Page 12 - EducationWorld August 2022

Editorial

INDEPENDENCE DAY: TIME FOR INTROSPECTION India’s 215 million-strong Muslim
minority. The party’s plain intent is
to consolidate the majoritarian (85
OR SENTIENT CITIZENS WITH memo- egalitarian and socially harmonious percent) Hindu vote and win the leg-
ry and/or knowledge of India’s India governed by the rule of law, is islative assembly elections imminent
Funique freedom struggle led unravelling. Never in the history of in- in several states.
by Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar dependent India has society been as Although electorally successful,
Patel, Dr. Ambedkar and a galaxy of deeply divided along religious, caste, BJP’s divide-and-rule strategy is in-
leaders invested with genuine ideal- language, ethnicity and class fault imical to national development. It is
ism and integrity, the nation’s 75th lines as it is today. deepening atavistic antagonisms at
Independence Day (August 15) is The RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak a critical time when the economy is
likely to be an occasion for sober in- Sangh), the ideological mentor organ- struggling to recover momentum af-
trospection. To be sure, commemo- isation of the Bharatiya Janata Party ter suffering its first-ever GDP growth
ration of the day when almost two ruling at the Centre and in 18 states of contraction in 2021-22 because of the
centuries of extractive misrule by India with an iron hand, was a non- Covid-19 pandemic disruption.
British imperialists which beggared participant in the freedom struggle Demonization of minorities, mus-
the country ended, will be celebrated led by Mahatma Gandhi, a passionate cular nationalism and persecution of
with pomp, ceremony and bombast. champion of Hindu-Muslim unity, be- civil rights and media activists at a
The prime minister will address the cause it was — and remains — com- time when Parliament is in chaos, the
citizenry from the ramparts of Delhi’s mitted to transforming India into a judiciary is wilting under the weight
Red Fort and proclaim the greatness Hindu majoritarian nation. With the of a 30 million cases backlog, unem-
and prosperity of free India set to prime minister and most of his cabinet ployment and inflation is soaring and
become a $5 trillion economy in the colleagues having begun their careers foreign investment is pulling out, is
near future, detail the nation’s robust as RSS foot-soldiers, the BJP which reckless politics.
defence capability, and claim credit was swept to power at the Centre in Independence Day celebrations
for the rising prosperity of citizens at 2014 and again in 2019, has used its need to be tempered by quiet intro-
the base of free India’s socio-econom- brute majority in Parliament to enact spection about the idea of India envi-
ic pyramid. legislation — Citizenship Amendment sioned by the great men and women
Yet the plain truth is that the idea Act, anti-cow slaughter, religious con- who won the country its freedom from
of a religiously secular, economically/ version, love jihad etc — targeting foreign rule 75 years ago.

POWER MANAGEMENT LESSONS FROM LANKA and business leaders, President Go-
tabaya and prime minister Mahinda
whimsically mandated a switch to or-
ganic farming to save the cost of im-
ALL POWER TENDS TO CORRUPT AND with ruthless efficiency and crushed ported fertilizer, adversely affecting
absolute power corrupts ab- the LTTE rebellion taking a toll of agriculture production — especially
“solutely,” wrote 19th century 100,000 lives before a ceasefire was of tea, a major earner of foreign ex-
English historian Lord Acton (1834- called in 2009. As a result, Mahinda change. Moreover, instead of slash-
1902). Quite clearly, neighbouring was re-elected president in 2010. ing establishment expenditure, the
Sri Lanka’s recently ousted president Although ousted from office in SLPF government resorted to massive
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, swept to highest 2015 following corruption and nep- money printing, driving up the fiscal
office in 2019 with a massive major- otism scandals, after a suspicious deficit as runaway inflation swept the
ity, became power drunk. Three of bombing of several Christian churches nation.
his brothers were brazenly appointed in Colombo on Easter Sunday, 2019, The rise and swift fall of Sri Lan-
prime minister, irrigation and finance allegedly by Muslim minority ex- ka’s Gotabaya government done in by
minister; his son and several relatives tremists, Gotabaya who had brutally authoritarian exercise of power, has
were awarded high public offices. Such crushed LTTE extremists, was swept important lessons for the BJP lead-
blatant nepotism compounded by to presidential office with strong sup- ership which also practices muscular
muscular majoritarianism evidenced port of the business community. As majoritarian politics while enacting
by failure to conciliate Sri Lanka’s 5 quid pro quo, immediately after elec- momentous legislation — demoneti-
million Tamil minority, were acts of tion he slashed income and VAT taxes. sation, farm reform bills, GST and the
commission and omission of a brash A year later, when the Covid-19 virus Agnipath scheme — without adequate
politician corrupted by power. swept the world, the government’s scrutiny and debate. It’s sobering to
In 2005, after Mahinda Rajapaksa revenue was insufficient to fund the note that like Gotabaya, Narendra
was elected president, he appointed food and healthcare subsidies for the Modi was elected to office with a land-
his brother Gotabaya to crush the general populace following lockdown slide majority in 2019. Like Sri Lanka,
LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil of industry and commerce. Simultane- India is confronted with ballooning
Eelam) who started an armed rebel- ously, the island republic’s substantial inflation and unemployment. India’s
lion in 1983 against Sinhala oppres- income from tourism dried up. next General Election is scheduled for
sion of the island’s Tamil minority. With typical arrogance, instead of 2024. But Sri Lanka’s history proves a
Gotabaya discharged his mandate consulting with expert economists lot can happen before that.

12 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2022