Professional Education in kerala

The self financing professional colleges in Kerala are keeping the students and the govt. in point blank for the past few years. Educational sector has now become one of the most profitable businesses rather than a service to the society. The most worrying fact is that the Christian Missionaries who played a vital role in the past bringing in an educational revolution in this country are now bargaining for money.

The element of social service is missing in our present educational system. Everyone is only interested in making profit out of it and the standard of education has degraded to such an extent that the students coming out of some of these colleges are not fit to be inducted into the professional arena even after several months of training. Because of the increase in the number of professional colleges and hence the competition among them to consistently improve their results, many of them are adopting spoon feeding. This has resulted in the drastic decline of educational standard. As Swami Vivekananda said, education should be the manifestation of perfection already in man.

The biggest ever mistake was committed by our govt. when it provided NOC to numerous professional colleges without having a strict law for governing them. Now the self financing professional colleges are organized in such a manner that the government is at the mercy of them for admitting students from merit list every year.

Sree Narayana Guru had taught us to “be enlightened with education, be strengthened with organization”. These professional colleges had followed the latter to become organized against the interests of the society and hence making enlightenment with education unapproachable for majority of people. If the govt. had passed a law to govern them before giving NOCs, the dilemma which we’re facing every year could have been averted.

The Fuming Lokpal

The heat of Lokpal bill has been fuming in India for quite some time. While there is no objection among the public for the intension of the bill, the events happening in the recent past has been a cause of worry for all.

Some time back, terrorism was the greatest threat we were facing. But now it has given way to another threat – corruption. Corruption has been here for quite some time, but now it has erupted out of nowhere. Unfortunately, our govt. has no time to concentrate on the issues faced by common people after countering the allegations by media and opposition.

All Indians are in the view that the malaise of corruption should be wiped out of the country. The Lokpal bill may be considered as a step towards that. But there should not be a parallel govt. in our country with the introduction of this bill. If it happens, the effects would be catastrophic.

There should be an effective mechanism to curb corruption. We have the laws for preventing corruption. We need to polish these laws according to the need of the hour and to execute it in an effective manner.

We are governed by a set of people who have been elected by us. If we exercise our voting rights in a cautious manner, we can restrict power being falling into the wrong hands. For that to happen, we should think beyond politics. I’m not in the view that all politicians are corrupt. There are a few corrupt persons in our system. But we should remember that a single drop of poison is enough to contaminate a full bucket of water. It is the duty of the public to filter out these few drops from falling into the bucket.

In my opinion, the Jan Lokpal bill should be introduced with an overall monitoring power so that it won’t run a parallel government. That will be enough to have a check on corruption without leaving a wound on our democratic system.

Secularism in India

India is a socialist, secular, democratic republic. But to what extend India is secular?

Each and everything is based on caste and religion in India. Even the Indian political system is not secular in nature. This in-secular nature is visible from the time when responsibilities are shared among party workers. Elections are the time when this is most exposed. During the allotment of seats, during the selection of ministers, everything is based on caste and religion.

Kerala is a state which has almost 100% literacy. But even in the state of Kerala, the situation is not so different. Religious organizations have a direct control over the political system. Political parties are selecting the candidates based on the inputs from them, even though half-heartedly, because they fear a leak in votes from a particular community.

Even the reservations provided by the government are based on caste. It is time to do away with the reservations based on caste and religion. Rather reservations should be based on financial backwardness. But it is a fact that people from backward caste are treated with untouchability by their upper caste counterparts. The mentality of the public should change in order to have a change in this situation.

This is the time when everyone should think in the way of Sree Narayana Guru, ‘one caste, one religion, one God for mankind’.

Degradation of Indian Democracy

Indian democracy is hailed as one of the best democracies in the world, and obviously the largest. Indian democratic system is degrading day by day. Are only the politicians responsible for this? Definitely not.

A 72 year old man had to go onto indefinite fast for us to start raising our voice against corruption. Corruption is not confined to politicians and bureaucrats. Its spread everywhere in civil society. Even some of us who are raising their voice against corruption are corrupted in some way or the other. They may be evading tax, involved in hoarding, violating some laws etc etc.

The political parties are offering many freebies to the voters if they come to power. We must understand that these freebies are not the basic necessities required for people. They are luxury goods like TV, fridge, washing machine etc. We are living in a country where many people are struggling hard to eat food once in a day, where people are at the mercy of the government and officials for getting drinking water etc etc. Instead of spending the money for the betterment of these people, they are spending the money in favour of corporate giants.

We cannot tar the politicians alone for a corrupt system. There are a few politicians who are making the entire system corrupted. A single drop of poison is more than enough to make a bucket of water poisonous. The only way to get out of this is to prevent that single drop from falling into the bucket. Elections are the best time to filter some of these poisonous drops. In order to do this, we should think beyond politics.

We are the World Champions…

YES, we’ve done it once again. After Kapil’s devils, now Dhoni’s daredevils have done it for India. After waiting for long 28 years, we’re once again on the top of the world. Kudos to everyone who directly and indirectly contributed to this win. Now another job is on the hands of Indians – to maintain this supremacy. I’m sure that Indians are capable of doing that.

I couldn’t wait till the last sixer hit by Dhoni landed on the ground. Before that I erupted in joy. Nobody can deny that Indians are the true champions after seeing the fantastic run chase. Dhoni played a captain’s knock and Gambhir too was superb. During the first half, Indian bowlers did a fairly good job by restricting Lankans below 300. Indians paced their run chase perfectly after losing two quick wickets.

This is a great moment for Indian Sports. But cricket is not the only sport. We need to achieve this supremacy in every field of sports. I’m waiting for the day when India finish No. 1 at Olympics, lifts the football and Hockey world Cups…the list goes on… Can we do that???Yes we can, I believe.