I received a copy of the letter written by 125 faculty members of IIT Kanpur to the President of India and the Prime Minister of India.
I respect the faculty members of IIT Kanpur. They are all accomplished individuals. However I must say that I was disappointed with the letter. I could only sense a mood of desperation in it. They seemed to be in a hurry and panic and hence did not think through sufficiently each of the points they had raised in that letter.
Here below, I have tried raising some of the points I disagree with in the letter. The quotes from the letter are all in italic. The rest are my responses. I was asked to quote the letter in full so that readers can make up their own mind. I have therefore posted the entire letter as a separate blog post.
"The undergraduate students of IIT Kanpur do not usually, or even often, come from wealthy and privileged backgrounds. The vast majority come from the smaller metropolises like Kanpur, Patna and Allahabad, or cities like Bareilly, and the moffasil towns and villages of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. A typical example is the late Satyendra K Dubey, an IITK alumnus, whose murder in 2003 while working on the National Highway project got national media attention. He came from a small village in Bihar."
I studied B.Tech Mechanical Engineering in IIT-Madras between 1987 and 1991. I was from Nagapattinam. In the graduating class of '91 in IIT-Madras, I could locate only 10 people or so from the whole of Tamil Nadu outside of Chennai. These people were from Madurai, Coimbatore, Vellore and Trichy. No one went to IIT from Nagapattinam before my time. No one has gone to an IIT since my time. The bulk of the students - over 90% - who qualify for IITs from Tamil Nadu continue to come from Chennai.
I reckon that over 70% of students who get into IITs come from large metropolitan cities. The percentage could be more. I refuse to believe that "the vast majority come from the smaller metropolises like Kanpur, Patna and Allahabad, or cities like Bareilly, and the moffasil towns and villages of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar." I find it a wild claim, not supported by what I saw between 1987-1991.
"Most IIT Kanpur students thus overcome poverty, bad schools, and many adverse circumstances to compete in a gruelling entrance examination for the right to be here."
The way IIT JEE is structured, it is very difficult to get into IITs overcoming "bad schools" or "adverse circumstances". Nor is it easy to overcome "poverty".
"Backwardness is not determined by caste alone. It is clear for all to see that other factors like poverty, region and gender have greater adverse impact on the chances of a person becoming an engineer or a doctor. [...] However the point we wish to make here is not to argue for one set of criteria for reservations over others. Rather it is to argue that the best institutions in India should be the preserves of excellence, with proven performance as their only selection criterion."
Despite agreeing that backwardness is created by caste, poverty, region and gender, the professors believe that nothing is to be done to improve the backward lot, and that "best institutions in India" select people only based on performance as the sole selection criterion. But then they go on to say:
"Even if Government insists on affirmative action programs for IITs, we are sure that the IITs can be trusted to evolve and implement such programs by themselves."
That is, IITs will look at an affirmative action program only if the Government insists, and not on its own. Given the antipathy towards caste based reservation as demonstrated by this letter, and the attitude of "performance as the sole selection criterion", can one trust IITs "to evolve and implement [affirmative action] by themselves"?
While I agree that affirmative action is not exactly equal to numerical quota, it is certainly not selection based only on proven performance. IITs have to agree to an aggressive "affirmative action" policy. If they want to be taken seriously, they have to propose their affirmative action plan. The statement "After all, IIT Kanpur has had an exemplary record of implementing the SC/ST reservation in a supportive and pro-active way that became a model for all IITs" is strange. What is the exemplary record demonstrated by IIT Kanpur in this regard? How many SC/ST students have they trained in the last 25 years? Surely the professors have access to these records?
"In fact, many of us, and our students, spend time in school education, health, and rural developmental projects outside our busy schedules. We could participate in major ways in innovative research in education, health, and grassroots work, and thus contribute significantly to affirmative action."
It is nice to know that the students and faculty take time off from their busy schedules to contribute a bit to the society. Such charities are always welcome. However, we are not talking about charity work here. We are talking about proper affirmative action. We are talking about bringing disadvantaged people with considerable abilities to be trained by IITs and thereby enhancing the human resource potential.
"Past injustices cannot be redressed by further injustices perpetrated today."
That is why extra seats are added so that no forward caste groups are affected. In what way is the new scheme proposed akin to "further injustices perpetrated today"?
"If a sudden increase of faculty is imposed on us by a drastic increase of seats, the entire academic standing of the IITs will be compromised, and they will go the way of so many universities before them."
Why is the best institution in India afraid of scaling up? They say that "in recent years, they have doubled their intake". Has that resulted in the lowering of the quality? Are they saying that they can only scale up so far, but not any further?
"So the IITs are already short of faculty, as few applicants meet our exacting standards of academic excellence."
What is the real truth? (a) The IITs are struggling to attract talent. (b) Very few applicants meet the exactling standards of excellence set by the IITs.
I would reckon that the answer is (a). I know how a friend of mine, an IIT-Delhi almnus, who had a PhD from University of Massachusettes and was a Post Doctoral Fellow in Cornell University found the whole hiring process in IIT-Madras unpalatable. But he persisted. He left US, camped in Chennai and eventually got a job. He could have walked into any University in USA, but he had to show tremondous courage and he had to risk his career to get into IIT.
I find it an absolutely childish statement that the standards set by IITs in faculty hiring are somehow better than those of US Universities. A few bloggers who are currently faculty members or researchers in USA and Canada have hinted about how pathetic the hiring process is in the IITs. (Sundaramoorthy, Venkat and Rozavasanth should write their detailed experiences on how the great hiring process works in the IITs.)
IITs can hire top class faculty if they wanted to, very easily. There are several talented Indians working abroad who would love to come to the IITs. IIT professors should take a relook at how their hiring process is managed, rather than claiming that it is not easy to find quality faculty. They are misleading the public.
"Many institutions in India now have good undergraduate programs, but only very few other than the IITs can train students in the highly specialised engineering and scientific skills required in India if it is to become a developed country."
This is why more IITs should be created and each IIT must take many more students than is the case currently.
"So there has been a concerted effort in the IIT system to shift our focus to post-graduate education and to creating an excellent research environment. This was the direction provided by the IIT review committee and Government over the last decade. To this end we have been working hard to increase postgraduate intake and provide more time to faculty for research. A drastic increase in undergraduate strength will derail this effort indefinitely."
Unless IITs produce large number of undergraduate students of great quality, and a substantial numbers of them decide to stay back in India and continue their post graduate studies in IIT, the postgraduate programs cannot produce the desired effect.
A way must be found to increase the undergraduate and post-graduate intake simultaneously. Surely the best brains in IITs can think through this problem and solve it easily?
"At this moment, when the entire nation is on the verge of take-off to becoming a major economic power, when multinational companies are shifting their research and development centres to India because of the vast technical manpower here, let us not play with these great institutions and cripple them in the hour of their greatest utility."
The insinuation that reservation will result in lowered quality of the output, and thereby crippling of the institution and the progress of the country - is getting to be ridiculous. Reservation is only for the intake. The students will have to subsequently clear the exams, and the exacting standards set by the professors of IITs. Did they think they are being asked to set separate question papers for the reservation students? Is that what they have been doing for the SC/ST students?
"We share the concern of the government for providing the young generation with good education and economic prospects."
Please, then do not oppose the reservation proposal suggested. I would go further and request you to develop an affirmative action policy that can be applied within the reservation percentages. Students from rural areas, women and economically disadvantaged can be given preference within each of the reserved areas. Thus, the IITs can show the country how reservation, combined with further affirmative action can help provide the young generation with great education and greater economic prospects.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
The letter the IIT-K professors wrote
This is the full text of the letter written by IIT Kanpur faculty to the President of India and the Prime Minister of India.
==========
To
The Honourable Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam,
The President of India
Rashtrapati Bhavan
New Delhi,
India-110 011.
26 May 2006
Respected Sir,
As members of the faculty of IIT Kanpur, an institution that is rated among the best technical universities in the country, we are appalled by the proposed policy of caste-based reservation for other backward castes (OBCs) that is being sought to be implemented in this and other IITs. We are committed to nation building and wish to contribute to make India an equitable and just society. However, we believe that such move at the present stage will be very injurious to the IITs. It will have devastating consequences to the culture of excellence cultivated over half-a-century by generations of dedicated and knowledgeable teachers and tens of thousands of brilliant students of all castes, creeds and linguistic and ethnic groups.
The undergraduate students of IIT Kanpur do not usually, or even often, come from wealthy and privileged backgrounds. The vast majority come from the smaller metropolises like Kanpur, Patna and Allahabad, or cities like Bareilly, and the moffasil towns and villages of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. A typical example is the late Satyendra K Dubey, an IITK alumnus, whose murder in 2003 while working on the National Highway project got national media attention. He came from a small village in Bihar.
Most IIT Kanpur students thus overcome poverty, bad schools, and many adverse circumstances to compete in a gruelling entrance examination for the right to be here. Many of these students also belong to OBCs; how many, we cannot say, because the admission is blind to caste and indeed to every other criterion except ability. Thus the distinguishing mark of IIT students is not wealth, privilege, or birth, but dedication and talent.
Into such an environment the introduction of privileges accruing only to members of particular castes would be a travesty. Further, with no objective criteria yet laid down for defining backwardness, such privileges will seemingly be granted in perpetuity. This would be the very image of the caste discrimination of the past centuries that the policy purports to assuage. Past injustices cannot be redressed by further injustices perpetrated today. Backwardness is not determined by caste alone. It is clear for all to see that other factors like poverty, region and gender have greater adverse impact on the chances of a person becoming an engineer or a doctor. It therefore seems to us that, except in electoral terms, purely caste-based reservations make no rational sense.
However the point we wish to make here is not to argue for one set of criteria for reservations over others. Rather it is to argue that the best institutions in India should be the preserves of excellence, with proven performance as their only selection criterion. Such institutions serve to develop the “seed-corn” of the nation which can then be planted elsewhere to make the whole nation grow in strength and prosperity. Therefore think not of IIT students in terms of their castes, but of them only as India’s best hope, as the future leaders of India who have been nurtured in an environment where only excellence matters, not caste, creed or ethnic origin.
This emphasis on merit must not be viewed wrongly as ivory-tower elitism in a country of millions of poor and deprived people. Rather it is a necessary strategy for ensuring that developing India soon catches up with the developed nations of the world, so that, in the long run the IITs are instrumental to raising the standard of life of all Indians, and shine forth as exemplars of development and emancipation in an environment of extreme challenges.
Even if Government insists on affirmative action programs for IITs, we are sure that the IITs can be trusted to evolve and implement such programs by themselves. After all, IIT Kanpur has had an exemplary record of implementing the SC/ST reservation in a supportive and pro-active way that became a model for all IITs. Such an approach to affirmative action will also be in keeping with the autonomous status given us by Parliament. We share the concern of the government for providing the young generation with good education and economic prospects. In fact, many of us, and our students, spend time in school education, health, and rural developmental projects outside our busy schedules. We could participate in major ways in innovative research in education, health, and grassroots work, and thus contribute significantly to affirmative action.
It would be most disastrous to impose a 27.5% quota on the IITs in an ostensibly "fair way" by increasing the number of seats. This would mean rapidly increasing the seats substantially. In recent years we have doubled our intake. So the IITs are already short of faculty, as few applicants meet our exacting standards of academic excellence. If a sudden increase of faculty is imposed on us by a drastic increase of seats, the entire academic standing of the IITs will be compromised, and they will go the way of so many universities before them.
Many institutions in India now have good undergraduate programs, but only very few other than the IITs can train students in the highly specialised engineering and scientific skills required in India if it is to become a developed country. So there has been a concerted effort in the IIT system to shift our focus to post-graduate education and to creating an excellent research environment. This was the direction provided by the IIT review committee and Government over the last decade. To this end we have been working hard to increase postgraduate intake and provide more time to faculty for research. A drastic increase in undergraduate strength will derail this effort indefinitely.
The IITs preserved their excellence over the decades when university after university fell prey to politics, corruption and inertia. At this moment, when the entire nation is on the verge of take-off to becoming a major economic power, when multinational companies are shifting their research and development centres to India because of the vast technical manpower here, let us not play with these great institutions and cripple them in the hour of their greatest utility.
We request you to reconsider the reservation policy, and do everything you can to preserve the IITs for the future generations of India and, indeed, for the very future of our country. Of all the educational institutions in India, the IITs have remained true to the mission assigned to them by Pandit Nehru. So let them remain free to flourish as the standard bearers of Indian science and technology which was, and should remain, their primary purpose.
Yours very respectfully,
the undersigned faculty of IIT Kanpur
[125 Professors, Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, Chief Scientific Officers, Research Scientists, Emeritus Faculties and Visiting Faculties]
==========
To
The Honourable Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam,
The President of India
Rashtrapati Bhavan
New Delhi,
India-110 011.
26 May 2006
Respected Sir,
As members of the faculty of IIT Kanpur, an institution that is rated among the best technical universities in the country, we are appalled by the proposed policy of caste-based reservation for other backward castes (OBCs) that is being sought to be implemented in this and other IITs. We are committed to nation building and wish to contribute to make India an equitable and just society. However, we believe that such move at the present stage will be very injurious to the IITs. It will have devastating consequences to the culture of excellence cultivated over half-a-century by generations of dedicated and knowledgeable teachers and tens of thousands of brilliant students of all castes, creeds and linguistic and ethnic groups.
The undergraduate students of IIT Kanpur do not usually, or even often, come from wealthy and privileged backgrounds. The vast majority come from the smaller metropolises like Kanpur, Patna and Allahabad, or cities like Bareilly, and the moffasil towns and villages of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. A typical example is the late Satyendra K Dubey, an IITK alumnus, whose murder in 2003 while working on the National Highway project got national media attention. He came from a small village in Bihar.
Most IIT Kanpur students thus overcome poverty, bad schools, and many adverse circumstances to compete in a gruelling entrance examination for the right to be here. Many of these students also belong to OBCs; how many, we cannot say, because the admission is blind to caste and indeed to every other criterion except ability. Thus the distinguishing mark of IIT students is not wealth, privilege, or birth, but dedication and talent.
Into such an environment the introduction of privileges accruing only to members of particular castes would be a travesty. Further, with no objective criteria yet laid down for defining backwardness, such privileges will seemingly be granted in perpetuity. This would be the very image of the caste discrimination of the past centuries that the policy purports to assuage. Past injustices cannot be redressed by further injustices perpetrated today. Backwardness is not determined by caste alone. It is clear for all to see that other factors like poverty, region and gender have greater adverse impact on the chances of a person becoming an engineer or a doctor. It therefore seems to us that, except in electoral terms, purely caste-based reservations make no rational sense.
However the point we wish to make here is not to argue for one set of criteria for reservations over others. Rather it is to argue that the best institutions in India should be the preserves of excellence, with proven performance as their only selection criterion. Such institutions serve to develop the “seed-corn” of the nation which can then be planted elsewhere to make the whole nation grow in strength and prosperity. Therefore think not of IIT students in terms of their castes, but of them only as India’s best hope, as the future leaders of India who have been nurtured in an environment where only excellence matters, not caste, creed or ethnic origin.
This emphasis on merit must not be viewed wrongly as ivory-tower elitism in a country of millions of poor and deprived people. Rather it is a necessary strategy for ensuring that developing India soon catches up with the developed nations of the world, so that, in the long run the IITs are instrumental to raising the standard of life of all Indians, and shine forth as exemplars of development and emancipation in an environment of extreme challenges.
Even if Government insists on affirmative action programs for IITs, we are sure that the IITs can be trusted to evolve and implement such programs by themselves. After all, IIT Kanpur has had an exemplary record of implementing the SC/ST reservation in a supportive and pro-active way that became a model for all IITs. Such an approach to affirmative action will also be in keeping with the autonomous status given us by Parliament. We share the concern of the government for providing the young generation with good education and economic prospects. In fact, many of us, and our students, spend time in school education, health, and rural developmental projects outside our busy schedules. We could participate in major ways in innovative research in education, health, and grassroots work, and thus contribute significantly to affirmative action.
It would be most disastrous to impose a 27.5% quota on the IITs in an ostensibly "fair way" by increasing the number of seats. This would mean rapidly increasing the seats substantially. In recent years we have doubled our intake. So the IITs are already short of faculty, as few applicants meet our exacting standards of academic excellence. If a sudden increase of faculty is imposed on us by a drastic increase of seats, the entire academic standing of the IITs will be compromised, and they will go the way of so many universities before them.
Many institutions in India now have good undergraduate programs, but only very few other than the IITs can train students in the highly specialised engineering and scientific skills required in India if it is to become a developed country. So there has been a concerted effort in the IIT system to shift our focus to post-graduate education and to creating an excellent research environment. This was the direction provided by the IIT review committee and Government over the last decade. To this end we have been working hard to increase postgraduate intake and provide more time to faculty for research. A drastic increase in undergraduate strength will derail this effort indefinitely.
The IITs preserved their excellence over the decades when university after university fell prey to politics, corruption and inertia. At this moment, when the entire nation is on the verge of take-off to becoming a major economic power, when multinational companies are shifting their research and development centres to India because of the vast technical manpower here, let us not play with these great institutions and cripple them in the hour of their greatest utility.
We request you to reconsider the reservation policy, and do everything you can to preserve the IITs for the future generations of India and, indeed, for the very future of our country. Of all the educational institutions in India, the IITs have remained true to the mission assigned to them by Pandit Nehru. So let them remain free to flourish as the standard bearers of Indian science and technology which was, and should remain, their primary purpose.
Yours very respectfully,
the undersigned faculty of IIT Kanpur
[125 Professors, Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, Chief Scientific Officers, Research Scientists, Emeritus Faculties and Visiting Faculties]
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Vinayaka Mission Students agitate
After Chennai, angry students have started an agitation in Salem as well. Students of Vinayaka Mission Deemed University's Krupananda Variyar Engineering College are demanding that their management get the necessary AICTE approvals. When Shanmuga Sundaram, Vinayaka Mission Chairman, tried to pacify the angry crowd of students, it only exacerbated the problem. There have been reports of scuffle involving hired thugs and students and subsequent Police intervention.Following this, about 65 students have been suspended from the institution, for being at the forefront of the agitation and for questioning the Chairman. All students staying in the College Hostel have been asked to vacate their rooms. The College administration has also closed the College indefinitely.
Our reporters met the students who had gathered opposite the College, on 24th [May 2006]. "They asked us to leave the hostel yesterday night at 11.30 PM. How can we girls go anywhere so late in the night? We have been paying Rs. 20,000 per year as hostel rent. Over an above that, we pay mess fees every month. Why should we leave the hostel? Even though this is a college hostel, it has been sub-contracted to private parties. The hostel has not been functioning properly. Though this is a ladies hostel, only men have been appointed as wardens" said an angry girl.
"We didn't bother about the money, because we were hoping to get quality education here. But only after coming here we learnt that there is no quality here. None of our teachers can speak in English. They know only Tamil. But most of the students here are from Bihar, Karnataka, Andhra, Kerala and other states. The teachers teach in a mix of Tamil and English. They are not experienced in teaching either. The lab facilities are very poor. In short, though they call this a Deemed University, it is no better than a high school. We were patiently tolerating all this. But this latest AICTE problem... We can't tolerate this one. It is complete waste getting a degree not approved by AICTE. That is why we are agitating", said a bunch of students who were hiding their faces with masks.
"Chairman Shanmuga Sundaram's hired goondas have beaten us up. The local Police is entirely in his pocket. We have come from 3000 km away, not do be rowdies here, but to study. They have cut off the food in the hostel today. We do not know how we can manage", said few students from Bihar.
As more students gathered, the anger level went up as well. They started shouting slogans such as - 'We want justice, 'We demand AICTE recognition', 'Money-sucking management, also think about our future!', 'Don't unleash violence on students' and 'Cheating Chairman down down!'. As a climax, they burnt down the effigy of Chairman Shanmuga Sundaram.
In the meantime, a group of student representatives went and met Salem district Collector Mathivanan. He immediately sent a group of officials headed by an RTO. On 24th evening discussions were held in Salem RTO's office. College management representatives stated that the AICTE issue was sub-judice and the management will follow whatever the court decrees. The student representatives demanded revoking the suspension order given to the students and re-opening of the hostels. The college authories promised to re-open the hostel immediately and said if proper explanations are given by the suspended students, they will consider revoking the suspension orders. If peace persists, they said college may also be re-opened.
The District Administration announced that the College authorities will give up their vengeful attitude and the students have also agreed to co-operate in re-opening the College. But the question as to whether the student agitation will quieten down or not, still lingers.
Courtesy: Kumudham Reporter (requires free registration and login, in Tamil. Translation is mine).
=======
AICTE vs Deemed Universities - the chaos continues. A bunch of Tamil Nadu based Self-financed Engineering Colleges have obtained Deemed University status and have been taking the students for a ride. They do not follow any norms laid down by AICTE. They do not allow AICTE to inspect the college premises.
The students, it appears have been putting up with the poor quality of education, because fundamentally they do not seem to be interested in quality education either. They only want an AICTE approved degree certificate.
It may sound cruel but I almost feel like telling the students that they deserve all the shit they are getting. They should have agitated earlier when they found the quality of the education not up to the mark. When the facilities were lacking. When the teachers were found to be pathetic.
The involvement of district administration is troubling. This requires intervention from the State Education Ministry. Not the District Collector. The Collector almost always treats everything as a law and order problem. He has very little idea about the educational
issues involved.
In the previous Jayalalitha administration, no one from the state cabinet ministry was involved. It was left to AICTE to fight out the problem directly with the college administrations. At least in the new Karunanidhi regime I hope someone from the state cabinet gets involved in punishing the errant colleges.
=====
I received an email from a person in Jammu that Vinayaka Mission is offering distance education courses in Jammu and promising Engineering degrees to students who are pursuing polytechnic diplomas. There are no contact classes, practicals, or lab facilities. The 3-year course can be crashed and finished in just 1.5 years, and the students can walk away with Vinayaka Mission Deemed University "degrees".
All I can say is, Caveat Emptor!
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Bolivia nationalises natural gas industry
In a move, widely expected after Eva Morales became the President of Bolivia, the country has announced that the foreign gas companies operating in Bolivia must re-negotiate their deals with the country within 6 months or else will be thrown out of the country, and the country will take over all the production facilities.
Only last week, Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia have worked out a deal for economic cooperation as against US backed free-trade zone. They have called it People's Trade Agreement!
A left wing driven South America is looking to come on its own, and it is not all that bad. India must look towards engaging these countries for a fruitful economic cooperation.
Only last week, Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia have worked out a deal for economic cooperation as against US backed free-trade zone. They have called it People's Trade Agreement!
A left wing driven South America is looking to come on its own, and it is not all that bad. India must look towards engaging these countries for a fruitful economic cooperation.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Lok Paritran vs Desiya Murpokku Diravidar Kazhakam
When everyone thinks the battle in Tamil Nadu is between DMK and AIADMK, I see that it is also going to be extremely important for two other parties, both debuting in elections.
Lok Paritran aims to be an all-India party. It has registered itself with the election commission and is contesting in 7 seats in the Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections 2006. Five of the seven seats are in Chennai, with the other two being Villivakkam (Thiruvallur) and Mudukulathur (Ramanathapuram). The candidates are young, highly educated and the party aims to clean up the political junkyard. There seems to be a reasonable support for this party from several educated people - the retired middle class group which is sick of the DMK, AIADMK brand of uncouth, goonda politics as well as some young graduates.
DMDK - a party started very recently by Tamil actor Vijayakanth is more ambitious and has been preparing quite well for the last few months. It has put up its candidates - all on its own - in almost all the constituencies. This is also a registered party, but yet to be recognized and has been allotted with "Drum" as its symbol in most constituencies. It is well funded for a new party - all Vijayakanth's money and money from his fan club.
Lok Paritran frightens me with its ideology. Its website seems to have several similar phoney passages. A sample for you here:
A political party must have a well defined agenda. It must have thorough understanding of the existing condition in the country. Thankfully, the party's election manifesto is a far better document. It puts up a eight-point agenda:
I hope experiments like Lok Paritran succed in the longer term, though I am not going to vote for them in this election. They have put up a candidate for my constituency - Thousand Lights - but I can't find any information about this person in their site - their candidate list is partial and broken. Their candidate has not attempted to contact people in the constituency. I understand lack of money is may be a problem. I read somewhere that they are using Internet and emails effectively, but I am yet to receive any emails or email forwards or sms message or anything of that sort.
Vijayakanth does not claim to have a complex ideology. He wants to offer corruption-free administration. He has promised a lot of things to the poor - 15 kg of free rice a month, ration items home delivered, and several other freebies to various sections. Though he started offering all this well before the DMK, AIADMK promises, he has not found sufficient media coverage.
My guess is that both parties will lose all the seats. DMDK may possibly win one. They will lose their deposits in most of the places, if not all.
I think Vijayakanth will demonstrate his vote percentage as victory, and will continue in politics for the next 5 years at least. I am afraid Lok Paritran candidates may not show the same degree of enthusiasm. If they do, that would be wonderful.
My advice to Lok Paritran:
1. Get to the grassroots. Go to villages and small towns and stay there and work for their betterment. It is possible. You can make a huge difference.
2. It is not possible to just tap the disgruntled retired middle-class votes and win elections. Your programmmes have to be more concrete.
3. Highly educated candidates will not translate into effective administrators. Nor is it a highly desiarable characterestic. Most educated people that I know do not understand the problems facing our society.
4. Keep standing in elections at various levels. Go to panchayat elections. It is easier to explain to people and fight on simple one-point agenda - the problem of immediate concern to people.
5. Work out a detailed study of where the previous Governments have failed. Explain the same to people in simple languages. Explain how you would be different and why therefore people should vote for you.
6. Either think of a nice abbreviation or a Tamil translated name for your party in Tamil Nadu. Otherwise, you will fail. LP perhaps? Stay away from Sanskrit in Tamil Nadu.
Lok Paritran aims to be an all-India party. It has registered itself with the election commission and is contesting in 7 seats in the Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections 2006. Five of the seven seats are in Chennai, with the other two being Villivakkam (Thiruvallur) and Mudukulathur (Ramanathapuram). The candidates are young, highly educated and the party aims to clean up the political junkyard. There seems to be a reasonable support for this party from several educated people - the retired middle class group which is sick of the DMK, AIADMK brand of uncouth, goonda politics as well as some young graduates.
DMDK - a party started very recently by Tamil actor Vijayakanth is more ambitious and has been preparing quite well for the last few months. It has put up its candidates - all on its own - in almost all the constituencies. This is also a registered party, but yet to be recognized and has been allotted with "Drum" as its symbol in most constituencies. It is well funded for a new party - all Vijayakanth's money and money from his fan club.
Lok Paritran frightens me with its ideology. Its website seems to have several similar phoney passages. A sample for you here:
Reality is a continuum. Knowledge system, in shortest, is fragmentation imposed upon the continuum of reality. Fragmentation is always a necessity for understanding of the unknown. Every fragment in the knowledge system becomes a construct or an entity that is defined in the knowledge system. This very fact shows that different knowledge systems can be build on the same reality based on different possibilities and patterns of fragmentation.This is the best way to drive people away.
....
Entities are abstraction and should not be viewed as objects or elements as such, but patterns residing over continuum of reality, or in physical world, over continuum of material. So, the structure of knowledge system that is built over the patterns or entities will have a continuum of the levels of abstraction.
and so on ....
A political party must have a well defined agenda. It must have thorough understanding of the existing condition in the country. Thankfully, the party's election manifesto is a far better document. It puts up a eight-point agenda:
- eradication of corruption
- effective implementation of schemes
- transparency and accountability
- eradication of poverty and unemployment
- improved public health and sanitation
- improving the condition of farmers
- improving the level of education in the state (of Tamil Nadu)
- ensuring constituency development fund is properly spent
I hope experiments like Lok Paritran succed in the longer term, though I am not going to vote for them in this election. They have put up a candidate for my constituency - Thousand Lights - but I can't find any information about this person in their site - their candidate list is partial and broken. Their candidate has not attempted to contact people in the constituency. I understand lack of money is may be a problem. I read somewhere that they are using Internet and emails effectively, but I am yet to receive any emails or email forwards or sms message or anything of that sort.
Vijayakanth does not claim to have a complex ideology. He wants to offer corruption-free administration. He has promised a lot of things to the poor - 15 kg of free rice a month, ration items home delivered, and several other freebies to various sections. Though he started offering all this well before the DMK, AIADMK promises, he has not found sufficient media coverage.
My guess is that both parties will lose all the seats. DMDK may possibly win one. They will lose their deposits in most of the places, if not all.
I think Vijayakanth will demonstrate his vote percentage as victory, and will continue in politics for the next 5 years at least. I am afraid Lok Paritran candidates may not show the same degree of enthusiasm. If they do, that would be wonderful.
My advice to Lok Paritran:
1. Get to the grassroots. Go to villages and small towns and stay there and work for their betterment. It is possible. You can make a huge difference.
2. It is not possible to just tap the disgruntled retired middle-class votes and win elections. Your programmmes have to be more concrete.
3. Highly educated candidates will not translate into effective administrators. Nor is it a highly desiarable characterestic. Most educated people that I know do not understand the problems facing our society.
4. Keep standing in elections at various levels. Go to panchayat elections. It is easier to explain to people and fight on simple one-point agenda - the problem of immediate concern to people.
5. Work out a detailed study of where the previous Governments have failed. Explain the same to people in simple languages. Explain how you would be different and why therefore people should vote for you.
6. Either think of a nice abbreviation or a Tamil translated name for your party in Tamil Nadu. Otherwise, you will fail. LP perhaps? Stay away from Sanskrit in Tamil Nadu.
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