Page 330 - EW September 2025 Final

Postscript

Oman heartburn equal to almost 10 percent of the electorate — have van-
ished from the list of previously registered voters.
As perhaps every voter-citizen has experienced, the
BRIEF SOJOURN IN MUSCAT, THE CAPITAL
city of Oman (pop.5.2 million), and Dubai last root cause of the huge disorder in the electoral rolls in
which names, ages, addresses are routinely mangled
A month proved to be simultaneously, a revealing beyond recognition, is that barely literate government
and heart-burning experience. school teachers and unemployed graduates are hired by
Oman’s youth of both genders have evolved and
embraced higher skill-enriched education with evident state Election Commissions to conduct pre-poll SIRs.
Moreover these personnel are remunerated on piece work
enthusiasm and seem determined not to let their envi- rather than time expended contracts. As a result they are
able living standard slip in the imminent post-petroleum tempted to enter duplicate and cluster voters. Construc-
era. Moreover the younger generation is markedly less tive criticism requires these admin and supervisory prob-
deferential to white westerners than their parents and lems to be brought to the notice of ECI.
are friendly and welcoming towards Indians, particularly Instead, opposition Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and
businessmen and entrepreneurs. Huge potential for joint- sidekick Jairam Ramesh are going to town accusing ECI
ventures in Oman and the Middle East is self-evident. If of mass-scale cheating, eroding public faith in this criti-
the IFS-neta-babu brotherhood doesn’t queer the pitch. cally important institution. Moreover RaGa’s frequent use
It was a pleasant surprise to learn about ancient Indo- of street vulgarisms such as chor, liar, anti-national etc
Oman trade and commerce ties — present-day Oman has coarsened the national discourse and brought consti-
was under the administrative control of British India and tutionally elected leaders and institutions into disrepute.
the Indian Rupee was common currency. High-quality Such language is accelerating the erosion of critically
civic governance — as good as best in the West — was important national institutions of governance.
evident in the smooth potholes free roads and garbage-
free streets of Muscat. An evening stroll on the city’s
waterfront with its broad walkway dotted with aesthetic Education visionary
sculptures and fountains, will remain an abiding memory.
Even inside the crowded souk, high maintenance and UGUST 25 PROVED TO BE A SAD – INDEED
good governance was glaringly evident. A sharp contrast devastating — Monday for all of us in Educa-
with potholed, choked roads and garbage-strewn streets AtionWorld. Sanjeev Bolia, Promoter-Managing
back home. Director of the Kolkata-based Afairs Exhibitions & Media
The plain truth is that under Soviet inspired central Pvt. Ltd (AEM, estb. 1994), a company that pioneered
planning, municipal and local governance has been given the business of showcasing India’s premier education
short shrift in post-independence India. The municipal institutions — schools, colleges, universities – in India
corporations of India’s major cities, swamped by under- and abroad, passed away in Kolkata following a sudden
qualified kith and kin of the neta-babu brotherhood are heart attack.
riddled with corruption and inefficiency. Now back after A dedicated supporter of EW ab initio, Sanjeev was
marveling at the wonders they have performed with their only 56 years of age when the grim reaper struck. But in
oil wealth bonanza and the enthusiasm with which our this short life span he blazed a new trail and placed India
Arab brethren are preparing for the post-oil clean ener- on the global education map by providing a travelling
gies age, I’m all for closer Oman and Middle East partner- platform to the country’s best schools to attract students
ships and collaboration. There’s much we need to learn from across the country, and the Indian diaspora abroad.
from them. Over the past 31 years, AEM has curated 1,200 education
expositions in 22 cities across India and 200 overseas,
Coarse discourse enabling cross-cultural fertilization through student body
diversity in Indian schools.
Business acumen and entrepreneurial drive aside,
OST-INDEPENDENCE INDIA’S MAJOR uniquely Sanjeev built AEM into a Rs.100 crore transna-
institutions of governance are in a deplorable tional company through his excellent people management
Pcondition of disarray. The two houses of Parliament skills. With a quick wit, ready repartee and anecdotes,
at the Centre and legislative assemblies in the states are together with his joined-at-hip Director Vivek Shukla,
routinely disrupted without orderly debate (see Editorial they were able to quickly charm Middle East Sheikhs and
p.12); the judiciary, groaning under obsolete procedural South-east Asian princes, dictators and business tycoons.
laws and a 50 million cases backlog is dysfunctional; the In EW we are proud that we discerned his admirable
bureaucracy shows no sign of reducing compliances and qualities early. In January 2014 we featured a full-length
filings; India’s universities continue to recklessly certify cover story narrating the Afairs success story (https://
10 million under-prepared, unemployable graduates educationworld.in/ew-january-2014/). Five years ago,
annually. we conferred an EW Lifetime Achievement in Education
To this dismaying list add the Election Commission of Leadership Award, 2019 upon him. Sanjeev’s premature
India, which has either lost its independence or its bear- demise in his prime and when he had finalized plans to
ings. A Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral promote India’s best private universities in Central Asia
rolls of the benighted heartland state of Bihar (pop.134 and Africa has come as a heavy blow to Afairs, EW and
million) which goes to the assembly polls in November the national interest. An education visionary impossible
has revealed that 6.5 million registered voter names — to replace. RIP.

330 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2025