PROF. SK BHALLA
This is 75th year of independence and people like me have not to see 100th year of independence. The wheel of life moves on constantly and the older order changeth yielding place to new. Anyhow, I am reproducing the view point of other writers for the consumption of thinking minds.
Let me quote SY Quraishi, former Chief Election Commissioner of India. On the eve of 75th yr. of independence, he records, “The rate of unemployment is so high that it contributes to disgruntlement, frustration and even criminalisation among the youth.
The youth unemployment in particular has been touching a 50-Yr high. This becomes a breeding ground for disruptive forces of various hues. Drug abuse in some states has reached alarming proportions. The education system has led the country down, producing millions of unemployables, all of which has been severely exacerbated due to pandemic. Ironically there is dearth of policies, programmes and funds to deal with these issues ad many of these policies have proved to be highly controversial.
One in every four Indian is still illiterate. We still have high infant and maternal mortality rate, worse than nations such as Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan and for worse than those of Sri Lanka. Nearly 40% of the children are stunted and more than 1/4th of population severely malnourished”. Team CVC salutes Mr. Quarishi for his candid views.
Another political scientist Neera Chandhok writes, “In 2001, in response to a PIL filed by People’s Union for Civil Liberties, the SC after scolding the Vajpayee Govt. for letting people starve instructed it to provide food to vulnerable sections. Let alone egalitarianism, even equality has vanished from political languages. We no longer speak of social democracy but of sufficient Arianism. This school of philosophy is best expressed in the adage give the poor enough to eat, how does it matter if they are not equal.
This is not time for dreaming grand dreams. The multiple crisis that besets the country from mal nourishment to un-employment calls for attention to wellbeing. In a country where millions of people live in absolute poverty we need at the least universal entitlement to food, the generic right to work, the right to free and excellent unbiased education and above all the right to health. This lesson should have been learnt from the pandemic and lakhs of deaths. We are owed a life that is worth living. Elected leaders are responsible to us. We have the right to hold them responsible……………” Let someone somewhere ponder over what is being produced.
Now what is the state of affairs in our UT? Grandiose and grandiloquent dreams were doled to the already deceived populace of erstwhile state of J&K after the abrogation of Artcle-370, but all has proved to be a chimera and a figment of imagination. All hues of mafias are operational 24X7. Rule of law is the biggest causality. J&K media reveals less and hides more. Queues of people can be seen outside the courts but justice is elusive. Un-employment is an additional gift to us and for commoners it is very difficult to enjoy two square meals a day. Jayaen to Jayaen Kahan?
Satayameva Jayate!
(The author of the article is a retired Principal of J&K Higher Education Deptt and an eminent Anti corruption crusader as well as Chairman of Civil Vigilance Cell.)