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Postscript

Don’t blame capitalism farmland on the outskirts of Ahmedabad for 23 years.
Thakor (no relation, note the spelling) contended that
X FACIE IT IS SHOCKING AND A SEVERE ONGC has been paying him “meagre rent” for over 20
indictment of free market capitalism. A thin upper years and refusing to vacate the land or acquire it at
Ecrust of 1 percent wealthiest Indians cornered 22.6 market price. An irate bench of the Gujarat high court has
percent of national income in 2022. Income inequality directed the chairman of ONGC (annual income: Rs.6.39
was never so great in the good ole days. In 1951, the top 1 lakh crore) to file an affidavit to explain the corporation’s
percent bagged 11.5; in 1980, the heyday of neta-babu so- failure and negligence. This high-handedness doesn’t
cialism, the top 1 percent appropriated only 6 percent of surprise your correspondent. Some five years ago when
national income. This is the research finding of the Data a main road in Bangalore was under repair, LIC shut its
Team of The Hindu, the much lauded daily (estb.1878) gates to ensure that the public — its shareholders — didn’t
published from Chennai and presided over by Cadillac use its forecourt as an alternative route. Your correspon-
communist N. Ram, whose intent is to show the pivotal dent was roundly abused for claiming shareholder’s right.
liberalisation of the Indian economy in 1991 and thereaf- My rule to never subscribe to PSE equity shares or
ter in bad light. do business with them has paid off. Given their business
But while the Hindu Data Team’s report (March 21) practices, it’s a rule that’s served me well.
drawn (without attribution) from a report of the Paris-
based World Inequality Lab headed by Thomas Picketty,
which also highlights that India’s top 10 percent not Inglish hypocrisy
only corners 57 percent of national income, but also 40
percent of national wealth, is a damning indictment of its HE DAWN OF THE INTERNET AGE AND spread
richest citizens, actually it is proof that India’s steel frame of OTT cinema is one of the positive outcomes of
bureaucracy is alive and kicking. The post-liberalisation Tthe digital revolution. It has radically transformed
neta-babu brotherhood hasn’t substantially facilitated Indian cinema and movies, and freed the intelligentsia
ease of doing business for millions of aspirational en- interested in this story-telling medium from having to
trepreneurs who continue to be bound in red tape and compulsorily watch Hollywood and esoteric European
complex procedures and denied upward mobility. Rising cinema, depicting narratives of alien societies and con-
income and wealth inequality is not because the rich and texts. OTT corporations such as Netflix and Amazon are
wealthy are wicked monopolists, but that the neta-babu commissioning intelligent Indian producers for feature
brotherhood with its socialist era mindset continues to films and serials, which are getting better with the pas-
stymie the growth of millions of MSME (micro small sage of time.
and medium enterprises) entrepreneurs by refusing to Alternative cinema funded by Netflix and Amazon
bin thousands of useless rules, regulations and complex among others has succeeded in narrating tight stories
procedures of the socialist era. that capture the grim lives of the majority in the country’s
India’s rich and wealthy have made it to the top by ill-planned cities and neglected rural outbacks.
enduring the insolence of office, law’s delay, extortion and Recently, one had the good luck to stumble across
patient endurance of the humiliations heaped upon them an evocative and impactful alt cinema production titled
or their progenitors. Therefore, they perhaps deserve 12th Fail which narrates the trials and tribulations of
to enjoy their wealth. To prosper, India needs 10,000 a village boy with his heart set on qualifying as an IPS
Ambanis and Adanis. Cribbing commies who can’t lead or (Indian Police Service) officer. The utter backwardness
follow should get out of the way. of rural India where he grows up, the grim conditions of
a coaching school and his repeated failure in the UPSC
exam are realistically portrayed, as is his grit to clear this
Public sector oppression all-important exam while working in a flour mill to keep
body and soul together. A point forcefully made in the
HERE’S SOMETHING ROTTEN IN INDIA’S public film is the huge advantage that middle and upper class
sector enterprises (PSEs). Although by definition candidates enjoy because of English language fluency, for
Tthey are owned by the public and all citizens are which the hero is totally unprepared because of his rural
shareholders, in reality they are the private sector of education.
commissions-hungry politicians and bureaucrats, and Although the Supreme Court has decisively ruled that
those who work in the 256 Central PSEs and an equiva- the choice of medium of instruction is of parents and not
lent number owned by state governments. government, there’s no shortage of grey eminences who
Failure to deliver promised surpluses for investment parrot that children’s early years and primary education
in rural development and social welfare (public education should be in their vernacular mother tongue. Even the
and health) apart, PSEs have earned a notorious otherwise enlightened NEP 2020 reiterates this.
reputation for contracts-rigging, bribery and short- Politicians and pundits who wax eloquent on mother
changing ancillaries, intermediates suppliers and bottom- tongue primacy readily enroll their progeny in English-
of-pyramid citizens who are their shareholders. medium schools and foreign universities. One of the vir-
This latter proclivity of PSE babus was recently high- tues of 12th Fail — which has a schmaltzy happy ending
lighted in a case filed by one Shakraji Thakor against the — is that it exposes the hypocrisy of the Indian establish-
public sector crude oil quasi-monopoly Oil and Natural ment which has gamed the system to keep the under-class
Gas Corporation (ONGC) for “forcible occupation” of his down by denying them Inglish education.

114 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2024