Prize for honesty and uprightedness

In this polluted world, what does one get for being honest, upright, straight forward, sensitive and for being concerned about the larger good of the people? He becomes an outcast! He is sidelined by the people who are corrupt and those who want the status quo to remain.

 

I was very well aware of this treatment. A few days back I got to experience this, when I went to my college to collect my engineering degree certificate, mark sheets, conduct and transfer certificate.

 

Throughout the four years that I was in college, I had been a good student. My marks were quite good, though not excellent. I had given due respect to the teaching and non teaching staff in college, though minimal to those who did not deserve it. I had and still have extremely good relations with good people there. I had never indulged in any sort of malpractices, misbehaviour or any other activity which brought my repute, or that of the college in a bad light.

 

What I did was to raise my voice against the fractured and corrupt system prevailing in my college and against some people who were at the helm of affairs and were responsible to a great extent for creating and maintaining this situation.

 

My concerns were that my college had not been able to obtain an approval from the All India Council for Technical Education for my course even after five long years after the commencement of the course. It also could not put in place a proper system for helping the students in getting employed after completion of the degree programme. They did not even bother to find out what issues the passed out students are facing (which is imperative because mine was a new course). They did not try to communicate with the passed out students and find out what changes need to be done in the course curriculum to make it better.

 

I did raise these issues. I mailed the Dean of my college about these, filed a couple of Right To Information petitions and brought out many latent truths about the fractured system in the public domain. Obviously such acts were making the higher authorities in my college furious and irritated. Except for the fact that they did not realize that all what I did was not for my personal gains but for the benefit of the future students and the institution.

 

When I went to the college to collect my certificates few days back, as expected I was made to wait unnecessarily and was asked to meet the Dean, which I would have done even without their asking me to.

 

I went inside the Dean's cabin and he was good enough to offer me a seat. May be because I was a pass out now, and not a student. He accused me of having grudge against my alma mater. He did not like me filing RTI petitions. He hated to the core, the fact that I had taken the lead in organizing a one day fast in college to support the Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement. He told me that I was in college to study and that I should have done only that. My reply that academics was just one, but not the only part of college life and that an over all development of an individual happens only when one involves in such social causes, was not acceptable to him. At the end of a candid conversation, he thanked me, sarcastically, for my advice given to him.

 

Couple of days later I got my conduct certicate, along with other documents, in which I was awarded 'satisfactory' for my conduct. In the mean time I got to know that for all other students, even for those who had been caught for indulging in malpractices and showing misbehaviour were awarded 'good'. Anyways this was not a surprise for me.

 

I again went to his cabin with these certificates and asked him if 'satisfactory' instead of 'good' in my conduct certificate was for questioning the administration. He told me that my leading the one day fast against corruption spoilt his relationship with the university Vice Chancellor and the Registrar. I am sure that he was exagarrating the situation because I came to know from a very reliable source that the Vice Cahncellor was very happy that the students conducted such an event. Even when I went to the Vice Chancellor to hand over a declaration where many of the students, including me had signed that we shall not indulge in any form of corruption in our lives, he was extremely happy. He even placed the declaration along with many other certificates and photographs in his cabin.

 

The Dean even accused me of not giving due respect to professors and showed me a photograph of his with his teacher's teacher. He, with pride told me that he felt honoured to have a photograph even with his teacher's teacher. For that, I just told him that some years from now, I would become an IAS officer and may be the Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and that then I would have a photograph clicked with him. I had the last word and I came out of his cabin.

 

Professors, parents and friends told me that it was too immature and childish for the Dean to write 'satisfactory' in my certificate. I pray that his narrow mind and thinking develop over the years, though it is difficult at his age of 56!

 

I would like to bring out the fact that had I wanted to save my name, I could have easily sent anonymous mails to the Dean, filed RTI petitions in my school friends' name, etc. Like others, I could have got a 'good' in my certificates. Or even, I could have waited for ten to fifteen days for the new Dean to take charge and get the certificates signed from him and got a 'good' in my certificates. The fact is that I am not bothered if I get a good, satisfactory or even bad in my conduct certificate because it is purely the sole opportunity that I had left open for the Dean to take revenge on me. I had given no room for him to screw me in any other way. At least he is happy that he could do 'something' to me. 

 

This was the first experience I had, fighting against a corrupt system. I am happy that I had a feel of such instances at this early age as my future career in the civil services as a public servant is going to be filled with such incidents.

 

As long as my conscience asks me to raise my voice and fight against the corrupt, I will keep doing it with pride and confidence, though the prize I may receive may not be in my favour.

 

Jai Hindustan! 

 

An open letter to the Prime Minister

Dear Prime Minister,

After a long time of cursing your government, I thought I will write to you.

You are a very respectable person in the government. After Nehru, you have been the only person to be the Prime Minister after completing a full five year term. In a country like ours this is indeed a great achievement.

You have been a globally renowned figure in the field of Economics. You have held very many prestigious positions of power in many Indian and foreign institutions. We all have high regard for you, as an economist.

During the Narasimha Rao prime ministerial-ship, in 1991, you freed India from the License Raj and brought in economic reforms. This exercise totally changed the economic facet of India. You have been lucky enough to have got all the accolades for that. But, it goes without saying that if at all you did not have a brave and risk taking Prime Minister like Mr. Rao, you would not have been able to do anything at all. This shows how important the role of a Prime Minister is, in a country like ours.

You have been lucky enough to be declared the Prime Minister by Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, this when she herself had an opportunity to hold that prestigious position of power. Is it that she sacrificed the most powerful position for you or was she denied the opportunity? This still remains ambiguous. Anyways, you were lucky. You had it and you continue to have it despite the galore of issues the UPA is undergoing, corruption being the front runner.

Your government has been infamous for the most number of scams and the humongous loss made to the exchequer (or gained by some individuals). Your ministers and MPs seem to be obsessed with breaking their own records of corruption. And I should tell you that you are gifted with very eloquent speakers in your government, who try to play with words and try to create a clean image of your government. Again, you are so lucky to have such people around. Apart from the money they loot, you should reward them for the brilliant work they do.

But, you will always have the curse of Anna Hazare. You deceived him and the people of India. You announced on the floor of the house that you would pass the Lokpal Bill and you sent a singed letter to Anna saying this, but you have not yet fulfilled that promise of yours. You unleashed the Income Tax department and the Enforcement Directorate behind Baba Ramdev and tried to somehow tarnish his image. In fact you have tried all means to stop these two activists from raising the issue of corruption.

The 2G scam happened right around you, but you wished to look away from it, and let it materialize. You had an escape route then, because the telecom ministry wasn’t directly under you. But now, in the coal-gate scam, you don’t. It was you who was at the helm of the coal ministry. Now how can you justify this? Are you searching for a scapegoat for the coal-gate too? Well, you may not be lucky in this minister!

Team Anna came out in the public with the draft CAG report that named you in the coal scam. They demanded for an independent SIT to probe the charges. You denied it vehemently. You also added that even if there is an iota of truth in their acquisitions, you would resign from public life.

Now that the CAG has submitted its final report and it still has your name mentioned, have you forgotten the statement that you gave? In 1993 you had submitted your resignation from the post of Finance Minister after a report mentioned that your office could not anticipate the securities scandal. What has changed you from 1993 and 2012? Mrs. Sonia Gandhi?

You, before leaving for Tehran, for the NAM summit, said that you were more concerned about the GDP growth and that you wanted it to happen fast. This was the justification you gave for subverting parliamentary procedures and allotting 142 coal mine blocks. Let alone the fact that most of the allottees were not capable of mining out the mineral and did contribute nothing for the GDP growth. Imagine what the situation would be if each and every minister in your cabinet does this subverting of parliamentary procedures! You also said that your maintaining silence has won over many issues. Sorry. This is not what we want from a Prime Minister. We want you to talk and articulate your stand. Why don’t you learn this art from your friend Manish Tewari?

After coming from the NAM summit, you said that there is no question of your resignation and that the CAG is not right. Also you blame the BJP for stalling the Parliament. You did whatever you wanted to in your way, which has been proven wrong, by a constitutional body, and now you shoot down all the people who point fingers at you? Are you in a primary school to act in such a childish manner? Does your silence remind you of your school days, when all the students were supposed to remain silent?

What is it that you are going to do? Are you going to let this political logjam prevail? Have you thought of something or are you waiting for Mrs. Sonia Gandhi’s orders? How does your conscience allow you to be Mrs. Sonia’s poodle all the time? In the last week of June, 2012, you had talked about unleashing ‘animal spirits’. Was Poodle the animal that you meant then?

The nation would be thankful to you and would restore the respect for you if you submit your resignation and keep away from politics. You are good as a teacher or researcher, why don’t you continue doing that? Or at least take some rest in your old age, you have done enough. You have been tagged as an ‘under achiever’, compared to a ‘shikhandi’, ‘dritarashtra’. Haven’t you been happy with these wonderful names you got? Or do you want more names to follow?

For all what you have done, remaining silent and letting the looters to do their job with much ease, you deserve the same punishment what Kasab is going to get. Sorry for being harsh, but you asked for it Mr. Prime Minister.

Hoping that you turn in to a tiger from a poodle soon!

With shame and grief,

A patriot.

Bharat Mata Ki Jai!

It's high time we stay away from the 'Engineering Rush'

In India, 2.5 million students pass out of school every year and a whopping 60% of them opt for Engineering as a career. Is India a country which can give 'true' employment opportunities to these 1.5 million engineers every year?

Class 12 is a very crucial academic year and we see students struggling in this period. The pressure from schools, tuition centres, parents and peers is just too much to take. Under this immense pressure, students fail to get enough time to even rationally think what they need to do next in life. Studies show that engineering has been the prominent choice for students, followed by medicine. The latter, requiring very high marks and given the fewer seats available, witnesses lesser number of students. What is it that makes engineering the most favoured choice among the students?

Firstly, the boom in the number of engineering colleges in India and the role played by private players has increased the availability of seats to a great extent. India is home to 3,393 engineering colleges with 14.86 lakh seats. The quality of education rendered in many of these institutions is of course questionable and debatable.

Secondly, the common perception that an engineering degree can fetch one employment easily is widespread. It is true that an engineering graduate gets employed easier, but the question is if the employment is proper and worth the four years an engineering graduate spent in college.

Thirdly, the social status associated with an engineering degree holder is more when compared to arts, commerce and home science degree holders. An engineering graduate is looked upon with much respect in the society, the reasons for which is unknown.

I bet to disagree with this Engineering Rush.

The state of engineering courses offered in India is abysmal and need huge changes for its revival. Lack of quality research and true innovation is writ large in our engineering institutions.

Most of the engineering graduates, irrespective of the stream of engineering they had graduated in, opt for software firms for employment. This, for the simple reasons that presently India is in much need for software developers or workers and these firms offer a better package than the other mainstream engineering firms.

These days there are many other courses in arts and commerce that gives a more enjoyable employment and social respect than engineering. Economists, lawyers, sociologists, charted accountants, journalists, statisticians, etcetera are well placed than engineers.

The only thing that makes engineering distinctive is that, a mere engineering degree can fetch one a job, but in other professions, like the ones mentioned above, one needs to be in the top creamy layer to get a reasonable job. This factor has been the driving force behind this engineering rush in India.

The students and the parents must realize this, and stay away from this rush. Only the students with true innovative, technical mind and passion should opt for engineering as a career. Else, we are not just doing injustice to the profession, but also to the nation as a whole because the statistics of engineering graduates and engineering innovations would show huge contrast.

Schools should play the lead in making the students understand the role of different professions and guiding them rather than just being an institution to conduct classes and examinations. It would be worth the investment if every school employs a full time career guide for this task.

Private players should invest more in educational institutions other than just engineering or technical institutions and bring in good teaching faculty. With the money invested to raise a normal engineering college, one can raise an excellent quality arts or science institution.

Engineering is not the only major option available to school leaving students, it is just one in many available options. Status quo may suit the students who blow with the wind and opt for engineering, but in a long run, the ones who resist the wind and take the path less taken by would benefit.

Jai Hind!