DC Debate: Subhash C. Agrawal Vs Rakesh Sinha
Subhash C. Agrawal: No time for trial and error
If Smriti Irani is the HRD minister, then she should at least be a graduate to understand the nitty-gritty of the ministry. Imagine if a lawyer is given charge of health ministry, what will s/he do?
I feel that people who handle various ministries should be experts in their fields. If Smriti Irani is human resource development minister, then she should at least be a graduate to understand the nitty-gritty of HRD ministry. Likewise, health ministry should be given to doctors. It will act as an advantage for them as they’ll be able to understand the loopholes in the medical system much better than the rest. Imagine if a lawyer is given charge of health ministry, what will s/he do?
There are countries where only experts are given the charge of ministries. In those countries, being a parliamentarian is a big thing and comes with huge responsibilities. While these kind of reforms have a long way to go in India, the head of the party should make sure that the ministers are well educated and ministries should be allocated as per one’s educational qualifications.
Recently, questions have been raised about “defeated” Ms Irani being made a Union minister that too with a ministry related to education despite her not being even a graduate. Practically speaking, her tough fight against Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi could be the reason for she being rewarded with the plum post. Ms Irani does not have the necessary background to handle such an important ministry at a juncture when the education sector in the country is not going through the best of times.
However, it would have been better if she was given some other responsibility. Sooner or later, Ms Irani’s lack of higher education would act as an impediment for her taking decisions in higher education. For example, take the case of former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi. At the time of taking oath, Ms Rabri Devi was unfit to become the chief minister as she did not even appear confident while interacting with the mediapersons.
Is it proper to spend public resources and crucial time in experimenting? Democratic system of governance stands on three basic pillars — the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.
The executive functions to implement the law legislated by those in legislature. The role of the judiciary also comprises of interpreting the law passed by legislature. Thus the root of democracy is in legislature, which make laws or carries out amendments. While our bureaucracy and judiciary is highly qualified, the world’s largest democracy does not have any minimum educational qualification for its politicians. How can we expect an uneducated person to frame new laws for this nation?
Recently, JD(U) MLA Bima Bharti was unable to read oath paper properly. Can such an oath be authentic? Can such a minister read files before signing (or putting thumb impressions) on the files brought before them?
In the past 10 years of United Progressive Alliance government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is an astute economist, was able to steer India safely from the global economic meltdown. Former HRD ministers — Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, Kapil Sibal, Madhavrao Scindia etc — were well read. Even finance ministers like P. Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee had huge experience and education by their side, while
Ms Irani has none.
The earlier government failed because instead of utilising their expertise of their fields, the ministers played their roles according to their political requirement. I hope it doesn’t happen with the BJP.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal is an RTI activist
Rakesh Sinha: Bundle of degrees don’t matter
The composition of a political executive is done after taking a holistic view of society. Formal degrees are no consideration for becoming either
a minister or a maker of history.
The biggest fools must be those who want to make the world a barren land of formal degrees in education. In formal life, educational degrees count and play a valuable role. But the evolution of history is replete with examples where men and women have emerged from ashes to alter the grammar of society, culture and politics of world civilisation. The controversy created by dynastic slaves against the newly appointed human resource development minister Smriti Irani must thus be examined in a larger perspective.
Ms Irani, who struggled to attain her public career, has been a household name for her role as an artist. Then followed a political career of no less than a decade where she again proved herself, conducting herself with grace. An individual is known by his or her strengths reflected through vision, determination and the will to change. Ms Irani’s struggle in politics is not career-oriented, but to deconstruct many ills in politics, of which one is dynasty-based politics. In taking on daunting odds, her artistic spirit is her asset. Her vision is bound to unfold progressively, and she will deconstruct an unrealistic education system that is a hybrid of colonial, Marxist and Western mindsets.
Ajay Maken, who questioned Ms Irani’s formal education, is an innocent illiterate. Doesn’t he know politics, culture and society have been greatly indebted to those whose life CV became more powerful than their formal education? Individuals are judged by their contributions to the advancement of history, not the bundle of degrees on their weak shoulders.
Nine of all American Presidents who took the United States of America to great heights never went to college, which includes the epoch-making Harry S. Truman, too. Another 25 were lawyers but not all of them could finish law school. Dynasty sycophants in India would definitely reject all such US Presidents for not having formal degrees.
Lincoln, the man history remembers for his democratic and revolutionary career as US President, wrote, “I studied with nobody.” Another example from the pages of modern history is Deng Xiaoping, the man credited with liberating China from ideological fundamentalism by introducing economic reforms. He was not a scholar of any repute. He introduced market economy in China with the dictum that “it does not matter whether a cat is black or white so long it catches mice”. Moreover, Indian tradition of knowledge has never attached importance to degrees. No wonder Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, merely a graduate, became a poet laureate and also vice-chancellor of Bhagalpur University. Few know he was also tipped to become Union education minister, which could not materialise because of his writing a poem against Nehru. Ramchandra Shukla, one of the greatest Hindi literary figures, was himself just a ninth-pass!
The composition of a political executive is done after taking a holistic view of society. Formal degrees are no consideration for becoming either a minister or a maker of history. Those living in glass houses should not cast stones at others. The nation didn’t ask to see the degrees of Indira Gandhi, and the formal degree of Rahul Gandhi failed to become an asset for India’s oldest party. History will assess Ms Irani on the basis of her visionary transformation of our education system, which has been the victim of degree-holders for decades!
Rakesh Sinha is director, India Policy Foundation and associate professor Delhi University
