Page 16 - Education World Nov-21 Low 81.6MB

Editorial

TIME TO END PROLONGED PSE LOVE AFFAIR employee was recruited on the recom-
mendation of a member of the neta-
babu brotherhood because in those
HE TOTAL P RIIVATISATION ON Oc- economic development model im- years, an Air India job was highly
tober 8 of Air India, the public posed upon newly-independent India coveted. The huge losses suffered by
Tsector national airline, which by a myopic political leadership. The this nationalised airline — which in
during the past 68 years since it was plain truth is that the recurring losses effect was captured by its over-paid,
nationalised in 1953 has recorded a incurred by PSEs which required bud- well-connected middle class employ-
cumulative loss of Rs.70,000 crore, getary support year after year, have ees — had to be borne by the masses
is a milestone in the half-hearted been at the cost of public goods such toiling at the bottom of the country’s
national development history of as roads, railways, telephone connec- iniquitous socio-economic pyramid.
post-independent India. That this tivity, bank credit, quality government This infirmity is common to all PSEs.
perpetually bleeding airline has been schools, primary health centres, police It’s high time the academy and
re-purchased by the business house of and judicial systems. All these public teachers community acknowledge
Tata from whom it was unwarrantedly services — prerequisites of middle that until the mid-19th century, the
snatched away almost seven decades class societies — are grossly inad- Indian subcontinent was the world’s
ago, is a double bonus. The privatisa- equate 74 years after independence. wealthiest and most prosperous re-
tion of Air India is a landmark inas- Almost four decades ago, your edi- gion contributing 20 percent of glob-
much as it has prepared the ground tor wrote a first-ever 13-page feature al GDP. We were prosperous because
for the privatisation of a large number in Business I ndia that examined the governments focused on governance
of the country’s 358 Central and state commercial operations of Air India. At and maintaining law, order and justice
government public sector enterprises that time, the story reported that the systems. The proper organic develop-
(PSEs), including nationalised banks nationalised airline was an unviable ment model is for government to en-
established at huge cost to the public enterprise. It had double the number able industry and business entrepre-
exchequer, but have bled the economy of employees per aircraft of any airline neurs to prosper and pay taxes, for
dry and destroyed the modest material worldwide; the nationalised airline government to provide high quality
aspirations of hundreds of millions of hosted over a dozen trade unions; it public goods and services.
free India’s citizens. was run by a bureaucracy instead of This should be taught to students
Regrettably, the country’s academ- professional management and all im- in the nation’s classrooms. If not, it
ics and public intellectuals continue to portant decisions had to be cleared by will take another 40 years for the next
be in love with the inorganic PSE-led New Delhi. Moreover, almost every bleeding PSE to be privatised.

DEGENERATION INTO A GOUGERS NATION dence of government corruption in
countries around the world, India is
regressing every year and is currently
ranked 86 among 180 countries.
DISM AYING NATIONAL CHARACTER tive reaction of people in authority With greedy price gouging — de-
flaw that has manifested itself and suppliers of goods and services fined as “to force somebody to pay an
Awith painful impact during the to any natural or man-made disaster unfairly high price for something; to
crushing Covid-19 pandemic is that is to mark-up prices to earn windfall raise prices unfairly” — increasingly
post-independence India — a country profits. This tendency to exploit and being accepted as normal behaviour in
of free men and women expected to profiteer is by no means restricted to Indian society, it’s time right-thinking
hold the moral high ground envisioned the medical and related vocations. It’s citizens, especially educators, aca-
by Mahatma Gandhi and leaders of the not unusual in the legal profession for demics and teachers reflect upon the
freedom movement — has degenerated lawyers to take upfront fees, and tak- utter inhumanity of gougers and name
into a nation of price gougers. One of ing advantage of the law’s horrendous and shame them in social and other
the most depressing revelations of the delays, to squeeze clients. Ditto corpo- media. Moreover it’s imperative that
pandemic is that too many — perhaps rate entities, traders and retailers. The morality, ethics and socially respon-
the majority — of hospitals, suppliers minute there’s a shortage of any com- sible behaviour — subjects that seem
of life-saving equipment and medica- modity or grocery item, price graphs to have gone out of fashion in school
tions and all too often medical practi- head for the ceiling. curriculums — are re-introduced in
tioners and personnel, took advantage Nor is price gouging a middle class the country’s classrooms.
of shortages of hospital beds, oxygen phenomenon. It’s routine for taxi and Regrettably because of adoption
and medicines, to indulge in shameless rickshaw drivers to rip off or refuse to and propagation of inorganic ideolo-
profiteering. ply even manifestly sick and ailing fel- gy and poor policy formulation, seven
In civilised societies, the normative low citizens. And as for the ubiquitous decades after independence, high-
reaction is to extend a helping hand gouging within government — denial potential India has remained a poor
and perhaps even offer price conces- of services until illegal gratification is backward, and worse a cruel country,
sions and fee waivers, to fellow citi- paid — let’s not even go there. Suffice routinely practising man’s inhumanity
zens in distress. Yet in the professedly it to say that on the corruption index to man. To a large extent the blame
socialist society fashioned by the Ma- of the Berlin-based Transparency In- has to be laid at the doors of the edu-
hatma’s unworthy heirs, the instinc- ternational which measures the inci- cators and teachers community.

16 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2021