Talk the Talk:

                                       An Open Letter to the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India

                                                                      Talk the Talk

I address this letter not as your acolyte nor as your critic but as a citizen of India who shares the concerns of many fellow citizens on issues that are vital to the nation’s social, economic and spiritual growth and development. Today is exactly a month since you moved into the South Block. Many including me were pleasantly surprised to see a ‘modi’-fied Prime Minister different from the PM-in-waiting before the polls. Gone was the vitriolic demagoguery that characterized your election campaign. The humungous mandate given to you brought out the softer side of your personality to welcome the modicum of opposition to join you in rebuilding the nation. I salute you for the graciousness you displayed in your address to the Parliament though you had the huge mandate to brush aside and crush the opposition.

But the issues that your party men have raised over the last four weeks are not a part of the 100days agenda you had set for your ministries. These issues are not that important to precede other pressing issues you had enlisted as a fulfillment of your campaign promises on development and decisive leadership. You have chosen to remain silent (though you used to refer to the earlier PM as Maun Mohan Singh) on issues that do not have any earthshaking urgency to be decided now. You have a full five years to go and if I remember your first statement on becoming the PM that you are not a one-term PM- which means you have a good 10 years to take decisions on non- sequitar  issues that do not follow your development agenda and issues that are volatile and inflammable and therefore can remain in the backburner till the time is ripe to let them out.  One suspects whether the PM’s chair generates a current of silence that short circuits decisive leadership.  Otherwise why do  you remain silent and not take decisive steps to stop your minions from gabbing too soon and without a care for the consequences? If the chair is not the cause, then I presume it is a planned strategy though it is difficult to imagine an experienced politician like you to rush into emotive and risky territories before the ink on your acceptance document has dried.

Two days into taking charge of his ministry, the MOS in your PM’s office, Jitendra Singh said that the process of abrogating Article 370 has begun. This is a highly emotive issue and threatens to develop into a mighty conflagration reminiscent of the street battles that erupted in Kashmir in 2008. A debate about it is certainly in the interest of the integration of J&K with the rest of India, but it is not an urgent issue to debate now.  This can wait – if it had waited this long –as there has been till now no solution to India-Pakistan dispute over the state. When your core agenda had been growth and good governance, do we need to start this debate that may help communal forces to raise their fiery heads? You who have proved to be a man of words,  would have done well to rein in your MOS and assured your countrymen that all these issues can wait as your primary attention is to fulfill your promises on development. You were not voted to power on the issue of Article 370 which is limited to Jammu and Kashmir. Why have you chosen to remain silent?

The second contentious issue has been raised by Radha Man Singh on Uniform Civil Code. This is again a sensitive issue and you have chosen to remain impassive and not pull up your minister for the unseemly haste of raising such an explosive issue. However it is reassuring to listen to your interview with a Urdu daily Nai Dhunia saying that implementation of UCC does not mean that Hindu code will be imposed on all citizens of the country. But how many have access to the Urdu daily and why choose that instead of giving a press release to all the newspapers?

 The third issue on which you have remained silent except for a cryptic statement in the Parliament that you feel sad over  the brutal murder of a Muslim techie – one who had no connection with the Facebook derogatory depiction of Shivaji and Bal Thackeray. Can you remain silent without issuing a warning and a condemnation of the fringe parties that are raising their ugly majoritarian heads and resorting to covert ways to frighten the Muslims? Your remaining silent has given a lot of confidence to those who want to prove more loyal than the king. Are  you be a BJP version of Maun Mohan Singh allowing things to drift and come to a pass where everyone takes law into his hands to speak and act as he wills- an art that is perfected and practiced by your alliance partner Shiv Sena in Mumbai.

The next one is the issue of language. Is this the time to start a language controversy?  By suddenly letting loose the language genie from the bottle where it had lain for the last 50 odd years, aren’t you stoking a controversy that has no relevance in today’s world? Maybe it is Rajnath Singh and his deputy who have started the language ball rolling, but shouldn’t you stop it from getting lost in a battle of Babels? There are two basic problems with this directive to impose language only in Hindi speaking states on social media communications. Social media is the social interaction among people in which they create, share or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. Does this mean that Hindi speaking people can share and exchange information in Hindi only among themselves and not with the rest of India? Doesn’t this create a divide between North India and South India?  Yet another point is you were voted to power by addressing to the needs of the aspirationsof the  youth of India. This mandatory circular (even if restricted to Hindi belt) of postings in Hindi is a retrograde step in fulfilling the aspirations of our youth.  Even today a large exodus of our bright young men and women to US and the West is taking place. English is a link language with the world outside and if perceptions become the truth, such unnecessary thrust on Hindi may drive away many  many more of our aspiring youths to seek foreign shores.

The calls emanating from the PMO to governors and heads of many organizations to resign are in bad taste. Again it is a covert way of pressurising the appointees of the earlier government without putting anything in writing lest they should go to the highest court of the land that had given judgement that removal is legal only if there are valid reasons of misconduct or criminal proceedings pending against these appointees. The wind of fresh graciousness that breezed through your address in Parliament seems to have been blown away by the vendetta storm. You have your compulsions to accommodate the 75+ disgruntled members of your party in some gubernatorial offices. But this can also wait as some of them may have their tenure over in a few months. The heads of National Disaster Management Authority, ICCR etc have been asked to resign. Why? Even if you have to oblige some of your party members jostling for such positions, you can appoint them as Co-heads so that the transition is smooth and does not smack of vendetta against all erstwhile government appointees.

Last but not the least is the Four Year Undergraduate programmes flagged off by University of Delhi last year.  Suffice it to say, the silence of your young minister and the clever manipulation of the UGC do not lend credibility to your government. No one wants to indulge in an academic rational debate about the usefulness of Foundation courses and Discipline II courses that have required an additional year to the existing three year course. The Foundation courses are broad based and give the student an inclusive understanding of subjects other than the one that he has chosen to major in. This is in keeping with the much sought after Liberal Arts courses in the West including Hongkong University to bridge the divide between Arts and Sciences. The objective is to expose the student to Shakespeare as well as to the laws of Thermodynamics. This is inter-disciplinary in nature and is useful for a broader understanding of disciplines that have an interrelated bearing on our everyday life. It helps the students who are given the right to vote at the age of 18 to debate, analyze and critique issues and develop  into a responsible citizen of the country and by extension a citizen of the world. It is unfortunate that the University of Delhi has not designed and structured these courses to make them interesting, informative and inclusive for the students. This can be done and restructuring of the courses can take place now. Further to keep in mind your promise of reducing unemployment, this additional one year in the University with added skill training may prove beneficial to you.

Allied to this controversy is the UGC trying to create a wedge between colleges and the University. Delhi Colleges are constituent colleges of the University and follow the resolutions passed by the Acdemic and the Executive Councils. The  UGC had dispatched messengers on a Sunday afternoon with its letter to each of the 70 colleges of Delhi University threatening them with stoppage of grants if they did not revert to three year programme by Monday but toed the University decision to continue with the FYUP. Should colleges be made pawns in the fight between the University and the Government? Again why is the Minister silent and has asked the UGC  instead to do the bullying? May I ask you, Hon’ble Prime minister, why are you silent? There are many promises made in your pre-poll manifesto and this issue is one of them . It may be  xpedient for the BJP to derail FYUP to garner the votes in the coming Delhi elections – votes of the students who are not aware of the significance of Liberal Arts programme  ingrained in the Foundation courses.   It will be salutary in the interest of Higher education if the University is asked to allow students the choice to opt for three years or four years of UG studies  so that those who do a four year course alone will be eligible for admission  to one year Masters course. The worthwhileness of any change is to be measured in terms of quality output and the challenges it offers to the student. The pandering to the students’ whim  to revert to three year UG course –which has no rational argument to support- is going against the needs and aspirations of the youth today.

One more point. You are now the much sought after Prime Minister. US has invited you to address both the Houses. Well, Kindly pardon me if I say that the invitation is to the Indian PM and not to you in your  personal capacity. US does not want to lose its potential ally for trade and business and so they have bitten the bullet with reference to you. The only point you have to remember is this high priority status given by US to India is the result of years of work done by the government from which you have freed India. You are reaping the fruits that are the yield of the seeds planted and nurtured by the party and its leaders you have your own reasons to dislike.

Usually everyone will request you and look to you to walk the talk. I request you to talk the talk and not remain Moun like your distinguished predecessor. Lastly I would request you to stop complaining about Congress whenever you have to administer bitter pills towards ache din. You have allowed the rise in railway fares before the rail Budget is to be presented- something that you flayed the then PM as being unethical. Where  have these ethics gone? Kindly talk the talk you have made famous during the election campaign and not walk the talk of your predecessors.