Is corruption a Political or Social issue?

The electioneering phase is filled with a lot of bizarre concerns for our political establishment. Issues, great and diminutive, current and history, factual and fictional, all gets muddle up and comes to fore from the high podiums of the political theater. The real bolt from the blue is the fact; the political class impulsively gets transformed to a congregation of saints out there to defend the moral and the virtuous. The vocabulary of each leader, irrespective of their color of party affiliations could be summarized in one line, ‘they are the corrupt and we are the saints, vote for us’ or could be rephrased as ‘They failed you and we won’t, vote or us’.

The regional social consciousness of the political class  certainly reaches the sky, the aspirations, hopes, disappointments and despairs of the masses converges with the long and often uninspiring political discourses. The accusations and counteraccusations leveled by political parties against each other have now become a routine hear, but the issues raised or promises made seldom has any element of surprise.

In case of Tamil Nadu it’s always the freebies and new services offered. Social aspirations of Tamil Nadu has now become more of good Governance than any other petty issues, things have reached a saturated level here. Whereas in other large and northern states along with the ‘polls’ the citizens have to countenance myriad problems especially made-up for their votes. The promises of Religious reservations, State reorganizations have stirred up a hornet’s nest; the concerns raised have become a topic of national importance. Each party may subscribe to an exclusive cause but the common cause of all the political teams happens to be- ‘elimination of corruption’.

The indictment of corruption is a vicious circle; all our options are corrupt to the core, the only choice is who is the ‘least corrupt’ in the entire assortment.  Like our power projects corruption has many levels, ultra mega, mega, medium and small, every level has attained a degree of acceptability in our culture. Bofors, union carbide, fodder, coffin, Tansi, Telecom, 2G, NRHM, MGREGA, illegal mining…etc the list is endless and they made some loud noise once, then faded in to the oblivion of history over a period of time. 

Public memory is too short but that’s not the case here; as a larger line drawn next a line makes it look smaller, a new and a larger allegation of corruption makes the former one smaller and a gets a bit of tolerability. Are we so much concerned about the ultra mega corruption? Yes or a No, the answer depends on its repercussions, a pinch or a fatal incise. Though a tragedy like Bhopal would be never acceptable to us, but we did pay our homage to Rajeev Gandhi for Bofors that saved us a Kargil and in future somebody would appreciate A.Raja for a steep reduction in call and Trunk call charges.

The group C and D corruption thrives by the grace of the middle class. In our ever busy calendar, we don’t mind paying for a service or a concession offered to us. In an age where time is money, a small amount could be spared to save time. Is bribery glorified here? Certainly not, the elemental observation made here is factual and what some may call it as practical.

If public corruption is such a menace as it is portrayed sometimes, how should we eliminate it from our system? Drink a cup of Tata tea, join the Jagore campaign and refuse to pay a bribe; who asked for it in the first case, aren’t we guilty of zealously offering one before being asked. Or listen to the old and wise, a simple and a forceful slap. Oops, can a law abiding citizen slap a policeman?

Except for a serious overhaul of our Governance system, corruption would remain an inseparable part. Computerization or online services may provide some succor. So much social concern for corruption, when the normal voter is not much concerned about it, why the political parties make an issue out of it? From now on, whenever you listen to a politician’s speech, read between the lines, ‘they have earned enough and give us our turn’. God bless India.   

     

The Myopic vision of Prof.P.V.Indiresan’s- vision 2020.

Prof P.V.Indiresan, a retired director of IITM and a columnist of “The Hindu Business Line’s-vision 2020”. A prolific writer writes on all topics of under the sun; but when it comes to the subject of his expertise, Higher Education, he is too predictable and bit prejudiced.

In his 320^th article of vision-2020 series published on Jan-14 in Business Line, the learned professor expressed his reservations on “The prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical Educational Institutions, Medical Educational Institutions and Universities, Bill, 2010”. The professor with decades of distinguished experience in sarkari Technical Institutes like IITM is oblivious of Establishments outside the IIT Act. The IIT Act provides their constituent institutions enormous freedom with no accountability; they are neither bound by AICTE nor UGC, but still can offer technical courses in India. The funds allotted would undeniably invite the envy any Indian vice chancellor, but still the professor has a lot of ideas for IIT.

We consider the following counter arguments to his point of view and the objectives of the bill:

Why no Institution in independent India had produced a Nobel Price? The Nobel Price as such is not a Nobel award like our own Bharath Rathnas, but still there a status attached to it. To expect a Nobel Price from a Law of the parliament or a University Endowment Fund is a farcical idea. The faculty members of premier Institutes belong to a Homogenous group, the hegemony continues for centuries .If Harvard can accept International professors, Why not the IITs? A diverse Indian or International faculty would bring more transparency and democracy in the functioning of IITs. This would not only increase the Quality and Quantity of research but would also save the lives of many Innocents from the racist Indian Faculty.

Prohibitions of accepting any fees other than those declared in the prospectus of admission. Well, this may not apply to any State or central University, but would certainly apply the Mushrooming private Deemed Universities known to milk their students. Development fee, Training fee, Placement Fees, Industrial Visits fee, Computer training fee, Breakage fee, Sports Fee, Medical fess, Mess fee, the list is endless; these are some of the innovative fees collected by some Universities from time to time. The University bill 2010 seeks to regulate these fees.

Prohibition of admission without admission tests of a statutory authority. The professor is highly discernable here; he detests affirmative action but advocates the dilution of merit by money. He may not be convinced by my statements but I wish he listens to the Harvard Prof.Lani Guinier on Youtube. Prof.Guiner has some interesting views on these issues; Talent is equally distributed among each races and ethnic groups. Except for the IITs, a relaxed admission criterion elsewhere has helped the society in many unknown ways; the civil war of Sri Lanka is a right citation here. An affirmative action based on religious lines would further benefit the Indian Society as it would, in the words of Prof.Guinier would uplift the bottom of the society, help in the discovery of raw talent that is going undiscovered. Further, Prof.Guinier states that, tests, scores and percentiles are instruments of modern scientific racism; these tests makes racisms invisible and if we humans were created as equals, talent is equally distributed among us and if some entrance tests proves that if one group is superior than the other, then something is wrong with the tests not with the group that looks inferior. An American mode of admission will not work in India, where the faculty is of a Homogenous group, prejudiced and has a hidden agenda of its own.

Prohibition of demanding or charging, capitation fees or by donation, by way of consideration for admissions to any seat, by the Institutions. Comparisons are often made to the Endowment Funds of foreign Universities, where the money paid and received is white. In India, especially in the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, professional Institutes have grown exponentially by the grace of these capitation fees. All of the black money of this country is not deposited in any low interest paying Swiss bank, but its here, right in front of our eyes, in the assets of public charitable trusts. Unlike IITs, most of the leading American Universities are private universities and have no social responsibilities. Education is more of an individual’s responsibility than of a parent or of the state in America, but in India, for the larger good, the state is equally responsible as the parent. An Endowment system should not make IIT, a BCCI, not accountable even to RTI. An Endowment fund with HRD ministry would be a good idea.

With contributions from- Anu Radha Poojar.

  

  

Dr.Killer gets killed for killing a Killer’s wife.

The first week of January of 2012 started with a horrific and violent Incident, with the murder a medic by a disgruntled spouse of a deceased patient. The murdered doctor was hacked to death by an auto rickshaw driver Mahesh. Dr T Sethulakshmi, a chief medical officer with ESI Tuticorin and a private practitioner was accused of wrong diagnosis and treatment, which lead to the death of the murderer’s wife Nithya.

Shocked by the gruesome incident, the Tamil Nadu wing of Indian Medical Association called for a strike for two days. The professional Association went a step further and asked all its members to cancel out patient appointments and boycott elective surgeries. The fear psychosis among the doctors is understandable, when such an untoward incidence occurs to a fellow colleague. Such mass protests by Doctors were recently observed in the state of West Bengal also. All the Government Hospitals remained passive to the patients needs; the outpatient visit rate decreased substantially, the Medical service of the Government came to a standstill.

Whether the striking Doctors are fighting for a right cause? Whether the boycott call of IMA is justified? Should we empathize on the murdered doctor? Was there, even as iota of Injustice in the killer’s rage? As members of a civilized society, whether these doctors deserve our consideration and support?

 The answer for all the aforesaid questions should be an unambiguous, no. The Government employed doctors do have a unique privilege of- private consultation, which many of the employees of the private sector don’t have. Employees, whether of Public or Private sector, do have a written or an unwritten service rule, which forbids them from self or second employment. TN Government Doctors don’t have any rules. The doctor’s surgery failed, as her private clinic attached to her house was ill-equipped for complex surgeries. The doctor was neither an Obstetrician nor a Gynecologist nor a surgeon; she was a qualified Anesthetist who normally is required for all kinds of Surgeries. A pre-natal surgery by an Anesthetist in an ill-equipped clinic is gross case of professional Misconduct. It never occurred to the IMA to condemn the delinquencies of its own members. The Doctors boycotted their public duty for which they were paid for in the mornings and attended to their private practice in the evenings. None of the private clinics closed in protest. The doctors often cheat the Public; Private Misconduct are never Governed by service rules. Patients approaching Public Hospitals are often routed to private clinics, no conflict of interest there. A private clinic was the cause of the tragedy, yet no private doctors obliged to IMA’s call to boycott, but the public Hospitals suffered.

It’s the right time; the private practice of the Government Doctors must be curbed. The petty shop surgery clinics must be tightly monitored by strict regulations. IMA must strictly adhere to its own professional code of conduct and must stop its political antics.