Page 10 - EW May 2025

Editorial

BEGINNING OF END OF TRUMP PRESIDENCY ments and agencies. Surely he is aware
that the great inventions and innova-
tions, and sheer intellectual power
fter completing 100 days of world. that enabled America to win two world
his second term in office as It’s baffling that President Trump wars and emerge as the most affluent
APresident of the United States and his economic advisers have not nation in global history, emerged from
(POTUS) of America, the world’s most grasped the 21st century reality that America’s 6,000 institutions of higher
economically, academically and mili- employment at scale can’t be created education. Only they have the capa-
tarily powerful nation, it’s now quite in America’s traditional industries. bility to quickly upskill this country,
clear to all except the most intellectu- Even if America’s steel, automobiles abundantly endowed with resources
ally arid elements of American soci- and manufacturing industries can be — land, labour, capital and enterprise
ety (their number alas, is not insig- revived behind the protection of tariff — to resolve problems of unemploy-
nificant), that it’s the beginning of the walls, fast AI advancements and ro- ment, homelessness, medical care de-
end for Donald J. Trump as the 47th botics have ended the era of labour- ficiency and rising wealth and income
POTUS. intensive factory assembly lines. In disparity.
Archaic international trade poli- the circumstances, a shift in focus to- Instead of allying with the academy
cies driven by 19th century frontier wards skilling, reskilling and upskill- to address these snowballing prob-
economics threaten to wreck the post- ing laid off labour for industry and lems, Trump has opted to antagonise
World War II rules-based internation- services sectors of the world’s largest them. Simultaneously with his arbi-
al order painstakingly built by several and most inventive economy is the trary mid-term deportation of foreign
enlightened American presidents best option. And no nation on earth students for minor civic offences,
beginning with Dwight Eisenhower, is better equipped to reskill and up- contempt for the hallowed tradition
John Kennedy, all the way down to grade its labour force to add value to of due process, Trump is rapidly an-
Barack Obama. To please and ap- industries of the future, than America. tagonising the powerful judiciary and
pease his MAGA (Make America Great Moreover, it’s doubly foolish of the eastern seaboard WASP establish-
Again) blue-collar working class con- Trump to have declared war on Amer- ment. Such banana republic rampages
stituency, which has lost traditional ica’s great universities which are mag- of President Trump in a 250-year-old
rust-belt manufacturing shopfloor nets for global talent and envy of the democracy governed by law and due
jobs as American industry has moved world. President Trump has threat- process, is certain to prove his down-
higher up the value chain, Trump has ened to cut off their research funding fall well before his term in office is
unleashed a trade/tariffs war upon the from government ministries, depart- scheduled to end in 2029.

TIME TO APPLY CLOSURE ON INGLISH STATUS Adhiniyam; Indian Penal Code 1860
as Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the
Criminal Procedure Code as Bharati-
ising apprehension in the south- admitted that 70 percent of the Cen- ya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita? Conse-
ern states of India — especially tral government’s “cabinet documents quently we have a situation in which
Rin Tamil Nadu — that Hindi, the are in Hindi”. Moreover despite being learned counsel addressing courts will
dominant language of the BIMARU well-acquainted with Inglish, Prime cite legislation written in Inglish, ar-
(Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan Minister Modi and Amit Shah insist gue their cases in Inglish but cite these
and Uttar Pradesh) states, is overtly on addressing bewildered masses new Acts with jaw-breaking titles.
and covertly being imposed as the na- and audiences in peninsular India in Only in India!
tional language, is justified. The man- Hindi. They also speak only in Hindi An infirmity of post-independent
date of the National Education Policy when addressing anchors of Inglish India’s limping national development
(NEP) 2020 is that all in-school chil- language television channels. This effort is failure to apply closure to is-
dren countrywide should learn three insistence of the BJP leadership has sues. To all intents and purposes, the
languages viz, their mother tongue, influenced lapdog English language issue of Hindi becoming the sole offi-
another Indian language and a for- television news channels to the extent cial language was closed in 1965, when
eign language, implicitly bestowing that some of them are indistinguish- Inglish was accorded the status of as-
the status of an alien language upon able from Hindi news channels. sociate national language. Rather than
English/Inglish, officially accepted in Therefore, it’s quite plain that wasting time and energy on the done
1965 as India’s language of business, given the commitment (“one nation and dusted three-language formula,
judiciary and inter-states language of one language”) of the RSS, the men- the BJP/ NDA government would do
communication. tor cultural organization of the BJP/ better to focus its attention on graver
In a well-argued op-ed page essay NDA government at the Centre, the problems — education, health, skilling,
in Times of India (21/4) Anbil Poyy- latter is hell-bent on imposing Hindi housing, nutrition, and safeguarding
amozhi, Tamil Nadu’s minister for as the national language, simultane- the world’s largest child and youth
school education, contended that the ously sidelining Inglish which is the population against the imminent rav-
marginalisation of English is “no small associate national language. What ages of climate change. Continuous
matter” for children in the southern other explanation can there be for re- harping upon issues of peripheral
states. According to Poyyamozhi, naming the recently recast Indian Evi- import is likely to blot the three-term
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has dence Act, 1872 as Bharatiya Sakshya record of the BJP/NDA government.

10 EDUCATIONWORLD MAY 2025