 |
|
Party at the bourses The long march |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Parliament’s prestige Ronen’s apology should close the case INDIAN Ambassador to the United States Ronen Sen has once again apologised for his “running around like headless chicken” remark made with regard to critics of the Indo-US nuclear deal. The full quote talked about the said chicken looking for a comment here and there, and Ambassador Sen’s later clarification that it referred to “some journalists” thus has some credence.
Coalition politics
Doctor of plagiarism
Reinvent the social sciences Tokelau islands cling to colonial status Inside
Pakistan
|
Party at the bourses THE relentless capital inflows pushed the BSE Sensex to 20,000 on Monday, making India the 20th nation to achieve this distinction. Managing excess liquidity is a challenge the government faces. The Finance Minister says it is a new situation the government does not know how to handle. The RBI tried to tackle it through the credit policy review on Tuesday. To soak in part of the liquidity from the system, the RBI hiked the cash reserve ratio by 0.5 per cent, leaving the other key rates untouched. The CRR hike implies the banks will now be required to keep more money with the RBI. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) pumped in $9.46 billion in Indian stocks in 2005, $8 billion last year and a record $17 billion until October this year. Besides, India gets a huge remittance from its expatriates. The capital flows have led to a sharp rupee appreciation against the dollar, which has hit exporters hard. On the positive side, the strengthening rupee has softened the blow from the sharp rise in the global crude oil prices. FII money is coming in because India along with China is the fastest growing economy in the world and stock valuations here are still lower than China’s. The capital flow picked up after the US Federal Reserve cut the interest rates recently. Its meeting on Wednesday is keenly awaited amid hopes of another cut. Quite sensibly, the RBI has refrained from spoiling the party at the bourses. The BSE Sensex fell 194 points on Tuesday. The central bank has kept unchanged the GDP growth target at 8.5 per cent and the inflation rate at 5 per cent for the current year. While agriculture is on track, industry and services are likely to slow down a bit. The RBI has not accepted the industry’s demand to lower interest rates, though banks have started softening the interest rates after a green signal from the Finance Ministry. The government should lift curbs on foreign investment and channel funds into building roads, ports, airports and power facilities.
|
|
The long march MOVING quickly, the government has accepted all the demands pertaining to land reforms raised by the 25,000-plus tribesmen, “untouchables” and landless labourers who had converged on the national capital to shame the government into listening to their cries of woes. They are only a small percentage of more than 120 million people that have no rights in the country and have to survive on at best one meal a day. Actually, these demands already stand accepted, but only in principle. To that extent, the acceptance is only a reiteration. What matters is how effectively and how quickly the promises are put into practice. The major advantage of their Janadesh rally has been that the issue has been put to the frontburner and they will not suffer because of being out of sight and out of mind. Since the national land reforms council will be headed by the Prime Minister himself, the officials down under will, hopefully, not be able to pass the buck around. But since this is a state subject, much will depend on the pace at which they move. Here is hoping that the state governments, too, will cooperate to the fullest extent because the condition of these disinherited sons of the soil is really pitiable. First, the much-trumpeted land reforms passed them by. And now, they are being made to surrender whatever little they have in the name of industrialisation. Since this life is no better than death for some of them, they have come on the road for this 340-km march to awaken the people at the top. Their plight is not really unknown to this government or the previous governments. After all, the Planning Commission has itself admitted that “Land reforms seem to have been relegated to the background in the mid-1990s. More recently, initiatives of state governments have related to liberalising of land laws in order to promote large-scale corporate farming”. Nobody has bothered to think what it will do to the existence of these grey masses. As it is, most of them do not have even basic amenities. Now they are being deprived of scarce land also which had been sustaining them for generations either in the name of forest conservation or industrialisation. This can lead to an explosive situation which will make all talk about the phenomenal growth of India meaningless. |
|
Parliament’s prestige INDIAN Ambassador to the United States Ronen Sen has once again apologised for his “running around like headless chicken” remark made with regard to critics of the Indo-US nuclear deal. The full quote talked about the said chicken looking for a comment here and there, and Ambassador Sen’s later clarification that it referred to “some journalists” thus has some credence. If anyone should be offended, it is the media. This has not, however, prevented parliamentarians from taking umbrage, as the widely reported comment came at a time when the negotiations were causing quite an uproar in the Lok Sabha and more than one MP was making his views known. The media appear quite willing to forgive him, especially as he admitted that the remark was “tactless”, to say the least. But Ambassador Sen, even as he reiterated that no members of Parliament were included in his comment, had also offered his “unqualified apologies” if he had hurt anyone’s sentiments. The 15-member Lok Sabha privileges committee, headed by V. Kishore Chandra Deo, has heard him out, and he will next go up before the Rajya Sabha Privileges Committee on November 2. There he will, no doubt, apologise again. It will only enhance Parliament’s prestige if its members let it go at that. Surely, there is no need to further waste the valuable time of the House. Ambassador Sen is a distinguished diplomat, who represented India in four major capitals — Moscow, London, Berlin and Washington D.C. He was among those who worked hard on the Indo-US nuclear deal in the belief that it was beneficial to the two countries, and a big boost to India’s energy security. While Left MPs can chose to oppose the deal for ideological reasons, calls for his recall are clearly out of place. The Ambassador has a job to do and it is time to allow him to get on with it. |
|
All you know about it (luck) for certain is that it’s bound to change. — Bret Harte
|
Coalition politics Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi says the coalition era demands a new Constitution to achieve “real federalism”. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh finds it hard to pursue the “manifestly obvious”, given the fractured mandate and competitive politics. True, except that had real federalism been in place the DMK would not have been a powerful presence at the Centre for 11 long years. Nor, if the mandate was less fractured, would Dr Manmohan Singh, the scholarly economist and non-politician, have been at the helm of the UPA government. It is the compromises dictated by the competitive politics of the contending constituents comprising the United Progressive Alliance that enabled the emergence of Dr Singh as the most acceptable (or least unacceptable) candidate for the Prime Minister’s position; and precisely because he was not a product of competitive politics. In India, a coalition government is never a choice. It is treated as a necessary evil for managing the polity when mandates are fractured. If coalitions have come to stay at the Centre for over a decade now, it is only because they are seen as being better than facing the consequences of a hung Parliament; of somehow cobbling up the numbers to form a government to avoid another election. No political party in India believes and accepts the philosophy or core principles of a coalition so as to ensure representative democracy in a full federal sense. They make-do with it for want of a viable alternative when there is no mandate for one-party rule. Indian political parties are authoritarian and resistant to de-centralisation of power and authority. Parties like the CPM and the CPI — which might boast of more internal democracy than the Congress, the BJP and the regional parties — are authoritarian by ideology. The regional parties are more so because their turf being geographically smaller, they safeguard it more zealously, and repressively. The advocacy of federalism by regional parties - resonant in the DMK’s slogan of coalition at the Centre and autonomy for the states - is aimed at wresting a share of office at the Centre and, free of any Central restraint, exercising it to entrench its own primacy in the state. Real federalism would imply that more than one party in a state-commensurate with its vote share - is accepted as being representative in a coalition at the Centre. Coalitions may be based on alliances but all alliances, especially expedient and opportunistic ones, do not a coalition make. Unless a coalition government is accepted as an article of faith with a commitment to genuine representation at least for every region — if not every social constituency in each region — such formations can only muddle along as the UPA is doing now; as the BJP-led NDA did earlier, without advancing the conditions for a coalition culture or the cause of federalism. Paradoxically, aversion to coalition politics is most evident when there is a coalition government. Dr Singh’s lament of the fractured mandate making it “difficult” is just the latest. He is not alone in bemoaning the ills of the coalition era. Before him, Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Prime Minister, too, never concealed that the compulsions of coalition politics took precedence over policy-making and governance. Those at the head of earlier coalition ministries also learnt this to their and the country’s cost. The aversion is not restricted to those at the helm of parties and alliances. The shenanigans of every coalition ministry make voters yearn for a return to the stabilising comfort of one-party rule. Hence, the periodic refrain, “Why can’t we have a two-party system?” This ignores the failure of any national party to endure as an implicit coalition, which is what has given rise to explicit coalitions since 1996. There may be no getting away from it, at least in the near future. For long, till the late 1960s, the Congress party was an implicit coalition, which meant “all things to all people”. The BJP, with its Hindutva standard, never tried to be that though Mr Vajpayee’s wider acceptability enabled the party to forge some shrewd strategic alliances with regional forces and succeed in taking a coalition government to its full term for the first time. Nevertheless, that has not resulted in coalitions gaining wider acceptance. Therefore, the absence of a coalition dharma is only to be expected. Coalition being more the outcome of electoral seat-sharing, when in government, too, the allies are only looking to share the spoils of office. The leaders of most regional parties function like clan or tribal chieftains. When in office at the Centre, far from actualising the aspirations for federalism or state autonomy, the regional parties in the ruling alliance look to maximising the gains from their own narrow or sectarian point of view. Inevitably, when the government of a number of parties in an alliance is not accepted as normal or normative, coalition dharma goes for a toss. What is left is the karma of coalition, plodding on with stoicism that what cannot be overcome must be endured. So, while the country might have put the Hindu rate of growth behind it, what it has grown into is a Hindu coalition - something ordained by electoral karma. Thus, the centerpiece of the coalition -- the Congress now and the BJP earlier - just carries on; with the attitude that to stay on in office, regardless of the cost or compromises extracted by demanding partners, is a karmic debt which cannot be escaped in this kaliyug of coalitions. Mr Karunanidhi’s DMK has been the single, constant beneficiary of successive coalitions at the Centre, under four Prime Ministers, since 1996. Having attained one-half of the slogan - coalition at the Centre - what prevented him from working for real federalism? He says, “Those who come to power at the Centre will not agree to a federal set-up. Real federalism cannot happen easily”. How very true, for even the DMK, on coming to (share) power at the Centre has not been keen on a federal set-up. Blithely, he goes on to say that a new Constitution is needed to make real federalism possible. Beyond the headlines this earned him, he has not made out a case in terms of any constitutional or structural obstacles that thwart federalism. Real federalism connotes much more than reducing the power of the Centre. It also means that states as a whole - not just one party from a state - should have a larger role in the scheme of the Union. That reality would be extremely inconvenient, perhaps unacceptable, to a dominant player like the DMK if, for instance, other state parties in Tamil Nadu were also to be represented at the Centre in proportion to their vote share. Clearly, Mr Karunanidhi is not saying that. To say that would point to the system of proportional represent-ation as the answer towards a different form of federalism in our parliamentary system. Those who have come into their own at the Centre, and only recently, in the first-past-the-post system are unlikely to favour reforms that would take away their leverage in coalition governments thrown up by fractured mandates.
|
Doctor of plagiarism
I
DO not know when exactly I fell for the charms of a Ph.D. When every other person in the city I lived in those days had a “Dr” prefix, I, too, aspired for that degree. In a way, it would also have helped me fulfil my father’s ambition to see me as a “doctor”. Wishes were not horses and I could not make the grade to a medical college. All I could manage was admission to the only veterinary college in the state at Mannuthi. But the fear of being called “Doctor Animal” and the love for literature compelled me to opt for the study of English. And when a colleague, who was himself a Ph.D, helped me enrol for a Ph.D programme by depositing Rs 100, I did not look back. Fortunately for me, a professor, who had served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor in another university, agreed to be my guide. The professor had a reputation for guiding dozens of research scholars, all of them successfully. When I told him that I wanted a subject which had elements of literature and journalism in it, he quickly suggested one - “Literary journalism with particular reference to Scrutiny”. He knew my mind. The professor explained to me that Scrutiny was a literary journal edited by F.R. Leavis, a great critic of the twentieth century. It was Leavis who first found greatness in T.S. Eliot and elevated him to the cult status the latter enjoyed. The professor had a practical reason to suggest the topic. He had in his department all the volumes of Scrutiny in bound form. The next day he brought for me the first few volumes and I began my work in right earnest. I found that every issue of Scrutiny had one long editorial by Leavis, covering two-thirds of the journal. The rest was filled with letters and comments on his previous editorials. In other words, it was a one-man show. Reading it aimlessly did not take me anywhere. So I decided to be “guided” properly. When I went to his house for this purpose, he received me with a lot of warmth. He told me that there was no need to hurry as I had to submit the thesis only after two years. When I was about to leave, he took out an old moth-eaten book -- F.R. Leavis: Some Aspects of His Work, edited by C.D. Narasimhaiah -- from his bookshelf and gave it to me. “You just paraphrase the book and your thesis will be ready,” advised the professor. The advice stunned me. I lost all interest in the Ph.D project. It was better not to have a plagiarisd Ph.D, I thought. I did not contact the professor thereafter. Years later, he presented me a copy of his translation of Tulsidas’ Ramacharitamanas into English and Hindi. Published by a leading publisher of Indology, it was, perhaps, the first time that the great work was rendered into English in verse form. The high-priced book was a hit with the Hindu diaspora. The book I was to plagiarise remained unopened in my shelf until I read H.Y. Sharada Prasad’s tribute to C.D. Narasimhaiah headlined “Goodbye to the Sage of Mysore” in The Asian Age a couple of years ago. As I dusted and read the book, nearly two decades after I got it from the professor, I realised what an injustice it would have been to plagiarise the work of a great man of letters like Dr Narasimhaiah. In retrospect, the Ph.D I did not do was my tribute to the “Sage of Mysore”, a favourite student of F.R. Leavis at Cambridge who introduced the English critic to Indian
readers. |
Reinvent the social sciences Three factors are responsible for the crisis – the hostility of the market, government apathy, and the quality of social science teaching and research. The market has played havoc with the social sciences. It has given a boost to sunrise disciplines like engineering, information technology, management, pharmaceutical sciences, law, etc. and in the process social sciences have suffered. The government has remained a mere spectator to the declining position of the social sciences. It did not regulate effectively the mushrooming of shops selling professional courses and also failed to allocate sufficient resources for the promotion of social science teaching and research. In case of science and technology disciplines, funds are overflowing; whereas, social sciences are facing a sort of starvation. Social science teaching and research have also not kept pace with the changing contours of social reality. Contemporary Social Sciences are facing multifarious challenges originating from multi-dimensional and fast changing social reality in response to globalisation, decentralisation, information technology revolution and increasing incidences of crime and violence, particularly against women. Unfortunately during this period of turbulence, social science teaching and research has not been steered to face the challenges successfully. The teaching in social sciences emphasises more on theory. The experiential learning mode is broadly missing. Performance on account of research is equally dismal. Social scientists are mainly engaged in repetitive and descriptive research. In this era of interdisciplinary studies, the research in a particular discipline does not even relate it to other specialisations of the same discipline, what to talk of sister social sciences. Many of our Ph.D. theses deal neither with burning social problems nor are carried out by adopting scientific research methodology. Lamentably, most of the theses fail to get good publishers because of the sub-standard quality. The significance of quality parameters, like impact factor and citations widely used in science disciplines, is not fully appreciated and adopted in social science research. Thus, we are facing a paradoxical situation. On the one hand social reality is getting complex by the day, and being multi-dimensional, needs rigorous treatment in terms of research. On the other hand our research is repetitive, stereotyped, descriptive and mediocre in terms of quality. In this backdrop, it is essential to improve both substance (i.e. content) and the form (i.e. methodology) of social science teaching and research. A mix of the following suggestions may help social sciences to make a turnaround. Firstly, for making the outcome of social science teaching more relevant to society, social sciences need to overhaul their curriculum in tune with the changing societal needs. For this purpose the involvement of the stakeholders, particularly major employers, is urgently needed. The involvement of major employers in teaching in the form of guest faculty would also enrich the students. The institutions of higher learning should continuously scan the changed socio-economic environment and accordingly introduce new courses in social sciences and also review the relevance of existing courses. Secondly, to improve the employability of social science students, it is essential to increase the components of field-based learning processes. The conventional classroom teaching needs to shed its load in favour of learning from field-based experiences. Within classroom teaching, the application of the case method should be encouraged. Social sciences should also introduce the practice of student internship. Students may be sent for internship to government organisations, NGOs, research institutes, industry, etc. Thirdly, teaching and research are complimentary to each other. Research strengthens teaching by providing inputs from real life or societal experiences. Hence, it is all the more necessary to strengthen research in social science disciplines to make its teaching more relevant to the society and the market. Fourthly, along with strengthening social research, equal emphasis should also be placed on improving the quality of social science research. The conventional approach of identification of research problem by in-house teams of the University needs modification by involving stakeholders/users’ of research at the identification stage. The social scientists, before finalising the research problem, should undertake a pilot project to gauge its relevance. With a view to improve the quality of social sciences, it is also important that the social scientists, in addition to analysing the social reality should also develop methodological skills to make prediction about the social phenomenon likely to occur as is done by the scientists regarding natural phenomenon. Fifthly, it is also important to impart instructions regarding social sciences and humanities in the professional disciplines. No doubt students from professional streams are getting very attractive packages in corporate sector and enjoying comforts of life but many a times they remain indifferent to social concerns and problems. With a view to make them sensitive and alive to social concerns, it is essential to impart the necessary knowledge of social sciences and humanities during their professional courses. In reputed professional institutions including IITs, adequate weightage in the curriculum is given to social sciences and humanities. Other institutions offering professional courses can adopt the same model. At policy level a paradigm shift is also the need of the hour. The government’s apathy towards social sciences should be replaced by a well-articulated social science policy on the pattern of science and technology policy. The major aim of the social science policy should be to promote good quality teaching and research in social sciences.
The writer is Dean, Faculty of Arts, Panjab University, Chandigarh |
|
Tokelau islands cling to colonial status THE UN wants tiny, remote Tokelau in the South Pacific to be independent, and so does New Zealand, its colonial ruler. But Tokelauans cannot quite bring themselves to sever the link and become one of the world’s smallest nations. Fewer than 1,500 people inhabit the three minuscule atolls, mid-way between New Zealand and Hawaii, that constitute Tokelau. In two referendums in the past 21 months, its 700 voters have narrowly failed to achieve the required two-thirds majority in favour of self-government. A former British colony in Polynesia, Tokelau has been administered by New Zealand since 1926. It has no airport or harbour, and is a 28-hour ferry ride from Samoa, its nearest neighbour, 300 miles to the south. In a place with such a tiny population, every vote counts, and the losing margin in last week’s plebiscite was just 16 votes. With a clear majority wishing to go it alone, another UN-supervised referendum is expected before long. New Zealand, keen to divest itself of its last colonial possession, has promised Tokelauans that they will retain their right to citizenship of that country if they opt for self-rule. Wellington has also pledged to maintain its financial support. Tokelau is one of 16 remaining colonial territories around the world, which the UN periodically and gently presses to achieve independence. Others include Pitcairn Island and Gibraltar, both British possessions. East Timor, formerly controlled by Indonesia, was the last to take over its own destiny. When it follows suit, Tokelau will be the world’s smallest nation after the Vatican City by population, and after the Vatican City and Monaco by land area. Its three coral atolls – Atafu, Nukunonu and Fakaofo – cover just four square miles. They are also pancake-flat and, like other places in the South Pacific, threatened by rising sea levels. The New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark, said after last week’s referendum that she respected Tokelauans’ wishes. “New Zealand governments have long taken the view that it is for the people of Tokelau to decide both the direction and the pace of their political development,” she said, pledging her country’s continuing support. Tokelau, regardless of its colonial status, will remain dependent on New Zealand, which provides 80 per cent of its budget. Other sources of income include fishing licence fees, exports of copra (dried coconut meat), and sales of handicrafts, stamps and coins. It also earns money from its .tk internet domain address. New Zealand is already home to 8,000 Tokelau expatriates. While they no longer have a vote in their birthplace, they are believed to have played a key role in persuading relatives on the islands against opting for self-government “in free association with New Zealand”, as the referendum phrased it. Even so, 64 per cent of people voted for independence, up from 60 per cent in the previous plebiscite in February last year. Connected to the outside world only by ferry, telephone and – as of recently – the internet, it remains a tropical backwater. Just six or so people own cars, and the islands do not even have a capital. The public service is based in Apia, the Samoan capital. In practice, Tokelau already runs its own affairs with New Zealand support. Tokelau became part of Britain’s Gilbert and Ellice Islands in 1889, and was bequeathed to New Zealand in 1926. One of its claims to fame is a population of pigs that live by the sea and have learnt to catch fish in shallow water.
By arrangement with
|
|
INSIDE PAKISTAN AFTER the return of PPP leader Benazir Bhutto, the two other prominent leaders, former Prime Miniser Nawaz Sharif and Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) supremo Altaf Hussain, living in exile in Jeddah and London respectively, may also be back in Pakistan soon. The Saudi Arabian government and the Musharraf regime are reported to have reached an understanding to allow Mr Sharif to reach Pakistan anytime now irrespective of the Supreme Court’s verdict on the petitions challenging his deportation on September 10. His homecoming is expected after a caretaker government is formed, perhaps, after November 15. Mr Sharif, exiled for 10 years following an agreement with the Musharraf government, was deported to Jeddah within hours of his landing at Islamabad airport on September 10 despite an apex court ruling favouring his homecoming. According to The News, Mr Altaf Hussain, living in self-imposed exile in London for the past 16 years, has accepted the advice given by his party’s Rabita Committee to be back among his followers. His presence in Pakistan is considered necessary under the circumstances. The MQM, perhaps, feels threatened particularly in Karachi and Hyderabad as a result of the aggressive campaigning by Ms Bhutto’s party. In the meantime, as Business Recorder says, the Election Commission of Pakistan has circulated a 36-point draft model code of conduct to around 90 political parties for their feedback, which must be sent to the commission by November 3. “By and large, the draft code is restrictive in nature, in that it tries to keep – quite unrealistically – the controversial foreign policy-centred issues out of the electioneering focus.... The code does not envisage a ban on rallies, but it clearly spells out certain rules of the game for rallies and processions…” the daily points out. Radio Maulana of Swat Guns have finally fallen silent in the restive Swat area in the NWFP after a lot of bloodshed continuing for a few days. Perhaps, the Swat warlord, Maulana Fazlullah, whose militia had been fighting against government troops, got the hint from his well-wishers in the ruling establishment that he should stop the exchange of fire now when Islamabad was interested in a truce at any cost. The Maulana has his own FM radio station and hence the nickname Radio Maulana. “Commanding a well-armed militia (called Shaheen), Fazlullah, a semi-literate man with obscurantist views, has terrorised the local people in Swat and the government’s writ has virtually ceased to exist”, as Dawn (Oct 27) said in an editorial. He also runs his own courts, whose verdicts are enforced with the help of his 4,500-strong militia in 59 villages under his virtual control. His religious outfit, Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Mohammadi, has a strong following among the Sunni Muslims. It was banned by the Pervez Musharraf regime in January 2002, but got a fresh lease of life with the formation of the MMA government in the NWFP. Fazlullah has been accusing the Islamabad government of promoting US interests in Pakistan. Members of his Shaheen militia attacked a bus carrying personnel of the Federal Cops in Mingora village, resulting in at least 30 deaths last week. The bombing of the bus was in retaliation for the deployment of paramilitary forces on a large scale in the Swat area. Lal Masjid again Islamabad’s Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) is back in the news because of the controversial behaviour of its newly appointed Naib Imam, Amir Siddiqui. He has stunned the government by describing at a Press conference the soldiers killed in a militant attack on a bus in Swat as those who “died like infidels”. Amir, a nephew of Maulana Abdur Rashid Ghazi, killed in the recent military operation at the mosque, has been supporting the controversial activities of warlord Fazlullah because the Swat cleric opposed the government drive to flush out the militants and others hiding in the mosque-madarsa complex in Islamabad. Surprisingly, Amir got the position at the Lal Masjid following a Supreme Court ruling handing over the control of the religious place to the controversial Ghazi family. As Daily Times says, “He has put all and sundry, including the state institutions, under challenge by saying that Pakistan’s war against terrorism was ‘a war of infidels, killing its own citizens to serve the interests of the United States’.” The government can take no action against him though “he is a man who gets paid from government coffers”, according to Dawn. |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
THE commercialisation and privatisation of higher education has marginalised the social sciences. The social science disciplines have been reduced to the status of poor cousins of professional courses. The number and quality of social sciences students is declining when the system needs a large number of good quality social scientists to diagnose successfully the effects of the policies of globalisation, privatisation and economic liberalisation on society and suggest remedial measures for the ill effects. Policy makers and managers of institutions of higher learning, hence, need to realise that just as the market needs engineers, managers, and scientists, social equilibrium requires philosophers, artists and social scientists.