Nobel Just for "Audacity of Hope"??

The awarding of this years Nobel peace prize to the American president Barack Obama is a travesty of the unparallel prestige of the award. It seems Nobles are now being awarded only for “Audacity of hope” rather than audacity of action.
The Nobel Prize is the highest honor that can be conferred on a person on this planet.They are considered as a recognition of one’s lifetime achievement and dedication. But in Mr. Obama’s case no such criterions have been fulfilled. He has just embarked upon his arduous task as the American president to convert into reality what he hopes of achieving. I am not questioning his sincerity to bring an end to violence or his endeavors for nuclear disarmament. But it will take many years before these endeavors are transformed into a reality. And the coveted prize would have been very appropriate at that juncture when his hopes began to materialize.
I would like to stress that a person, however magnanimous and great he might be, can never be judged in a few months time. A person has to stand the test of time before he receives kudos for his work.Won't it be ludicrous to confer a lifetime achievement Oscar award on a debutant actor, however splendid his performance might be? This analogy very aptly applies to Mr. Obama getting Nobel.
What makes this Nobel more incongruous is the fact that Mr. Obama as the American president is currently spearheading a gory war in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are still reports of rampant violence and huge number of civilian causalities in these areas. I think this award brings to fore a piquant irony and best describes the word oxymoron-the president of a country engaged into two violent wars is awarded the highest peace prize. As if war and peace have become synonymous.

I believe that there were many other strong contenders for this coveted awarded. There are hundreds of NGO leaders who are working selflessly in war zones and endeavoring tirelessly to make our earth free from violence. These faceless philanthropists receive no recognition for their earnest efforts. I think a Nobel for any of such philanthropists would have sent a good message at the present scenario where the scourge of violence and terrorism has endangered world peace.

FLAWED ANTI-NAXAL POLICY OF INDIA

The menace poised by naxalites and Maoists in ours country is assuming colossal proportions. As the centre and the state governments get engaged in protracted recriminations the innocent citizens are left in the lurch. The nonchalance and the desultory approach of our government in handling this scourge has allowed it to fester.
Let me explicate our government’s perfunctory response to this problem. First the centre earmarks huge funds (currently its more than 1000 crore rupees) for tackling naxalism. It may go further to ban the naxal outfits whose atrocities become too notorious and arrange anti-naxal co-ordination committees once a year with state governments. After this the central government assumes its role to be over. The state governments utilize the huge funds to deploy more and more security forces who get little or low standard training for antinaxal activities. But deployment can’t be in each nook and corner of the affected areas. So the naxals strike at will and kill innocent security personnel who are very ill equipped .And as the number of naxal cadres continues to increase exponentially, the government finds itself more helpless in dealing with the problem. It can’t go on recruiting security forces commensurate with the exponential growth of naxals. Now to woo away the naxal cadres, different state government announce rehabilitation packages. But the local administrations have so awkwardly bungled with these rehabilitation programs that, even the few felons who had returned back to mainstream society feel helpless and discriminated. They are forced to relapse into their previous violent stints. Evidently it won’t be wrong to say that the government stratagem in dealing with the naxals has proved to be a complete failure.
Sincerely

I don’t think that proscribing naxal outfits or use of force and perfunctory rehabilitation packages are going to prove effective in any way. For subverting this menace we need to understand its roots and genesis. It is very much apparent that the most naxal affected states namely Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and some North-east states are also the most underdeveloped states in the country. Bihar is an exception because it had its home grown naxals in the form of goons of Lalu-Paswan duo. But developed states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Gujurat have not reported any incidents of naxalism. It can be interpreted from these facts that the sole reason spurring Naxalism is unemployment, penury, lack of education and infrastructure in underdeveloped areas. It is because uneducated and unemployed youths are easy targets for being inveigled as naxal cadres. We can say that every impecunious, uneducated youth is a potential naxalite. So we have to consider these things when we attempt to adopt any anti-naxal strategy.

A pivotal point in this context is that naxals are not same as terrosists.They don’t kill innocent people indiscriminately. We have only heard of naxal attacks against security personnel, naxals abducting government officials or naxals vandalizing police posts but we never hear of naxal opening fire in a busy market place to kill innocent people. So, clearly their grudge is against the government and its apathy. Their only complain is that why are they treated so unfairly and callously. In Moa’s words, only the language of bullet is universally understood. So, the Maoists are trying with the help of bullet to make the government understand the problems they face, the hunger they bear and the agony they live with. If we want to rein in naxals we have to heed to their problems.

If we go by statistics our Central government spends more than 1000 crore annually on anti-naxal operations but all these expenditures goes into drain as there is little success rate of such operations. If we simply distribute this fund among all the naxal cadres(a total of 10,000 approximately) each will receive a sum of 10 lakhs annually and I am sure on receiving this sum they will renounce their violence path. Ofcourse , this is a bizarre proposition , but what I intend to say is that rather than wasting 1000 crore for abortive anti-naxal operations, if the government invests this huge sum of money for generating employment opportunity for the naxals or for envisaging concrete rehabilitation packages , then the naxal problem will automatically cease to exist.

The medical dictum “Prevention is better than cure” becomes very pertinent here. That is rather than proceeding to exterminate naxals, it would be much effective to prevent its further spread and to woo away as many naxal cadres as possible by implementing fool proof welfare schemes and investing in education, employment and infrastructure. Well educated youths ingrained with ideals patriotism cant be coaxed away by Mao’s ideals. Furthermore, the help the Naxals receive from beleaguered unemployed youths in the form of tacit support will also vanish.

It is high time the government wakes up from its slumber, shuns its “only rhetoric, no action” attitude and changes its flawed naxal policy. Otherwise our peaceful country will delve abysmally into the quagmire of anarcy, bedlam and violence created by naxalism.

Scrapping of Xth board exam an unwelcome move

The recent proposals of the HRD ministry envisaging to make the Xth board optional and replacing the marking scheme with grade system is an unwelcome move. Let us analyse the logics given by the HRD minister in this regard. Firstly, the logic is to reduce the tension of students and their parents .But even with grading system the students would be pressurized and traumatized to secure good grades(if not good marks).No student would want to get a D or E grade. So essentially the very aim of alleviating the tension and trauma of students is not addressed in this proposal. The second logic is that a child need not attend board in class Xth if he is continuing in the same school till XIIth. But how many schools offer classes till XIIth level? None of the schools under state boards have facilities till XIIth. Most of the good intermediate level colleges are autonomous bodies which consider Xth mark as basis for admission. With Xth board scrapped , these prestigious colleges could conduct their own entrance for admission into intermediate level courses. This would in turn aggravate the trauma of students rather than alleviating them. Another logic given by the minister in favour of his proposal is the absence of formal exams in different western countries. Then he should consider the ramifications of such absence also. Studies reveal that the students in many western countries are very poor in maths and analytical abilities owing to such lax assessments.Even 18 year old students are unable to solve basic problems.This is clearly reflected in results of international tests like GRE. Indian students score brilliantly in the aptitude sections while the western students falter badly.
Without examinations , students would lack a competitive spirit and the zeal to perform better .Apparently by relaxing the exams at Xth level we will be inducing a peculiar ineptitude and lethargy in our students . Students lacking proper basics will face huge difficulties when they approach higher and technical education.Well educated students with sound mental and analytical skills form the backbone of our country’s development. Implementation of the proposed education policy would spur a pool of educated fools which will essentially break the backbone of our country.I hope the ministry foresees the negative ramifications of such a proposal and decides against it. Rather than wasting its time and energy on changing a well established exam procedure , the ministry should cogitate on how to provide a good education to the ill fated children’s who are hitherto denied such privilege.

Turmoil in BJP

There is an dictum that “Success has a hundred fathers but failure is an orphan”.This aphorism is very apt in context of the chaos that has engulfed BJP.The genesis of all its problems seems to be the electoral debacle it faced in the Loksabha elections 2009.If the party would have won, the very leaders who are now brusquely denouncing the party’s policies, would have been showering hosannas on Advani for his statesmanship. Every one would have been happy with plum portfolios. But the drubbing it got at the hustings proved to be very costly.Now the party should have been analyzing the causes of its defeat, but it is so busy in its internal squablings that there are hardly any signs of introspection or contemplation for future action.It has been so disarrayed by its internecine feuds that it has completely forgotten or dare I say “Abdicated” its role as the principal opposition party of the largest democracy in the world.The opposition to the Sharm el-Sheik imbroglio was also quite lukewarm.
This turmoil in BJP is a matter for great concern. The role of a strong ,constructive opposition is very pivotal in a functioning democracy.Lack of a strong opposition spurs the incumbent party to become complacent and thus heedless to peoples needs.It may in long term also make the incumbent party presumptuous and tyrannical enough to force its policies on the nation. Indira Gandhi was able to impose Emergency easily because at that time our country lacked a strong and coherent opposition.
So BJP should understand how crucial is its role for growth and progress of our nation.It should rise up to the unprecedented challenge it faces. Internal disagreements if any should be resolved peacefully and quietly, and not in full media glare. With all its senior leaders retiring , it has to pass on the mantle to younger generation leaders who inturn should be groomed to take on the the challenge audaciously. Furthermore, it has to strengthen itself at the grass root level by reaching out to the masses, understanding their problems, and publicizing the lacunas in the governments policies. It should also unambiguously clarify its stand on all vexed issues like Hindutwa and others.And all this has to be carried out in a planned , coordinated and systematic manner.