Blatant unsecular attack
AFTER the red face that it was left with following the Vande Mataram and Saraswati vandana controversy, one would have thought that the Sangh Parivar would go out of its way to present an acceptable visage.

USA sets tough N-agenda
THE tight secrecy surrounding the Indo-US talks is giving way to partial disclosure of the agenda by unexpected sources. First Mr Strobe Talbott, the US team leader, discussed in detail “five positive steps” his country wants India to take in the aftermath of the Pokhran tests.

Timely TB alert
IT is doubtful whether the World Health Organisation’s warning about the spread of tuberculosis in Asia would receive the attention it deserves.

EDUCATION IN INDIA
by Amrik Singh
WHEN the UGC was set up informally in late 1953, the colleges in Delhi which were controlled by the Ministry of Education continued to be with it. University departments, however, got transferred to the UGC which had yet to be set up on a statutory basis.

Humanism as secular religion
by Anurag
IT would be instructive to compare and contrast the elements of controversy which raged recently over an alleged attempt of the central government to “Indianise, nationalise and spiritualise” education by inter alia, including the Vedas and the Upanishads in school curricula, with what the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen observed, although in a different context, “Years ago when I tried to register myself as an atheist in Santiniketan, my headmaster insisted that I had to choose a religion. I chose Buddhism because it is an agnostic religion....”

Doubts over racing track project
From Sivadas Banerjee
CALCUTTA: The West Bengal Government last week signed a highly publicised memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the UK-based Grand Prix India Plc for putting up a highly sophisticated formula one racing track at Rajarhat, near Calcutta, where a new township is coming up. The move has raised eyebrows all over.

VC’s tug of war with
Gujarat Govt
from Mukund Kansara
AHMEDABAD: A battle royal is on between the Vice-Chancellor, Mr S.B. Vora, and Gujarat government after the former was sacked for going to Bangkok for attending the Vice-Chancellors’ conference without getting clearance for the trip.

Beyond the next
by N. S. Tasneem
THE ignorant people flock together but the learned ones plough lonely furrows. The reason is not far to seek. The persons who do not know much seek in each other reassurances, whereas the scholarly individuals do not expect to gain anything by bonhomie. To my mind, this is a paradoxical situation.

75 Years Ago

Hindi in the Punjab
SIR, — In a recent article headed “Hindi in the Punjab” L. Santram BA asserts that books written in Vraj Bhasha are not desirable courses of study for the students of our Matric, and FA classes.

Blatant unsecular attack

AFTER the red face that it was left with following the Vande Mataram and Saraswati vandana controversy, one would have thought that the Sangh Parivar would go out of its way to present an acceptable visage. But that hope has been dashed by the happenings of the past few days. On Sunday, there was a brutal attack on a Christian prayer service at Kulai, a small town near Mangalore in Karnataka. About 40 fully armed men desecrated the church and molested women. The priest conducting the mass was beaten up mercilessly. Even children were not spared. In all such attacks, it can never be said with certainty as to who the perpetrators are, but the way they raised anti-Christian slogans, it is suspected that they were from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). At least that is what a spokesman of the United Christian Voice in Bangalore says. The goons are believed to have come from Kasargod town in the neighbouring Kerala, which is considered an RSS stronghold. Ironically, a senior Minister of Karnataka had assured the Christians only recently that they would be provided utmost security. The trauma of the community over the attack is understandable since it comes soon after an assault on nuns in Madhya Pradesh. Such “fundamentalism” tars the image of religious catholicity that India has earned over centuries. It is one of a piece with a move started by certain Bajrang Dal activists recently to go to Christian-run schools demanding that the missionaries should “Hinduise” their institutions, whatever that means.

Equally abominable has been the “raid” on the house of the noted Islamic scholar, Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi, popularly known as Ali Mian, in Rae Bareli on Sunday night. The Kalyan Singh government has predictably denied the hand of any official agency but the way armed youths entered the house when he was away to Lucknow tells a different story. What is to be noted is that the district police chief had sought an appointment with Ali Mian on November 21 but the meeting could not take place because the scholar was away. The intrusion on the very next day is highly intriguing. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Kalyan Singh, has been quick in ordering a high-level enquiry but that is only half the job done. If he is indeed serious about clearing his name, he must bring the guilty to book without delay. Ali Mian is a highly respected scholar and has impeccable secular credentials. If such a thing can happen to him, lesser persons are right in apprehending partiality. While it is all right to say that certain leaders have tried to politicise the issue to further their own narrow agenda, the fact remains that the provocation has been, most likely, provided by the ruling party itself. One hopes that the enquiry will be held to highlight the truth and not to engineer a whitewash. Even if such attacks are not ordered by the top leaders themselves, they are surely carried out by their followers with tacit support by them. Mass leaders are supposed to keep their followers in tight leash. Such attacks not only vitiate the atmosphere but also present various leaders in poor light. While they may win the approval of certain fundamental sections, it is a bad bargain overall, because the vast majority of Indians is of those who are strong votaries of tolerance and equality of all religions. Perpetrators of such crimes end up harming themselves more than anybody else.

USA sets tough N-agenda

THE tight secrecy surrounding the Indo-US talks is giving way to partial disclosure of the agenda by unexpected sources. First Mr Strobe Talbott, the US team leader, discussed in detail “five positive steps” his country wants India to take in the aftermath of the Pokhran tests. That was in the middle of this month and in an article he wrote in a Delhi-based daily. Now a former diplomat, Mr N.N. Jha, who is a member of the BJP national executive and should necessarily be part of the party’s think-tank or what goes by that name, has echoed the same points.The USA wants India to sign the CTBT, freeze production of fissile material (that which explodes in a nuclear bomb), stop development and deployment of all types of missiles and nuclear weapon-carrying jet fighters, desist from exporting fissile material and missile technology and, finally, press ahead with talks with Pakistan towards solving all contentious issues. Simply put, India should immediately take nuclear and missile sanyas and join the US-led disarmament brigade without any reservations. Mr Talbott wrote his magisterial piece on the eve of the Rome talks, the seventh round with Mr Jaswant Singh. At that time it did not evoke the degree of public interest it deserved partly because everyone was interested in the election campaign trends and partly because it reflected the known US policy postures. With Mr Jha repeating the points in the same order as the US assistant secretary of state has done, these have actually become US demands. This impression is strengthened by Mr Jha’s observation that the negotiation is entering the tougher phase, meaning India should expect mounting pressure from the other side to yield ground on these points.

Going by the timing of Mr Jha’a Press interview, it is almost certain that the BJP has carefully fielded him to disclose the one-sided nature of the talks and wait for the reaction of both political parties and security experts. The BJP’s latest policy position on the CTBT is confined to two somewhat dissimilar statements by the Prime Minister. He told the UN General Assembly that India would sign the CTBT if the USA lifted its discriminatory sanctions on the export of dual-use technology. Later he qualified this stand and wanted changes in the CTBT format to allow India to maintain minimum nuclear deterrence. On the question of missiles and making nuclear weapons, only Defence Minister George Fernandes has spoken and he is a passionate advocate of India possessing both. The other two points are irrelevant since India has no plans to sell missiles or nuclear technology and talks are on with the western neighbour. On the CTBT and production of fissile material, a national consensus can be built if the BJP goes about it in a mature and non-partisan manner. This is because India has already declared that it has no plans to conduct further tests and if Pakistan also agrees, it too will agree not deploy nuclear weapons (and hence not to make them either). (The Chinese factor, which was somewhat awkwardly brought in immediately after the May tests, can be quietly put on the backburner.) The sticking points are the missiles. More than national security is involved in this. It is India’s right to make and make use of missiles, apart from being an outstanding technological breakthrough. Giving up these weapons of frontier technology would be perceived as compromising the nation’s sovereignty. And the BJP will lose its most valuable USP. The real effect of deploying Mr Jha will unfold in the next few days.

Timely TB alert

IT is doubtful whether the World Health Organisation’s warning about the spread of tuberculosis in Asia would receive the attention it deserves. The WHO stated in a report released on Monday that “global efforts to control the TB emergency risk may fail unless the disease is contained in Asia”. Ms Gro Harlem Bruntland, a former Prime Minister of Norway and Director-General of WHO, appealed to governments, donors and international organisations to “bring political will to bear in a new global anti-TB initiative to stop the spread of the disease and prevent more deadly forms from developing”. Her videotaped appeal was conveyed to nearly 1,500 lung experts from 90 countries who are currently in Bangkok for a four-day brain storming session on how to banish the deadly disease from the planet. Ms Bruntland is clear in her mind that without Asia taking the lead the war against TB cannot be won in the near future. But is Asia ready to accept the challenge? The WHO fears that the Asian economic crisis could lower the living standards and increase the risk of the spread of the communicable disease. Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines may account for 4.5 million of the eight million new cases within the next year. Health experts had presumed that the disease may disappear after the first anti-TB drive was launched at the global level. However, they have been forced to revise their view because of what can be called bad management of the existing cases by the medical authorities. While announcing that TB is curable — which it is — the experts overlooked the simple fact that patients needed to take the prescribed medicines on a regular basis for at least six months.

They have now discovered that mostly poor patients stop taking the anti-TB drug after a month or so simply because they (patients) start feeling better. In all such cases the strongest TB bacilli still is the lungs become drug-resistant and the next step is multi-drug treatment which is 100 times more costly and beyond the reach of the poor patients. Hopefully the meeting of experts in Bangkok would be able to convey to the Asian countries the grave economic consequences, for the region and the world, of not giving the anti-TB campaign the priority it deserves. But merely issuing a timely appeal to Asia in itself may not be enough. If the WHO wants to save the world from coming under the malignant shadow of the disease, it must persuade the international aid agencies to provide the necessary funds to Asia for taking up the anti-TB drive on a war footing. In the meantime, the countries identified as more TB-prone should follow the cost-effective strategy suggested by the WHO. For instance TB patients in the low-income category should be treated under continued medical supervision to ensure that they do not stop taking the medicine before the completion of the “course ”. Lung experts should also ensure that TB patients are isolated to reduce the risk of their transmitting the “communicable disease” to those with whom they come into contact on a regular basis. As one expert pointed out: “You are at no risk at all if you are careful in the company of an AIDS patient. But a TB patient cannot stop breathing in the company of others”. As far as the long-term strategy is concerned the SAARC countries should consider the option of starting a collective campaign against TB.

EDUCATION IN INDIA
Make colleges states’ responsibility
by Amrik Singh

WHEN the UGC was set up informally in late 1953, the colleges in Delhi which were controlled by the Ministry of Education continued to be with it. University departments, however, got transferred to the UGC which had yet to be set up on a statutory basis. A little later the colleges too were transferred to the UGC on the ground that they were constituent institutions of the university.

This story is recalled here in order to make the point that the relationship between undergraduate and postgraduate education in our university system has always been uncertain and undefined. It is also somewhat undefined in the USA but the situation is a little more precise in that country and some of the European countries. The USA has, however, worked out a solution by having four-year colleges which sometimes are as good as a small university. These colleges are distinct from two-year colleges which are also known as community colleges. In certain cases, they exist independently of each other. In certain other cases, they are independent, even separate. Whatever be the details, what is done in these colleges is more or less precisely defined.

This is mainly for the reason that, in academic terms, almost all these institutions know what has to be done at what level. Nothing is laid down precisely. At the same time, it is generally understood that school education is different from what is called college or university education. These two words are somewhat indistinguishable in that country. There is no question of getting any affiliation. An institution is set up and it begins to operate at a certain level of performance. The importance of a college, therefore, is not determined by law (affiliation, etc, as in our country) but by its public image and, secondly, by accreditation.

If an institution is not accredited, it is not taken seriously. In our country, there is a distinction between being affiliated and unaffiliated. If a college is not affiliated, it is taken to be a teaching shop which has a bad odour about it in social terms. There is the only college in India and it is located in Pune which never sought affiliation.

Under the head “affiliation”, a variety of crimes are committed. Most often there are academic crimes. In certain cases, crimes as generally understood are also committed. But that happens because the enforcement of law in our country is so lax that people get away with all kinds of offences.

The main issue, however, is not where colleges are situated and whether they are affiliated or not. But, as the Kothari Commission proposed, some of the colleges are given the autonomous status. In other words, even when continuing to be affiliated to a particular university, the university would be free to confer autonomy upon them. This would mainly lie in two things. They would have the right to determine their own syllabus and conduct their own examinations. Even in respect of admissions, they would have a certain measure of autonomy provided they do better than the regulations laid down by the university. Even after more than three decades, we have only a hundred plus colleges of the autonomous variety.

A large number of them are to be found in Tamil Nadu. In other states, the innovation has not caught on as much as it should have. Tamil Nadu has also made another useful innovation. It has provided for self-financing colleges. Such colleges exist mainly in respect of engineering and medicine, but not in respect of liberal arts education. This experiment has been initiated in a nascent form in that state but there is room to expand and build upon it further.

Some of the self-financing colleges in Tamil Nadu want to be given the autonomous status. This may not come to pass so easily. Not all of them are of uniformally satisfactory quality. Therefore, that government is reluctant to accord them this status. But something of this kind may come to pass after some time.

A related question is whether colleges are the responsibility of the states, or is the Centre too in some way responsible for them ? Something like one-third of the UGC budget today is allocated to these colleges. But the number by now is so large (approximately 9,000) that not many of them are able to get financial support from the UGC. In any case, only about half of them qualify for support. Even out of them, less than 50 per cent get UGC support. The rest simply do not qualify for consideration as per the rules laid down.

It is for consideration whether, as in the case of schools, where nobody assumes that the Centre has a role to play, can it be similarly agreed upon that the colleges too are for all practical purposes looked after by the states as in the case of schools? As would be generally accepted, half of what our colleges do should have been done in school. This is one side of the picture. The other side is that in certain states, school boards appear to be performing well and have laid down a fairly comprehensive syllabus in respect of most subjects.

When, after having completed their schooling, these students come to college, they find that some part of what they have already covered is still being taught in the college. In most cases, therefore, these students choose to absent themselves. If they attend the class out of a sense of duty, they feel bored with what is being taught. Clearly, some kind of a coordination between school boards and universities is called for. It does not exist today. In one respect at any rate the school boards are performing distinctly better than the universities.

The kind of question papers that are set at the school level are selective and scientific, and do not permit students to cover only a small proportion of the syllabus. At the college level, however, the old traditional style continues. Generally speaking, in any arts or social science subject, the choice given to the students is to attempt any five questions out of the 10 or 12 given in the paper. What is more, there is so much of a choice that, in more cases than otherwise, students leave out large chunks of syllabus at the college level. At the school level, however, the students cannot do that. That is the model that has to be followed.

At the university level even when some colleges wish to do this kind of thing, they are not autonomous enough to do so. If they are declared autonomous, they will have the right to conduct their own examinations. That is what autonomy is meant for. But there are states around the country which do not even provide for autonomy. The Acts which govern the universities were drafted years ago. The concept of autonomy did not exist at that time. Therefore, no such provision was made.

In their preoccupation with other things, states have, among other things, simply forgotten what ought to have been done in respect of the colleges. Is that a progressive or reactionary development? It is for each state to give the answer. For my part, I would like to suggest that the existing situation is downright reactionary. If we have to do well at the undergraduate level we have to give autonomy to the colleges. Teachers are not for autonomy because this would oblige them to work harder, and this is precisely what most of them do not wish to do.

Should the state governments be a party to this kind of an indolent and indefensible attitude? What has been happening over the years is that salaries have been increasing mostly under pressure, and there has been no insistence whatsoever upon improved performance. This self-serving practice of higher wages and non-performance needs to come to an end. The state governments have to understand one thing. Even if the UGC helps, it is so nominal that, for all practical purposes, it is the responsibility of the states to run their colleges well. And why not?

In this background, it would be more advisable for the states to take complete responsibility for the colleges and insist with the Centre to provide quite some funding for the universities. At one time, the UGC used to provide much more funding for universities than it does today. Over the years, Central universities have been claiming greater and greater share of Central funding.

Properly speaking, this makes a mockery of the Centre’s obligation to coordinate and determine the standards. The Centre has the constitutional mandate to look after the standards. In order to do that, the Centre must also provide more and more financial support. Were the Centre to do that, it would carry a lot of weight.

With the number of colleges growing at the present rate of expansion, it is not feasible to look after them from the Centre. The right pattern to adopt would be that, like schools, colleges too should become the exclusive responsibility of the states. But when it comes to universities, the Centre must shoulder much greater responsibility than it does today.

My own observation of the educational scene in the states is that there is such frequent turnover of secretaries that nobody stays long in the seat to learn the job. What has been mentioned above is only a sample of the problems which require to be sorted out. That they have remained unattended to points only to one conclusion: not many policy makers are interested in education, and the system is left to crumble on its own.

Humanism as secular religion
by Anurag

IT would be instructive to compare and contrast the elements of controversy which raged recently over an alleged attempt of the central government to “Indianise, nationalise and spiritualise” education by inter alia, including the Vedas and the Upanishads in school curricula, with what the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen observed, although in a different context, “Years ago when I tried to register myself as an atheist in Santiniketan, my headmaster insisted that I had to choose a religion. I chose Buddhism because it is an agnostic religion....”

In the three apocryphal stories that characterise the Buddha’s thought — the ill person suffering, the old person reduced by age, and the dead man being carried for cremation — he was asking himself: what kind of life is that?

What better statement of human development than countering illness, the problem of old age, and of premature, unnecessary mortality? The Buddha’s name itself indicates enlightenment, it emphasises education and understanding. He had great relevance then; he remains relevant today.

While studying human rights, I have been struck by Emperor Ashoka’s tremendously enlightened attitude — on the one hand, wanting to spread Buddhism since he himself was a follower, yet insisting that there should be no coercion, and you have to tolerate every religion. He is similar to Gandhi who was religious to the core, yet found it important to be secular.

Perhaps more swadeshi than Joshi, our worthy HRD Minister, is this philosopher economist, a quintessential Indian, proud of his Indian citizenship.

I do not hold a brief for Buddhism per se which did emerge as a phenomenal religious reform movement in the sixth century BC and spread far and wide in most parts of Asia, and still holds sway in many East and South-East Asian countries.

It is pertinent to point out that secular fundamentalism is as bad for polity and society as religious fundamentalism. A fundamentalist gets carried away by the letter, oblivious of the underlying spirit. We must understand the role of religion in ethical and moral aspects of life and living. Science may enable us to build our outer life, but religion must establish itself as a rational way of living. Religion must express itself in reasonable thought, fruitful action and right social institutions.

Religion is essentially the expression of concern for inner life. It is self-discovery, or perhaps recovery. Let us by all means establish a just economic order, but is the economic man the whole man? A complete human being should be imbued with human values held and upheld by all religions and civilisations. Physical efficiency and intellectual alertness are dangerous if spiritual illiteracy prevails. Or else, forces of yobbism will rule the roost.The ongoing crisis of civilisation is the direct result of the loosening hold of ethical and spiritual ideals. Secular wisdom is not a substitute for religion.

Against this backdrop, the need for making religion and culture a compulsory component of our own education system cannot be overemphasised. Our composite culture is our collective heritage. If we do not cherish it, that will be to our own peril. As nature abhors vacuum, culture-vultures will take over, thanks to the unabated cultural globalisation!

If the lack of ethics and morality has depraved our society and civilisation, and religion alone can redeem the situation, then why not include as many religions as one pleases in the curricula? But only to emphasise their essential principles and ideals rather than the dogma. For example, the moral and spiritual truths of Christianity, faith in the Divine Being, faith that we can receive strength and guidance by communion with the Divine should be stressed upon, rather than the miraculous and mysterious other worldly aspects. Ditto for Hinduism, Islam and others.

There is an underlying oneness in all religious teachings despite their outer disparities. A unity of thought pervades their seeming contrariness. There may be a difference of emphasis but not of substance. If the emphasis on equality distinguishes Islam, compassion is the hallmark of Buddhism. Didn’t the great helmsman Mao declare, let a thousand flowers bloom ! Restatement of a religion’s essentials in the contemporary context is as important as the imperative of casting off its unessentials. It has to be a dynamic and continual process.

The prevailing ambiguity and humbug in the arena of religion has left the post-Independence generation without moorings. We must teach religion and culture in our educational institutions to inculcate ethics and values in the impressionable minds. Hasn’t sex education, until recently frowned upon, enabled the youngsters to develop the right attitude towards sex? It is a matter of choosing between a doctor and a quack.

It is high time we had a fresh look at secularism, the way we took stock of socialism nine years ago, and evolved an eclectic religion viz. humanism, by culling the best from every religion. We can no more live in a value-free society.

With chaos all around, compounded by the “chalta-hai” attitude, and the naive belief that “this ill will not harm me”, the sooner we spiritualise our education so as to sensitise our youths to matters of human concern, the better.

We have a secular Constitution, a secular legal system and secular public institutions. Is secularism a negation of religion? Let humanism be our secular religion!

Beyond the next
by N. S. Tasneem

THE ignorant people flock together but the learned ones plough lonely furrows. The reason is not far to seek. The persons who do not know much seek in each other reassurances, whereas the scholarly individuals do not expect to gain anything by bonhomie. To my mind, this is a paradoxical situation. The common pursuit of knowledge should bring the learned people together, but the reverse happens. The more they gain knowledge, the more solitary existence they crave for. Does this mean that a scholarly person becomes so engrossed in his cerebral occupation that he becomes egotistical? This thing in a way defeats the very purpose for which a person makes advanced studies.

In seminars the scholarly persons like to mix up with others and sometimes they go out of their way to exchange their visiting cards. The charm of such gatherings is destined to be of a short duration, so they acquire a special status. But once these scholars start working in a collective manner, some of them immediately become indifferent to others. The very existence of the other person is simply ignored. Even when they cross the path of each other, they either look to the other side in a studied manner or hurl a speedy hello and accelerate their steps to the opposite direction. It is another matter that they converse with each other so very animatedly when they find themselves sitting side by side on the dining table in the mess.

During the early days, I felt embarrassed and even annoyed at the exhibition of such a callous attitude by a good many persons of diverse social moorings who happened to be my co-travellers in the domain of post-doctoral research. I had comprehended modernism in all its ramifications before I ventured forth to confront new challenges in the field of the latest pedagogic scholarship, but I could be face to face with the votaries of postmodernism for the first time only at that place. New vistas of understanding were opened before my eyes and all that I had learnt earlier sank into oblivion, or so it seemed to me. It is another matter that the postmodernistic way of life is more baffling than the theory itself.

But my grouse at present is neither with modernism nor with postmodernism. My concern is with the individualistic behaviour of the learned persons who profess to be working hard for augmenting still more the reservoir of human knowledge. The individual steps being taken in this direction should ultimately lead to some collective gain, otherwise both the vast scholarship and profound erudition become self-defeating projects. Nothing gets roots in the vacuum and never can one establish contacts with the minds of men unless the approach is from “each to each” and not from group (read coterie) to group.

The situation worsens when some persons bite more than they can chew or chew more than they can digest. The human mind cannot be stuffed indiscriminately with all this and all that. Everything should take the form of a pattern, otherwise the picture presented would be a confused and distorted one. It is of no use if the learned ones simply take stock of the unenviable state of man in this postmodernistic and postfeministic age and do nothing to come out of their ivory towers. The poet lamented during the heyday of modernism that human beings have been alienated from each other:

Raat ko mehve humdami thhe sub

sub-h jaage to ajnabi thhe sub

(They were so very intimate at the time of night — in the bar room or the ball room — . But they were total strangers to one another when the day dawned).

But now in this age of postmodernism what would the poet like to add to his exasperating experiences of life. Having no contact with the human beings and devoid of the niceties of human relationships, some self-professed postmodernists are like stray balls tossed about in the turbulent sea of latest theories. As such, it is better to wait for the time when the contours of postmodernism become more distinct. But there is not much time as the world would enter, before long, the “beyond postmodernism” age.

Doubts over racing track project
From Sivadas Banerjee

CALCUTTA: The West Bengal Government last week signed a highly publicised memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the UK-based Grand Prix India Plc (GPI) for putting up a highly sophisticated formula one racing track at Rajarhat, near Calcutta, where a new township is coming up. The move has raised eyebrows all over.

Having failed to attract foreign investment for over a decade, despite Chief Minister Jyoti Basu’s untiring efforts, this undoubtedly has been a major investment, though in the entertainment field. But the way the signing of a “secret” memorandum of understanding was completed with much fanfare has made sceptics wonder whether the project will materialise at all.

The Minister in charge of the Rajarhat project, Gautam Deb was, however, absent from the function, even though it was announced that the Government was already committed to allotting 463 acres of land to be acquired or requisitioned by Deb’s department. Instead, the Minister for Tourism and Environment, Manab Mukherjee, signed the MoU in the presence of Basu’s heir apparent, Police Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharyya, who presided.

In a State where maintenance of roads and highways has been shoddy, the proposal has hardly created any interest. There is no initiative so far to plan and build, in advance, supporting infrastructure, like hotel accommodation and road network linking the racing track. Of course, if the project comes through, it will be an achievement to attract international attention. But will that happen?

It is true that the project has been discussed at different levels in London, but that amounts to nothing because the composition and financial capacity of the GPI are suspect. And the fear is that should the project fall through, the promoters would have got hold of valuable land in a newly set-up township for a song, and make good use of it in “their own way”.

Two GPI directors were present. But the way Buddhadev Bhattacharyya, dodged questions has left many wondering. He promised to disclose “minor portions” of the MoU at a later stage, since the “contents of the MoU are secret”. In fact, it is rumoured that the Environment Department had quietly sent word to other concerned departments that they must not talk about it before journalists.

No one at the formal function, not even Buddhadev Bhattacharyya, would answer questions from the media on the turnover of the company, its track record for undertaking such assignments, its sources of funds and the infrastructure it has for putting together an event like formula one racing. One of the two directors present, Saleem Anwar, claimed such information was “secret”. Explaining their association with formula one racing, Anwar said “we are diehard fans”, He admitted that GPI would have to mobilise millions of dollars to put up the facility near Calcutta.

The MoU, Buddhadev Bhattacharyya explained, was only the beginning. This was confirmed by Anwar who pointed out that the GPI had yet to get the mandatory approval from the Federation of Internationale del ‘Automobile (FIA) or the Formula One Authority (FOA), the sole commercial rights holder of the event worldwide. Since formula one racing is a major international event on par with Olympics and World Cup soccer, the fact that necessary permission has yet to be obtained, has cast further doubts over the viability of the project.

While Anwar said “approval from the FIA is not required at this stage”, last week he had explained that approval applications had been submitted to the federation! Incidentally, such applications for approval are already pending from China and Malaysia. It is a reasonable guess that the application from GPI may not come up for consideration at all before the year 2000.

That there is a controversy brewing over the formula one project is clear from the recent press release of the Federation of Motor Sports Club, the only body recognised by FIA in the country. It raised several questions about the project that Anwar failed to answer.

Automobile enthusiasts in Calcutta were doubtful that FIA would agree to recognise a project like the one proposed by GPI. They argue that neither Calcutta nor India had a record of any kind of track racing of cars. The infrastructure, the skills and funding were not readily available in India for an event of this kind. “The roads of Calcutta are an obstacle course for drivers where cars cannot be driven comfortably in top gear.”

However, GPI officials are reported to have selected Rajarhat to set up the racing tracks after taking into account certain standards prescribed by the Formula One Association. This, officials have claimed, was done after discussing the matter with the association authorities and a thorough examination of the infrastructural facilities available at Rajarhat. —IPA

VC’s tug of war with Gujarat Govt
from Mukund Kansara

AHMEDABAD: A battle royal is on between the Vice-Chancellor, Mr S.B. Vora, and Gujarat government after the former was sacked for going to Bangkok for attending the Vice-Chancellors’ conference without getting clearance for the trip.

The hand of the Governor, Mr Anshuman Singh is suspected in the matter. Once before he as Chancellor got the Vice-Chancellor of South Gujarat University, Mr Kapadia, sacked in a fake certificate case.

The latest instance involving Mr Vora, a brilliant student in his younger days, has political overtones and the battlelines are drawn as per the political predilection of the contestants. While the Congress and the RJP allege political victimisation, the BJP alleges insubordination on Mr Vora’s part.

What is intriguing is Mr Vora’s suggestion that he was acting on the instructions of the political bosses in the government while sacking Mr Vora and he did not initiate the move. This fact has been denied by Ms Anandiben Patel, the Education Minister. When the statement was made, she was abroad. After returning from tour, she repudiated the statement made by Mr Singh and said the government has nothing to do with the episode. The Vice-Chancellor was sacked following a letter.

Mr Vora contested the sack order in the Gujarat High Court, which stayed the appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor and asked Mr H.N. Desai to continue as acting Vice-Chancellor till Mr Vora’s petition was disposed of.

Mr Vora maintained before the court that Rs 40,000 spent on the Bangkok trip which was paid by the UGC and he was not a government servant as such he did not need clearance for the trip. He also maintained that no previous Vice-Chancellor has sought such clearance. The Chancellor knew of the trip.

The Chancellor does not seem to be getting on well with fellow academics. His action in getting some one from Allahabad University included on the panel of names for Gujarat University stirred up a hornet’s nest. The Governor justified his action by saying he was going by merit.

Several academics and educational administrators have criticised the politicisation of education. They want the government to respect the university authority and not to reduce them to government departments. The strike call in support of Mr Vora received a mixed response.

75 YEARS AGO

Hindi in the Punjab

SIR, — In a recent article headed “Hindi in the Punjab” L. Santram BA asserts that books written in Vraj Bhasha are not desirable courses of study for the students of our Matric, and FA classes.

He regrets that the Hindi students, and not only they, but Arya Samajists, Sanatan Dharmis, etc., also use English and Urdu in the major portion of their correspondence and propaganda, instead of Hindi; and avows that this is due to the court language being Urdu, and also to the insufficient earnestness of the Punjab University about the promotion of learning in Hindi.

As he saw the names of places on the mile-stones in Mandi, Suket, etc., in Devanagari characters, he holds the rectification of the unjust blunder of the greatest magnitude — that Hindi is not a court language — to lie in the hands of the Hindi-loving Punjabees. I fear, that only very few men can hold such optimistic views.

Perhaps the percentage of Hindi (not Gurumukhi) knowing public is not available to him. No doubt, he holds futile the anti-Hindu attitude of the Education Minister, or the majority of the population of the Muslims, and the Urdu patrons in this province. It is hard to find any Mohammedan with any knowledge of Hindi.

— A Reader