భారత దేశం, పురోగమనానికి ఎప్పుడూ ఆమడ దూరం వెనకే ఎందుకు ఉంటుందని ఎవరినైనా అడగండి. "మన వాళ్ళూ మాటల వీరులే కానీ పనిలో శూరులు కారు" అని చాలా మంది చెపుతారు. నిజమేమో. మరి స్వఛ్ఛందంగా పని చేయడానికి, ఉన్న ఉద్యోగాలు వదిలి, మాటలను చేతలుగా చేయాలనుకునే కార్యశూరులకి మన ప్రభుత్వాలు ప్రోత్సాహాన్నిస్తున్నాయా? అదీ లేదు. IIMUSA e-గుంపు లో వచ్చిన వేగు (e-mail) కింద అతికించా, చూడండి.
రాజస్తానులో ప్రగతి కోసం పాటుపడడానికి నిస్వార్థంగా ముందుకు వచ్చినవారిని ప్రభుత్వమే ఎలా అణగద్రొక్కుతోందో తెలుస్తుంది (రాష్ట్రపతి ప్రతిభా పాటిల్ ప్రతిభా పాటవాల గురించి కూడ కొంచెం తెలుస్తుంది) - ఇది కేవలం రాజస్తాను రాష్ట్రానికే పరిమితం కాదని నా అనుమానం. ఇలాంటి ప్రభుత్వాలున్నంతవరకూ మనకి ప్రగతి ఎక్కడుంటుంది చెప్పండి?
కొంచెం పెద్ద వేగు కాబట్టి తీరిక దొరికినప్పుడు పూర్తిగా చదవండి. (ప్రొఫ్. ఇంద్రేశన్ ఐ.ఐ.టి మద్రాస్ డైరక్టర్ గా పని చేసారు. ప్రొఫ్. ఆర్య జోధ్పూర్ లో ఉన్న అరావలి ఇన్స్టిట్యూట్ ఆఫ్ మెనేజ్మెంట్ కి డైరక్టర్)=
---------- Forwarded message ----------From: Ajit M Naik Date: Sep 9, 2007 9:41 AM Subject: [iimc19] Fwd: Your Comments PleaseTo: 19th Batch IIM-Cal <iimc19@yahoogroups. com>
Varun Arya is my class & hostel mate from IITD. He has founded the Aravali Institute of Management, Jodhpur.
Ajit
---------- Forwarded message ----------From: Varun Arya Date: Sep 9, 2007 2:56 PMSubject: Re: Your Comments PleaseTo: MIND-Petition@ yahoogroups. com
Dear Prof. Indiresan
I have read your mail and the presentation with a lot of interest. Iam writing in this forum after a long time, simply because despite allthe good intentions, it seems to have become just another academic discussion forum without any tangible results having come out of it sofar. I sincerely believe we have too much of such purely academic andtheoretical discussions going on amongst too many people for too longa time. The time has now come to transcend onto tangible action mode,which alone can serve the desired purpose. I would prefer to spendtime for tangible action, rather than simple academic discussion.
In your mail, the sentence "The objection comes from politicians, bureaucrats and "experts". " and in the presentation mention of"public-private partnership" have been particularly noted by me. Fullywell knowing that some of the members in the group and perhaps even you may not appreciate it, with all the frankness and fearlessness, I still wish to share few ground realities as under :
- I have travelled extensively in the villages of Rajasthan and UP,where I find the school education, in particular and overall educational scenario, in general, absolutely disgusting and pathetic.In the name of schools, four walls with a perennially locked gateexist; teachers are mostly political appointees by jacks or cash whohardly know how to and what to teach; their presence is only in the attendance registers; almost all the budget of the schools is spent onthe papers within the state secretariat, in the collectorates and atthe block/panchayat level. Ask RTI activist and Magsaysay awardee fromRajasthan Mrs. Aruna Roy and she will give you more insights.
- Many people (including me), wish to do something significant andsubstantial for primary education in Rajasthan. The biggest hindrancein this is the government. Unless they get their pound of flesh, they are not just interested even to listen, let alone do anything requiredfor the purpose. Let me share few examples :
- I wanted land for education, not free but at the reserved pricemeant for educational purpose. No less than the then CM Ashok Gehlot gave a written commitment (because I wrote to him from Delhi where Iwas based and was written with reference of IIT Delhi, of which AlumniAssociation I was then the President). I came to Rajasthan in the year2000, various options of land were shown to me and one piece of landwas finalised. I was asked to meet a henchman of Ashok Gehlot to"negotiate". I refused because of my firm belief that education, bydefinition, was based on ethics. I did not get the land. Then CMchanged and Vasundhara Raje became CM. When she was approached, heroffice made a statement "Giving land without bribe will set a wrongprecedent". The fact is that we did not get the land again. Mind you - in both the cases, some of the most distinguished persons of ourcountry had also written to the respective CM in support of ourproject and requested him/her for helping us.
- I met the Governor Pratibha Patil and had a one hour long meeting with her at Raj Bhavan, Jaipur. She told me clearly that she had beentold about my not paying any bribe to anyone. In view of this, shetold me categorically that none of my work would be done and I willface only problems. We all know that she is now the President of India.
- Dr. Abid Hussain fixed up my meeting with Anil Kumar (IAS of Rajasthan cadre), earlier Telecom Secretary who was Secretary to VicePresident of India Mr. Bhairon Singh Shekhawat (also from Rajasthan) at Uprashtrapati Niwas in Delhi. When I told Anil Kumar about theentire matter, he asked me whether my project had the "blessings" ofCM. I said I did not know. He told me that I should have known it and ensured it. I told him that I was an alumnus of IIT Delhi & IIMAhmedabad and had left a cushy corporate career to do something for myhome state. He curtly told me who had asked me to think of the stateand the nation and do anything for them. He told me clearly that myeducation project will not succeed unless I was able to get the"blessings" of CM.
- I met CM Ashok Gehlot at Chief Minister's residence in Jaipur. He told me categorically that I should leave unless I was willing to payup. I told him that I had come by my own will and will leave by my ownwill. He can do whatever he wanted. With full force of state, he hadunleashed against me several enquiries and false cases includingconcocted cases for murder and molestation and attacks on the lives ofme and my family members to make me surrender to his whims and fancies.
- Having seen both shades of government and failed to get the landwithout payment of bribes, finally we purchased private land at marketprice. With our limited financial resources, it was extremely barrenwasteland. Reports on this land from some of the central government experts is attached. Instead of facilitating and supporting our havingtaken up this challenge, the netas and babus have been continuing tocreate problems. One night some people came to this site with a truckto steal the tree guards and damage the site. They were the henchmenof local MP Jaswant Singh Bishnoi. When our security guards caught oneof the persons, got him arrested and we filed an FIR, this MP rang upSP to release this thief and asked SP to instead file a fake counter FIR against us since how we had dared to catch his henchman and fileFIR. It was only after the villagers there threatened to block theNational Highway that the police did not do as asked by MP. TheRevenue Minister of Rajasthan Ram Narain Dudi, who is also MLA from the area where our land is located, repeatedly asked me to meet him to"negotiate". When I conveyed to him that I had nothing to "negotiate",I was threatened that then I should be prepared to face the consequences. Soon the consequences were there - Tehsildar of the arealevied penalty of Rs. 76 lakhs in a sadistically fraudulent manner andto recover it, issued orders for sale of our land, without even giving us any notice and without the information of his superiors - SDM and Collector. The Minister had told Tehsildar directly to issue theorder. When the Minister was contacted, he said "no compromise onbribes and these have to be paid".
Similar to above has happened to many other persons also who wished todo something for the development of Rajasthan without anyself-interest. For example. my friend waterman and Magsaysay awardeeRajendra Singh has converted around 2,000 villages of Rajasthan from dark zones (no water) to white zones (plenty of water) by constructingover 10,000 water harvesting structures in a unique example ofcommunity involved development without any financial help from thegovernment. He is now 50 years and two years back he thought that in his remaining life-time he can perhaps create another 10,000 waterharvesting structures, which will not be enough for Rajasthan andIndia. Therefore, he decided to create more Rajendra Singhs by settingup a water university. He established Tarun Jal Vidyapeeth at Tizara in Alwar District of Rajasthan and built a campus. In Tizara alsothere was no water and therefore, he constructed around 200 waterharvesting structures which resulted in water table rising upsignificantly. The local population which was able to do just one crop in a year, started doing three crops in a year. CM Vasundhara Rajeissued licenses for 15 liquor factories in Tizara by taking hugebribes. Rajendra Singh protested against this decision since it wouldhave lead to depletion of water resources which he had painstakingly built. CM did not like it and on 18th July 2006 when Rajendra Singhwas away to the villages of Bundelkhand region and all his people werealso away to the various water harvesting sites, in a conspiracyplanned manner, a contingent of police arrived there with bull dozers and razed to the ground the entire campus. Rajendra Singh rang me upand was literally in tears that he belonged to UP but had thought ofdevelopment of Rajasthan and this is what the government had done tohim. I visited the site with our students and made a film also on the havoc which CM created on the site using state force and public money.
I can go on and on with many more examples. I have a question to all -why in our country it is so difficult (if not impossible) to doanything good for the nation in the right way. I have asked thisquestion to everyone including PM and the President. I have yet to geta satisfactory reply.
Thanks and best regards
Varun
=
At 11:07 09/09/2007,
PV Indiresan wrote:
There is no problem in having good schools in our villages.Yesterday, I was in a village in Chattisgarh. The people wanted ahigh school - for a population of 1200. I suggested that they wouldbetter send the children to a neighbouring village about 4 km away which already has a high schol rather than start a new school. Theyagreed when I put it to them - whaich is important, a high school inthe village or good education for the children? The problem thenreduces to providing affordable transportation for the children and making schools large enough to be viable, large enough to attractquality teachers. In my experience, a faculty of 20-30 is needed toattract and retain good teachers. The objection comes frompoliticians, bureaucrats and "experts".
Kalam has tried and failed. Our planners just have noidea howimportant connectivity is. Neither will they agree that educationshouldbe liberalised no less than industry.
Whether the selection is made at Class I or Class III is a matter of detail. I prefer Class I because most SC/ST children dropout at endof Class I.Again it is a matter of detail whether we consider parents educationor grandparents - remember, there is no perfect solution. Weshould take the stepthat gives us best results. I think you misread my point on Christian schools. I commend them fortheir effort.
Please do not brush away the risk of Hindus losing control: It is liable to let loose the worst kind of Hindutva chauvinists. We need a rational response how to face the situation when, caste Hindus losepolitical authority. Weshould plan for a systematic transition insuch a way that the interrugnum is as painless as possible.Incidentally, the greatest losers will be OBC politicians because they are the rulers today. In this respect, I commend Mayawati who hasshown higher level of statesmanship than our better educated, moreexperienced Congress and BJP politicians.
I enclose the presentation I made in Chattsgarh yesterday. It may give you some ideas.
