OF IIT AND OTHERWISE

With unfailing regularity some member of the country’s elite wakes up and passes a comment on the IITs and IIMs. Now the poor and ignorant masses have to listen and gobble the Goebbelian truth for two reasons :
Firstly, because except the 5 odd lakh people who appear in JEE and CAT nobody knows what it takes to prepare and qualify for these exams.
Secondly , because it is always fashionable in an open society to have divergent views howsoever outlandish they maybe.
What is very interesting here is that everyone comments about the engineers and the engineering graduates in IIMs. When was the last time someone commented upon the selection procedure of medical students , or the falling standards of CAs.
This could be because of two reasons, I believe:
For a doctor, you know , he knows a little more about YOUR body than you do.So if you make too much noise – well you could be under the proverbial sword tomorrow.
This theory somehow even applies if the doctor (most of the times)ensures a wrong treatment or even kills your patient- rarely does anybody pull him to court and question his competency (at least in India).
For other professions- well you need them so much in daily life, that you really don’t know if they doing your good or bad- even if it’s a next door insurance agent who just sold you a ULIP with 35% upfront charges.
Now going back to the IIT graduates. Surprisingly everyone is concerned about the 2500 odd graduates who are entering and a few less(minus suicides) who are passing out of IITs. No one is even bothered to check that a 10 times the no. is passing out of NITs which are also publicly funded and a 100 times from the private institutions- that are not.
To talk of the IITians, people question there over zealousness of pursuing high salary jobs in the private sector both inland and offshore. This attitude is in a country where the focus on joining IAS or any less Babu department is to make that fast buck- in as less a time as possible (before Anna finds out).
We say that they have no contribution to the society. How ironic is that- when we don’t even know about the contribution of the freedom fighters in our own towns. We say that IIt graduates are too self-centred. Well try counting from Arvind Kejriwal- backwards and you’ll have a long list.
Now getting on to their poorer cousins from NIT and Private Institutions- well the public opinion will be severely dented if they found out a large no. of engineering graduates are manning the public and private sectors in not only administrative ranks but as inventors and innovators. Not only are they creating wealth for the society but contributing to the public welfare.
Incidentally the first of the known whistle blowers who was mercilessly killed was from IIT.
After making his contribution to the society people like Mr.Narayanmurthy decide to adversely comment upon the newer generation- that too miles away from homeland. We sure have a crab like habit boss- pulling down others who try to climb up the basket.
Why doesn’t Mr.Murthy contribute creatively by suggesting how the exam papers must be designed. By being on the moderators panel. At least Mr. Sibal can be credited with trying some creative steps in that direction.
The problem is that we don’t understand that an engineer is not about opening nuts n bolts and building bridges. An engineer is one of the most innovative and creative creatures developed by the society. Not only can he run the country for you, he can even make missiles, manage your fund corpus exceeding the GDP of a developing country- he can even move the governments to mind it’s step… and as Linda Goodman about Leos… if nothing else he can fix that broken doorknob if you marry him.

Season of Change II- Fallout or the Fear of Retribution

When BC Khanduri became the CM first time in Uttarakhand. He stopped all the developmental work because he first wanted all the projects to be vetted and see if any misdeeds had been conducted. Apparently the case of throwing the proverbial child out with the bath water.
Same thing has happened in case of mines issue – the SC has shut down all the mines. Now steel companies like JSW are contemplating shutting down the steel plants.
Question that comes to forefront is that will any political servant take any bold initiative if he stands under the constant threat of Damocles’ sword that he can be indicted at any time in future. Also how many decision makers will take even correct decisions for fear of retribution by some parties whose side they rightly did not take.
I have not seen anything about the graft giver in the bill. Should there not be something for the one who gives. Court has arrested topshot executives of telcom companies who could have benefitted by the decisions of the minister. OK the telcom cos. Paid in millions if not billions.
But is it any different than the 1% that every citizen pays when registering his land.
Or Rs.100 that he pays to the cop because his papers are not in order. Should he not be punished with same seriousness as the one who is receiving graft.

The Season of Change- I

When the Anna agitation was about to take off I did not expect much resistance or attention from the government.I was also not very convinced that the fast will go as Ramdev's agitation. I was in fact just as hopeful as any Indian that the fast will go for about 7 days when the government will go down on it's knees and give into the wishes.
What happened was totally unexpected from all fronts and everyone acted as a tough and tougher nut to crack.Finally the war was won and everyone went happily their ways and their lives.
However from that very day I became very apprehensive on a lot of fronts and the apprehensions were difficult to put in a logical manner.
still writing them down is as good as sharing them.
Years before there was a movie by Nana Patekar called "KARNDHAAR". I think what I saw was a Hindi dubbed version of the original Marathi make, because this movie is never talked about in Hindi circles.
The movie however revolves around Patekar as a child who sees his father being killed by a local politician. So he himself grows into a true social worker fighting for the rights of the poor (not in Bollywood style). He is transformed by the political party into a politician and he degenerates himself into a normal politician till he causes the killing of a local adivasi. The movie ends with the close shot of the child of the deceased adivasi- in much the same way as Patekar's face when his own father was killed.
The point that struck me was that no political leader is corrupt from the beginning , neither he is a politician from birth. It is the society that teaches him to do what he becomes.
Similarly any person who assumes a public office or a job starts or must be starting with some optimism and idealism.Then it is the expectation of his family and the false pretenses of the society that lead him to go for the goodies of life.
Again the point that I'm trying to make is - that will it be possible for a person to remain clean and incorruptible if there are people to give him reason to be corrupt including his own family. Has it ever been that there has been no corruption in the society.Even Chanakya preaches the use of Daam in order to achieve his ends.

Now the second concern.Something that the members of the civil society are so proud to pronounce, the RTI.It has indeed brought a revolution of sorts into the country.One can get any information for Rs.20.
However a quick google will reveal that over 10 ACTIVE RTI activists (as they have about to be called)have been killed at point blank range.Most of these were involving high profile corruption cases in mining,forests,big contracts etc.
Now that brings around the question as to how and who will bell the cat in case of the actual Lokayukta or Lokpal.
It is a point worth considering- what made me come to this was when a few people said that Lokpal bill may not be the solution to all evils. Question in India is always the last mile connection.
We can deliver anything to any level but we fail to deliver to the last mile.
Let's hope this does not happen in case of the Lokpal.
Everything in India starts with a bang but ends with a whimper