Dec 27, 2024
Dec 27, 2024
Reportedly Modi Government is likely to expand by another 25 Ministers before Budget Session. In that case a small Government will be given a go-by. Sloganeering is one thing and when one one goes down to business, it is altogether a different thing. The first blot of Modi Government is elevating a 38 year person who is not so qualified to the rank of a Cabinet Minister of human resources. Citing certain great people who were not formally educated to a great extent will be side-tracking the issue and not addressing it adequately. This will be like telling corruption is OK because a country can progress even though there is corruption in society. If the person in question were made Minister of State for school education, no eyebrows would have been raised. But at 38 a Cabinet Minister, that too of human resources, under which all universities would come is far fetched. PM should immediately address this issue. Otherwise confidence level in institutes of higher education will be severely affected.
How can one make policy about subjects one does not understand? Of course that does not mean a human resources minister must have a degree in every subject under the earth. But usually a human resources minister should be an exceptional person with extraordinary educational background and learning. An 38 year B Com First Year who spent only less than a decade in acting and a similar time in politics is hardly can be imagined to be such a person. How does a B Com First Year talk with Vice Chancellors of Universities, Directors of Technology Institutes, Management Institutes and for that matter with persons of higher learning? Do you understand Mr Nair what are you talking about? This reminds me of a joke I heard in a scientific institute where I spent a lifetime. The joke is like this: A class IV staff felt his literate son is quite capable to sit in the Director's chair for the Director does no more than sign in the green note sheets that are placed before him! |
One wonders what is all the ruckus about... if the concern is about the HRD portfolio assigned to an undergraduate, there are any number of instances where undergraduates have handled and delivered on the job very capably, may be more than a qualified person in similar assignments. What matters is performance and may the person be judged by timeliness and quality of delivering on the responsibilities entrusted to him / her. Minister' job is to make policies and ensure proper implementation through efficient officers. |