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Postscript

Better be close Court ordered enquiry into this matter which Adani has
welcomed, because quite obviously he is the victim rather
than the villain of this staged drama.
SPIRING PRIME MINISTER RAHUL GANDHI Now that the dust has settled, who are the real losers
often asks why business tycoon Gautam Adani is in the panic created by this report generated by the rag-
Aso “close” to prime minister Narendra Modi. A bet- tag-and-bobtail Hindenburg outfit? Certainly not Adani
ter question would be: can any industrialist or business- who is still in the global Top 20 rich list and is unlikely
man afford not to be on the right side of any politician, to have been reduced to a chapatis and water menu. Nor
especially the prime minister. Hindenburg or their employers who have benefitted
The plain truth is Rahul’s great grandfather Jawaharlal mightily. The real losers are millions of bona fide inves-
Nehru, a professed historian, overlooked the reality of tors and unemployed youth countrywide.
ancient India’s sound tradition of private enterprise for Following RaGa’s naive discovery that Adani is an arch
over five millennia which had transformed this subcon- villain — and nobody including the prime minister — is
tinent into the world’s wealthiest region contributing 20 ready to speak up for him, this go-getting tycoon has
percent of global annual income right until the mid-18th abandoned or delayed his infrastructure expansion plans
century. He imposed “a socialistic pattern of society” in India and is busy building ports and infrastructure
upon newly independent India and strangled private en- abroad. That won’t bother RaGa. Despite never having
terprise. Following Rahul’s great grandfather, his granny earned a degree, held a job or taken a business risk, he’s
and daddy who succeeded each other as prime minister doing alright. According to the Association for Democrat-
with monotonous regularity, continued to ram licence- ic Reforms which keeps track, RaGa has assets and wealth
control-permit legislation through obliging parliaments, valued at Rs.16 crore.
smothering private enterprise while decreeing promotion
of hundreds of Soviet-style public sector enterprises.
According to a 2021 research study conducted by the Musical chairs
Observer Research Foundation and TeamLease Ltd,
private companies in India are subject to 1,536 laws, of MERRY GAME OF MUSICAL CHAIRS IS BE-
which 678 are enacted by the Union government and ING played in the country’s top-ranked schools.
858 by state governments. Within these laws private A In wake of the belated liberalisation of Indian
enterprises are subject to 69,233 ‘compliances’, of which education, including the K-12 sector, global multinational
43,966 are mandated by state governments and 25,537 by school chains entering the moribund education sector
the Centre. That’s not all. 20,805 ‘compliance clauses’ in and greenfield schools springing up everyday, principals/
state legislation and 5,230 decreed by the Centre mandate headmasters and well-qualified, competent subject teach-
jail sentences ranging from three months to 10 years for ers have become hot property. Therefore, the scramble
non-compliance. All this despite liberalisation of industry for best principals and teachers, often with remuneration
in 1991. That’s why it makes good sense for anyone aspir- packages which are stupendous by K-12 standards, hith-
ing to establish large scale, world-class companies to be erto a low-wage island.
close to the prime minister and other worthies. Yet perhaps the most beneficial impact of the
Meanwhile according to a front page headline in the liberalisation of K-12 education has been the emergence
highly-respected Chennai-based daily The Hindu (Febru- and evolution of high-performing professional principals
ary 10) 225,000 businessmen and professionals re- and teachers who are demanding — and getting — the
nounced their Indian citizenship and fled abroad in 2022. remuneration and respect they deserve. Skand Bali had
Last productive citizen leaving, switch off the lights. The moved in 2021 from the top-ranked Hyderabad Public
electricity may restart. School, Begumpet to the greenfield Adani International
School, Ahmedabad, lured by a reportedly unprecedented
Who’s the loser? remuneration package. But reported ‘disrespect’ by Dr.
Priti Adani prompted him to put in his papers last month
and revert to HPS, Begumpet, which was experiencing
ARDLY TWO MONTHS HAVE ELAPSED SINCE a corner office vacancy following the resignation of
the Hindenburg Report of a shady outfit of principal Madhav Saraswat lured away by the top-ranked
Hconfessed short-sellers with no fixed address and Good Shepherd International School, Ooty.
five ‘researchers’ on their payroll, wiped out a staggering Earlier Saraswat had been poached from the Scindia
Rs.9 lakh crore of the market value of Ahmedabad-based School, Gwalior which under his watch for the first
coal, ports, green energy, grain silos and airports tycoon time bested the perennially first-ranked Doon School,
Gautam Adani on the Indian stock market. But suddenly Dehradun in the category of boys boarding schools in
the country’s market pundits and investigative journalism 2020-21. Likewise Trilok Singh Bisht, for years principal
stars have gone silent on the issue of who is/was Hinden- of the top-ranked Jodhamal School, Jammu, who had
burg, and who were the real short-sellers behind their been poached by DPS, Vasundhra with a huge pay
damning motivated report. package, quit for alleged disrespect and has signed up
By now the latter must have delivered their Adani with the consistently Top 10 rated Blue Bells, Gurgaon.
Group shares parked two months ago, paid off This is all for the good. It’s high time professional
Hindenburg and are no doubt partying with their ill principals rather than promoters, began to call the shots
gotten gains. Despite official indignation, there is no SEBI in the country’s premier schools. It’s a signal for the
investigation and little is being heard about the Supreme entire K-12 education sector.

138 EDUCATIONWORLD MAY 2023