ture by government leaders by way of fully furbished and
communalism etc, and draw inferences for and against protected airplanes and motor cars for the prime minster,
the ruling party. Simultaneously, television anchors also a private airline for ministers who commute in motorized
need to curb their enthusiasm for reporting what their in- cavalcades and serve the people from imposing manors,
dustrialist masters — for whom stability and continuity of are funded by unquestioned provision made for estab-
government is high priority — wish to hear. Not without lishment expenses in the Union and state government
cause have screen news channels earned the description budgets. Recently, a Rs.500 crore Xanadu-style seaside
of godi media. palace constructed by Andhra Pradesh chief minister
Y.S.R Jagan Mohan Reddy in Visakapatnam has been
Schadenfreude & apprehension hitting the headlines. A few months ago a competitively
ornate palace of ousted Telangana chief minister K. Chan-
drashekar Rao in Hyderabad, and a grand Sheesh Mahal
ENERAL ELECTION 2024 WAS MARKED BY built for Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal were in the
several extraordinary twists and turns and ups and media glare.
Gdowns. But surely the sweetest outcome is cutting Government balance sheets are subject to audit by
to size Prime Minister Modi who had begun to believe the grandiosely titled Comptroller & Auditor General of
that he had been divinely commissioned to rule the India. Yet apart from the time when the CAG computed
republic. For the first time since 2014 he has to depend a humongous ‘notional loss’ of Rs.1.8 lakh crore in the
upon hitherto neglected allied parties to remain in power. coal auction scam of 2009, little is heard from his august
A second sweet outcome was the right royal defeat of office.
Union minister of women and child development Smriti Curiously governments encounter little difficulty in
Irani, in Amethi where last time round (2019) she ousted funding palaces, perks and extravagances of the neta-
Rahul Gandhi from his family’s pocket borough. And a babu brotherhood. However, they experience severe
third was the defeat of incumbent BJP MP from the Faiz- financial constraints when it comes to funding modern-
abad constituency in which the Ram Mandir was inaugu- ization of the country’s dilapidated, dysfunctional govern-
rated with great fanfare on January 22. ment schools and primary health centres. On this glaring
The calculus of the BJP top brass was that building paradox, learned economists and telly talking heads are
the grand Ram Mandir on the ruins of the Babri Masjid strangely silent.

82 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2024