Page 10 - EducationWorld March 2023

Editorial

SACHIN TENDULKAR OF INDIA INC Mundra deep water marine port is
among the most efficiently managed
worldwide; capacity utilisation in Ad-
he disruption of parliamentary system. ani power plants which generate 20
business for two whole days The issue of parliamentary time percent of national capacity, is far su-
T(February 2-3) by the Congress wastage aside, the massive uproar perior to all government power plants.
and opposition parties demanding a generated in the Congress and oppo- Capacity utilisation in its cement
JPC (joint parliamentary committee) sition benches was provoked by the factories, and Adani-managed air-
probe into allegations of fraud and alleged “closeness” of Gautam Adani, ports — all public goods — is widely
stock price manipulation made by an Chairman of the eponymous group of acknowledged as world-class. More-
obscure US-based securities firm is a companies, with the BJP government over, the flagship Adani Enterprises
telling example of how public money and prime minister Narendra Modi. Ltd imports and distributes 2 million
is wasted by politicians. According According to Congress leader Ra- tonnes of coal annually which keeps
to a study conducted by jagranjosh. hul Gandhi, the prime minister has the country’s power generation plants
com, every minute of parliamentary influenced other decision-making running. In the circumstances, what’s
stoppage costs taxpayers Rs.2.5 lakh bodies inside government to award wrong if the prime minister endorses
because salaries of MPs and staff and Adani contracts to construct/man- this extraordinary wealth creator —
overheads have to be paid even when age sea ports, airports, power genera- the Sachin Tendulkar of India Inc?
no business is conducted. Moreover tion plants and defence equipment. Yet he has failed to do so.
because normal business of parlia- Even if this charge of favouritism is The plain truth is that the socialist
ment is interrupted so often, impor- true — which it is not because most economic development model under
tant legislation — including the Union infrastructure building contracts were which private entrepreneurs are nec-
Budget — is bunched up and enacted awarded to Adani following pub- essarily villains is totally bankrupt,
hurriedly. lic auction — what’s wrong with the with even Russia and communist Chi-
As a result, Acts of Parliament tend PM expressing confidence in Adani’s na rejecting it. Can one imagine any
to be poorly drafted by wily bureau- proven project design, execution and American politician speaking so dis-
crats who invest themselves with wide management capabilities? respectfully about Bill Gates/Warren
discretionary powers enabling them Adani companies have exhibited Buffet/Elon Musk? It’s high time Ra-
to extract rents from citizens. In ad- rare, indeed extraordinary compe- hul Gandhi came of age and stopped
dition hastily enacted legislation pro- tence, especially when compared with flogging the dead horse of neta-babu
vokes litigation that clogs the judicial public sector enterprises. The group’s socialism. It won’t — and can’t — run.

DON'T IGNORE TALENT & CAPITAL FLIGHT number of HNIs and well-qualified
professionals with globally market-
able skills fleeing India. Coterminous-
xcept to left ideologues and aca- and idealism. This new bourgeoi- ly, OECD countries experiencing eco-
demics who the global rejection sie sees no wrongdoing in availing nomic recession, declining and ageing
Eof communism/socialism not- highly subsidised public education populations are rolling out red carpets
withstanding, continue to dominate funded by millions of poor citizens as for taxes and employment-generating
the academy and public discourse, a springboard to study and if possible HNIs and trained professionals from
the data is alarming, if not horrify- work abroad. And even though India’s India. Meanwhile, latter-day Neros in
ing. According to a front-page banner middle class is currently experiencing Delhi and state capitals encouraged
headline in The Hindu (February 10), unprecedented standards of living, by business-illiterate academics and
225,000 skilled professionals and/or millions of them continue to aspire to media pundits, continue to vilify and
HNIs (high net worth individuals) re- live abroad without the convenience of excoriate successful India Inc leaders
nounced Indian passports, migrating domestic help while taking racial dis- committed to national development.
abroad last year. crimination in their stride. In India’s Fifty years ago, after it was voted
Moreover, despite differential tu- elite clubs that provide HNIs every to power in West Bengal in 1977 and
ition fees levied by American and convenience and facility at affordable ruled the state for 34 years uninter-
British universities having risen pre- price, every second member prides on ruptedly while continuously hound-
cipitously in recent years, the num- having children settled abroad. ing and harassing industry and busi-
ber of Indian youth venturing abroad Although the new amoral middle ness, the CPM (Communist Party of
for higher education hit the highest class neck-deep in effete epicureanism India-Marxist) government triggered
7.5 lakh in 2022. The great majority is migrating abroad in ever greater a massive flight of capital from West
of them are likely to use every legal numbers, successive governments Bengal and destroyed its sizeable in-
and other stratagem to work and live at the Centre and states have failed dustrial base. Since then, Bengal’s
abroad. to improve public services — clean brightest and best have migrated
The prime cause of the continuous air, water, electricity, law, order and abroad and to other parts of India,
brain drain of well-educated youth is justice delivery, traffic management leaving the state’s economy flounder-
expansion of the country’s post-liber- — and the ease of doing business by ing in shallows and misery. There is a
alisation middle class, almost totally reducing official corruption. clear and present danger of this his-
unschooled in cultural nationalism This is a major cause of a large tory repeating itself on a larger scale.

12 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2023