Page 14 - EducationWorld September 2020

Editorial

PAROCHIAL POLITICS ENDANGERING UNITY reserved quotas is perhaps the worst
pathway towards full employment.
Moreover as any amateur econo-
DAMANTINE IN ITS OBSTINATE re- serving 75 percent of all new govern- mist will vouch, restricting mobility
fusal to fully liberalise and de- ment jobs for state residents. In July, of labour, business professionals and
Aregulate the Indian economy the Haryana and Andhra Pradesh capital within national borders is an
by consigning the socialist era licence- governments went a step further and invitation to inflation, low productiv-
permit-quota regime to the dustbin of vowed to impose similar quotas on pri- ity and economic backwardness. It’s a
history, the neta-babu brotherhood is vate sector industry. fundamental tenet of economics that
endangering the unity of India. With Apart from being unconstitutional corporations and entrepreneurs must
unemployment ballooning across the because Article 19 (1) of the Consti- have freedom to freely marry labour
country as the desultory rate of eco- tution expressly confers fundamen- and capital with best priced natural
nomic growth has been worsened by tal rights upon every citizen to move resources for the growth of national
the Covid-19 induced national econom- freely and reside in any part of India to economies. In the circumstances,
ic lockdown, several state governments practice a trade, profession or occupa- the nativism and parochialism being
have issued ordinances, notifications tion, such laws are generating tensions propagated and practised by a rising
and enacted legislation to reserve 70- within state boundaries. Because over number of state politicians is regres-
75 percent of jobs for sons of the soil. the past seven decades since indepen- sive, anti-national and disruptive of
Given that in 1956, the boundaries of dence, tens of millions of rural citizens national unity.
the country’s 29 states were ill-advis- from across the country have migrated If they really care about the alarm-
edly redrawn on the basis of the lan- to industrialised states such as Maha- ing spectre of unemployment staring
guage spoken by the majority in each rashtra, Karnataka and Delhi. The so- the country’s youth in the face, state
state, in effect this means that govern- lution to rising unemployment in states governments should smooth the path
ment jobs will favour the linguistic ma- is not reserved job quotas, but for the for the entry of capital and labour by
jority of every state. Central and state governments to get slashing red tape and introducing
On August 19, Madhya Pradesh their acts together and attract domes- single window, time-bound clearances
chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan tic and foreign investment and double for businessmen and entrepreneurs.
announced that the state government their rates of GDP growth to automati- Retreat into narrow parochialism will
is “making all legal provisions” for re- cally increase employment. Mandating make a bad economic situation worse.

FOOLISH RESURRECTION OF SETTLED ISSUES school children learn in Hindi “up to
class V or preferably until class VIII”
and the other half in 20 disparate lan-
ESPITE A LONG AND TROUBLED histo- — has been muted, if not of resigned guages, and years later graduate with
ry of rejection, Hindi language acceptance. This despite the south weak English communication skills.
Dchauvinism is on the march having bitterly resisted imposition of The policy also mandates that children
again in BJP-ruled India. Prime min- Hindi as the national language in the should learn three languages, “two of
ister Narendra Modi and members of 1960s. At that time when Hindi was which should be Indian languages”,
the Union cabinet seem unaware that declared the national and official lan- implying that English, or more ac-
56 percent of the nation’s population guage, there were protests and threats curately Inglish, is not an Indian lan-
is unacquainted with Hindi. On Au- of secession in the southern states. guage. The design is that all children
gust 9, Ms. Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, The objection of peninsular India will opt for Hindi as one of the three.
a member of Parliament from Tamil states to adoption of Hindi as the na- The formulators of NEP 2020 seem
Nadu, was insulted by a woman offi- tional language is that it would give ignorant of the fact that the medium
cer of the Central Industrial Security citizens of BIMARU states a natural of instruction issue has been settled
Force at Chennai airport for not being advantage in bagging jobs in govern- by the Supreme Court. In K A MS vs.
familiar with Hindi, “the national lan- ment and academia and to dominate G overnment of K arnatak a (2014), the
guage”. On August 21, an official of the the professions. On the other hand, apex court decreed that choice of the
Union Ayush (traditional medicines) adoption of English creates a level medium of instruction in school edu-
ministry asked government officials playing field as everybody has an cation is entirely of children’s parents.
unfamiliar with Hindi to leave his equal chance to learn it. Moreover, Unsurprisingly, the ruling AIADMK
training class. since the geographical spread of Eng- party in Tamil Nadu — ironically a
Curiously the reaction of chief lish is greater than of Hindi, it’s best BJP ally — has rejected forthwith,
ministers and politicians in India’s for inter-state communications. These NEP 2020’s three languages prescrip-
southern non-Hindi speaking states to arguments are as valid today as they tion reiterating the state government’s
this concerted effort to impose Hindi were half a century ago. established two compulsory languages
— the lingua franca of the country’s Despite this historical backdrop, — English and Tamil — in K-12 educa-
most socio-economically backward the National Education Policy (NEP) tion with all other languages optional.
BIMARU (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, 2020 has resurrected the medium of Thus through continuous resurrection
Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) states instruction and three languages is- of well-settled issues, the country’s
which grudgingly host more than half sues. In essence, it recommends that benighted neta-babu brotherhood is
of the country’s 1.30 billion citizens over half the country’s 260 million in- draining the energy of the nation.

14 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2020