Page 12 - EW April 2021

Editorial

PRATAP BHANU MEHTA’S RIGHT CHOICE communities will be demoted to sec-
ond class citizenship.
By definition, the prime duty of the
HE CONTROVERSIAL RESIGNATION ON I resign”. founder-trustees of the university is to
March 16 of Dr. Pratap Bhanu The backstory of Mehta’s resigna- protect the interests of the institution
TMehta from the faculty of the tion is that during the past decade, in which they have invested huge re-
high-ranked Ashoka University (AU, Mehta, an alum of the blue-chip Ox- sources and nurtured into a premier
estb.2014) has provoked universal ford (UK) and Princeton (US) uni- liberal arts university in record time.
condemnation of the promoter trust- versities and former president of the In retrospect, they grievously erred in
ees of this new genre, crowd-funded Delhi-based Centre for Public Policy inviting the high-profile anti-estab-
private liberal arts university estab- Research which he nurtured into the lishment Mehta to come aboard the
lished to maintain the highest stan- country’s most respected think tank, university in 2017 as vice chancellor
dards of academic independence and has emerged as the nation’s foremost and two years after he voluntarily re-
institutional autonomy for which the public intellectual. His incisive reflec- signed that position, retaining him as
Oxbridge universities and Ivy league tions on politics, the Constitution and a faculty member even after the BJP
colleges of the US are renowned. law published in the multi-edition In- — which it’s common knowledge is no
In his letter of resignation, Mehta dian Express has a nationwide reader- respecter of constitutional niceties —
wrote that after a meeting with the ship running into millions. However, swept General Election 2019.
founder-trustees of AU, it became it is unsparing in its unbridled criti- In the circumstances, with the
“abundantly clear” to him that his as- cism of the BJP/NDA government led trustees having painted themselves
sociation with the university as profes- by prime minister Narendra Modi. into a corner and well aware of the
sor of political science had become a The brunt of Mehta’s animus to- great damage that the bull-in-a-china
“political liability” for the institution. wards the BJP in particular, is that it shop BJP could do to this great project,
In an indirect reference to the BJP/ is a Hindu majoritarian political party Mehta did the right thing by putting in
NDA government at the Centre, Mehta hell-bent on promoting the militant his papers. In the final analysis, Mehta
wrote that “my public writing in sup- hindutva philosophy/ideology of the was obliged to make a choice between
port of a politics that tries to honour Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), his fundamental right to free expres-
constitutional values of freedom and the ideological mentor organisation of sion, and preservation and progres-
equal respect for all citizens is per- the BJP committed to transforming sion of a great university built to last.
ceived to carry risks for the univer- India into a Hindu rashtra in which It was the correct choice in the larger
sity. In the interests of the university, Muslim and other religious minority public interest.

DON’T BACKSLIDE ON PSB PRIVATISATION prises in India by the banking sector
overwhelmingly dominated by PSBs,
was a mere 87 percent of GDP. And in
HE SILVER LINING OF THE DEVASTAT- economy, is that even if belatedly, the July 2020 (during the pandemic lock-
ING Covid-19 pandemic, which BJP leadership has rediscovered its down) it plunged to 56 percent.
Tdespite take-off of the national ideological moorings and announced In sharp contrast, in China the ra-
vaccination campaign, is surging in an intent of wholesale privatisation of tio was 205 percent; South Korea 197;
some parts of the country, is that it the country’s black hole 348 govern- USA 150; UK 158 percent. World Bank
has made the neta-babu brotherhood ment-owned public sector enterprises data confirms the risk-aversion of In-
aware that adoption of the socialist (PSEs). In particular it has declared dia’s public sector banks. In China, the
development model under which the firm intent to privatise the country’s bank credit to GDP ratio (2019) was
State dominates the “commanding 12 banks which were nationalised way 164 percent and South Korea 151 per-
heights of the economy” was the big- back in 1969, starting with two large cent cf. India’s 50 percent. A combi-
gest mistake in Indian history. (unnamed) PSE banks in 2021-22. nation of politically directed lending,
The empty treasuries of the Central This latter declaration of intent chronic ineptitude and risk-aversion
and state governments are testimony should be especially welcomed as for over half a century, starved Indian
to the bankruptcy of the neta-babu during the past half century public industry — particularly MSMEs (mi-
economic development model. As a sector banks (PSBs) mismanaged by cro small and medium enterprises) —
result while the newly-elected Biden business-illiterate bureaucrats and of credit, the prerequisite of economic
administration in the United States over-promoted clerks, have inflicted growth.
has provided a $1.9 trillion pandemic incalculable damage upon the Indian Unsurprisingly, lazy, overpaid and
relief package for America — a sum economy, and are primarily respon- technologically and productivity chal-
equal to more than half the GDP of In- sible for its slow growth and under- lenged bank employees enamoured
dia in 2019-20 — the numerous relief development during the past 50 years. with the status quo called a two-day
packages of the BJP/NDA government This charge is evidenced by recent national strike (March 15-17) to pro-
at the Centre aggregate Rs.3 lakh crore data published by the Switzerland- test the proposed denationalisation of
($41 billion) for a population that’s 3x based Bank of International Settle- PSBs. No right-thinking citizen should
of the US. ments (BIS) and the World Bank. support them or tolerate government
Nevertheless an upside of the Co- According to BIS, in 2019 total back-sliding on the issue of privatisa-
vid blight which has felled the Indian bank credit to non-financial enter- tion of PSBs.

14 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2021