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Postscript

Dynasty fatigue he would have known that English is the associate na-
tional language, link language of the country and also the
OME PEOPLE NEVER LEARN. DESPITE THE language of the courts, business and industry. If he had
Congress party — and certainly the economy, if not the most elementary knowledge of post-independence
Scountry — having been destroyed by the Nehru- history, he would have known that in the 1960s when
Gandhi dynasty which on and off ruled over post-inde- Hindi was declared the sole official language of India,
pendence India for half a century before being sentenced there was real possibility of Tamil Nadu seceding from
to the doghouse of Indian politics, there is no shortage the Indian Union. Moreover this duffer also imposed
of politicians intent upon thrusting greatness upon their liquor prohibition in Bihar despite its disastrous history
progeny and kith and kin to build political dynasties. worldover which has unleashed a new crime and corrup-
Although slow to learn, people across the country are tion wave in the state.
making it clear they are fed up with an Amurath succeed- Also, at this very INDIA meeting when Mallikarjun
ing Amurath. Kharge, the unassuming Congress president, was pro-
The latest politician who didn’t learn the lesson of posed as the face of the INDIA alliance for General Elec-
practicing in-your-face nepotism is K. Chandrashekar tion 2024, he walked out of the assembly. With leaders
Rao, hitherto chief minister of Telangana, India’s young- like these who have led the deliberately under-educated
est state over which he strode like a colossus after having people of Bihar into prolonged and ruinous caste conflicts
led it out of united Andhra Pradesh into autonomous inside the INDIA alliance, its chances of uniting to halt
statehood in 2014. After sweeping Telangana state’s the BJP juggernaut in General Election 2024 are dim.
first and second assembly elections in 2014 and 2018
and wresting the prized city of Hyderabad, KCR began
entertaining delusions of grandeur. First, he built himself Rising contempt
a pleasure dome of Xanadu proportions from public
money. Next, he appointed his son K.T. Rama Rao de HE QUICK SUSPENSION OF 143 opposition Mem-
facto CM and his daughter Kavitha and two nephews to bers of Parliament for the last four days of the Win-
high offices in the state government. In addition, with his Tter session of Parliament — including 45 from the
dominance over Telangana (pop.39 million) established, Rajya Sabha, the upper House of Elders — doesn’t bode
he changed the name of the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti well for Indian democracy. During the four days when the
to Bharatiya Rashtriya Samiti (BRS) with great expecta- opposition benches were depleted to a mere 38 MPs, the
tion of emerging as kingmaker within the INDIA (Indian government legislated several important Bills including
National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) coalition of a revised Indian Penal Code, 1860 and the Evidence Act,
opposition parties readying to take on the BJP juggernaut 1872, given jaw-breaking titles in Hindi. When opposi-
in General Election 2024 scheduled for next summer. tion benches are depleted, poorly drafted Bills are enacted
Now all these grand plans of KCR have come to naught into ill-framed laws which in turn adds to the humongous
following the resounding defeat of BRS in the recently mountain of pending litigation.
concluded state assembly election. The number of seats Although opposition MPs have been suspended for
that BRS won plunged from 88 in 2018 to 39 in 2023. unruly conduct — storming the well of the House and
There is a writing on the wall in this story for West the Speaker’s podium — such contentious behaviour is
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and former Uttar alas, quite common and was often practiced when the
Pradesh chief minister Mayawati — and a host of regional ruling BJP was in opposition. Therefore, the action of the
satraps — grooming kith and kin for party leadership. Speakers of both houses to suspend almost 20 percent
Doubtful if they will read it. of MPs when their concerted demand was that Union
home minister Amit Shah make a statement in either
house on the security breach on December 13 when four
Trojan horse youth smuggled themselves into the Lok Sabha, created
a ruckus and hurled smoke canisters while the house was
HERE’S SOMETHING ROTTEN ABOUT BIHAR in session, is harsh by any standards. The smoke canisters
chief minister Nitish Kumar who under one strata- hurled about the house could have contained lethal gas
Tgem or another has ruled India’s poorest and most or have been grenades. In the circumstances, asking the
illiterate state for 17 years. Even as the coalition of oppo- home — or prime — minister to explain how this security
sition parties grouped under the INDIA alliance are engi- breach had occurred and what steps are being taken by
neering an electoral strategy to field a common candidate government to plug the loopholes was not an unreason-
in every constituency to ensure that the BJP doesn’t win able request.
General Election 2024 because of split opposition votes The adamantine refusal of the highest ministers of the
— a plausibly winning strategy — this worthy is throwing government to be answerable to Parliament is an indica-
all sorts of spanners in the works. On December 19, at tor of the minimal regard that the BJP government has
an inaugural meeting of the 28-party INDIA alliance, he for the country’s highest laws-making body. All MPs have
“lost his cool” when an MP from Tamil Nadu requested worked hard to win the mandate of the people of large
an English translation of his rambling speech in Hindi. constituencies across the country. Whether in govern-
According to him, translation was unnecessary as Hindi is ment or in opposition, their viewpoint has to be given due
the national language. consideration by government. Care needs to be taken that
Quite obviously, this aspiring prime minister is history pride and prejudice does not transform into contempt of
agnostic. If acquainted with the basics of the Constitution, Parliament.

98 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2024