DESPITE HAVING HAD to routinely suffer the contumely of myopic captains of India Inc, pangs of disprized love from the country™s academic community and neglect of mainstream media, over the past almost 15 years since EducationWorld was launched in 1999 with the objective œto build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda, this publication has not only prospered, but also acquired a national reputation in inverse proportion to its public profile.
A succession of ministers in Shastri Bhavan, Delhi (which houses the Union HRD ministry), who under-estimated and slighted this publication, have come to ignominious ends. In 2003, when EW repeatedly exposed the subversive agenda of Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Union HRD minister in the BJP-led NDA government, to infiltrate social sciences texts with communal propaganda and mythology, and to severely whittle down the autonomy of the IIMs, an enraged band of students of Allahabad University went door to door in the city to engineer his defeat in General Election 2004.
Subsequently, when the late and unlamented Congress party stalwart Arjun Singh ˜mandalised™ higher education and attempted a backdoor entry into the IITs, expos©s in this publication forced his ouster from the UPA-II cabinet of 2009. And when his successor Kapil Sibal refused all requests for interviews to explain the ill-drafted Right to Education Act, your editors™ public complaints contributed to his own party colleagues in the parliamentary standing committee on education turning against him, and his exit from the ministry in 2012.
The succession of Dr. Pallam Raju as HRD minister and his ˜dream team™ was warmly welcomed by EW. But like his arrogant and unaccountable predecessors in office, Raju earned the wrath of your editors by granting and then canceling an interview with them at the last minute. In the General Election of mid-May, Raju not only lost the right to represent the Kakinada constituency (Andhra Pradesh) in the Lok Sabha, a seat he had held since 1984, but his election deposit as well. Draw your own conclusions!
Occam explanation
POLLSTERS, PUNDITS, academics and intellectuals have offered a mountain of reasons to explain the complete rout of the 128-year-old Congress Party in General Election 2014. For the first time in the history of post-independence India, this grand old party has less than 10 percent of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha. This dismal electoral performance disqualifies its leader (Sonia Gandhi) from claiming the limited rights and privileges of leader of the opposition.
Undoubtedly there™s considerable truth and accuracy in most policy-failure related explanations ” unbridled corruption, unremitting inflation, sharp fall in GDP growth, administrative paralysis etc. But applying the principle of Occam™s Razor which stipulates that the simplest explanation is often the best, it™s arguable that overwhelming arrogance and hubris did the party in.
In retrospect, it™s quite clear that if the Congress-led UPA-I government had been voted out at the end of its first term, it wouldn™t have suffered the ignominy of this summer which may well prove to be the last nail in the party™s coffin. But the fact that Congress was returned to power in the Delhi imperium in 2009 with a larger majority, quite went to the heads of its ill-educated high command with ministers and rank and file replicating the hubris of the leadership. To the extent that even well-grounded individuals like Jairam Ramesh, Salman Khurshid, Jayanti Natarajan, Pallam Raju, and Veerappa Moily developed grand airs and graces, forgetting that heading a ministry is just a job and not an achievement per se.
On one occasion, your editor made over a dozen calls to Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia™s office, home and spoke with all his relatives in quest of a few bytes over the phone. But this jet-miles logging worthy didn™t bother to return the call. Ditto all HRD ministers of the UPA-I and II governments who believed they were not accountable.
Similar stories detailing the hubris of the sawdust caesars of the Congress party are legion. Therefore even those who entertain misgivings about the new dispensation in Delhi can™t help experiencing satisfying schadenfreude about the mighty fallen with a resounding thud.
Bon viveur extraordinaire
THE DEATH LAST MONTH in Kolkata at the ripe age of 96 of Harrow and Oxford-educated Russi Mody, for almost three decades managing director and undisputed supremo of Tata Iron and Steel Co (Tisco, estb. 1907) which he renamed Tata Steel in the early 1990s, brought back a flood of memories for your editor who over three decades ago wrote the first detailed profile of India™s largest and then shackled private sector steel manufacturing company. At the time of rampant labour unrest and strikes countrywide, Tisco had neither experienced a strike nor lockout for over half a century, despite the best efforts of the commissars, comrades of the communist parties, and maverick trade unionists.
In Jamshedpur, your correspondent discovered the secret of Mody™s success was his joie de vivre, easy accessibility and plain friendliness towards the rank and file of blue collar workers who loved ” there™s no other word ” him. To the extent that every year on his birthday, they ferried him on elephant back to a huge stadium for a grand party. Your editor also became an admirer and wrote several features starring Mody for Business India and Businessworld.
Alas, my friendship with Mody came to a bad end. After JRD Tata™s death in 1993, Mody unfurled the banner of revolt against the new Tata Group chairman, Ratan Tata. Mody who fancied himself JRD™s rightful successor, protested the appointment of J.J. Irani as managing director of Tata Steel, and proposed his live-in prot©g© and marketing director Aditya Kashyap instead. I commented on the issue in my columns in Sunday and The Independent opting in favour of Irani as the more suitable chief executive. Russi protested violently and never forgave me. Yet I retain fond memories of this man manager and bon viveur extraordinaire. RIP.