At a time like this it is difficult to choose what to write on which party will govern India for the next five years, or a local issue that will impact the lives of the children of Meghalaya forever. I didn’t need much persuading to choose the latter. A policy that compels all colleges in the State to affiliate with a State university is a burning issue.
There are advantages and disadvantages of anything created by the State government, and we must not remain as idle spectators when the government adopts a policy and passes orders as to how that policy is to be used for the State and by the State especially when it concerns education. We must use the advantages of psychological and conscious observations that we are imbued with in assessing the policy.
We may not have the intelligentsia taking part in the political system i.e. the intelligentsia may not be contesting the polls and becoming a part of the government for the straightforward reason that an election in a democracy has its embarrassments which the intelligentsia may not deliberately place themselves in and that can be understood, but when it comes to the implementation of a government policy, especially one that is definitely going to place our children at an advantage or a disadvantage over their counterparts in the rest of the country it is our, the senior citizens of the State, duty to assess that policy for not even the finest mind is capable of adequate appreciation or objection of a policy if it has not experienced or been educated in it, or personally challenged by a policy in the past.
Without such practical learning one takes this art of policy making to be easier than it is; one is not acute enough in discerning what is the hidden agenda behind the political maneuverings. For that reason, present-day politicians take a relatively insignificant delight in a policy with scarcely a word to say on the motives of the government and only when the policy is set in place and operational and its harmful head is clear to everyone that they begin finding cause to condemn it, and by then it’s too late to undo anything.
We can survey the consequences very clearly, a clear example being the Reservation Policy of 1972, and thereafter many examples have proven how the errors of the politicians of those days, usually start from a false explanation of certain human actions and feelings, how an erroneous analysis of so-called selfless motive in a policy can be the base for faulty practices thereafter.
There can be no argument against the fact that the superficiality of political observation of a policy in the past has laid the most dangerous traps for political judgement and conclusions in the future, and the legacy continues forever; so that for the conscientious observer, which I deem all senior citizens are, the need is a persistence in assessment of a policy like one would pile stone upon stone, pebble upon pebble; we need a sober courage to do such humble work without shame and defy any who disdain it, and thereby prevent an imbalance from finding a foothold in the State, one that is detrimental for the future of our children. Conversely, we can afford to remain silent if it is a blessing to them.
The policy announced by the Conrad Sangma government that all colleges in the State shall affiliate with the Williamson Sangma University is a preposterous demand, a demand that is only having one direction the State will land in, downhill on the social indices in the country. We have already become the laughing stock of the nation in many spheres…lowest in everything that is for the good of our children and highest in the things that embarrass us and are a detriment to our children.
Thanks to these social indices that the Niti Aayog has come out with, we are even aware of this deplorable situation we are in. And if the National Education Policy is full of faults will the Meghalaya Education Policy set right those faults? The question of Karnataka having its own education policy is a different question altogether as it is one of the most advanced states in the country. Or are we designing this policy so that it fits in with our position as among the most poorly developed states in the country?
But coming back to the politics of it all, the generation of senior citizens that preceded us were unaware of the things that were going on, but at that time things were going fine: we were declared the country’s most financially disciplined State (1999), and year after year we were having our boys and girls finding themselves cracking the UPSC examinations and though our seniors at that point in time may not have been aware of the danger that our political system was landing us in. They cannot be exonerated from blame for the mess we have landed in now, there can be no doubt that many of the traumatic realities we are faced with now are because of their lackadaisical attitude to the policies that the government was implementing in their days, and the power struggle among the Khasi-Pnars – like crabs struggling to get out of a bucket. In that melee, they were blind to the manipulations of others over their kin, and they kept pulling their fellow men down.
We need to ask ourselves the question: why did they fight among themselves and let others take control over the State when they had stalwarts of the calibre of Hoover Hynniewta, G G Swell, and others among them? No matter how wise and no matter how noble our seniors were, we must ask the question why they did not take the reins to govern the State in their hands. This is the criteria we must use to rate the calibre of our men and women of the past, and having pointed this out it is now our prerogative not to fall short of our own measurement standards, i.e. we must stand united on the common agenda of progress and prosperity and promotion of our own people.
We the senior citizens of today have the imperative function of not allowing a new evil to perpetuate and to raise its demonic head once again in a manner similar to that of the past whereby the future of many was sold to others. This land we have is essentially our children’s land regardless of whether it is in the parent’s name or any other (son or daughter), and it is the love of the land that we must cherish more than our selfish selves. We are wise to the ways of politicians; no one will deny that, therefore as senior citizens, least bothered with personal political power, we must act as procreators, protectors and cultivators of the future.
This can only be done if we use every gift we possess, be it writing, speaking, statesmanship, or public motivation to prevent that which is blatantly harmful from establishing itself in our time. It most certainly will not impact us but it will definitely impact the lives of our children…that is how we need to see things at this time and stage of our life. We must not allow a surreptitious taking over of our lands by others through the artful maneuvering of a policy that discreetly provides benefits to others over our own people.
It is in such endeavours that benefit our children that we shall make up for those that went blindly before us and thereby redeem all the wrongs of the past. It may not be the most important thing who runs the government, but government policies must not weaken our people over time, and though the elected representatives may not be the best that we can afford, the rabble must not be allowed to sacrifice our land for their narrow interests.
Anyone who applies himself to this policy of the State government can see that it is inherently bad and dangerously flawed for the future of our children. Instead of building the best we are actually sacrificing everything to inherit and establish the worst. Our education system has dropped so dramatically in the past decades that no longer do we find the names of successful candidates in the UPSC examinations from the Khasi-Pnar society which once boasted of at least one candidate every year. If that is not enough to indicate that we have fallen behind the rest of the country, look around you and see for yourself what is becoming of our youth.
Just as children must pursue their studies, we the elderly must pursue to put in place policies which are in their interest. It is by exercising our inherent judgement of good and bad, which we have accumulated over many years of experience, that we can secure that presence of mind which is vital to counter difficult situations and unscrupulous political designs.
Indeed, it is from some of the thorniest and unhappiest events in our own lives and how we detected and faced some of the most mischievous political designs which we survived that we can pluck maxims or general principles to serve as a rule and a guide in the present and feel a bit better knowing that we have done something to ensure that the future of our children is in a system that will promote their lives. Why should we let a harmful policy get away so freely? Why do we not even read what’s in it and question, “What’s there in it for the betterment of our children vis-à-vis the National Education Policy?” It is no exaggeration to say that it is hard to find the cultured brain among the present set of politicians that we can be expected to depend upon.
There are many signs throughout the State, that point to the dearth of good intention in the economical and long-term benefit of the government’s policies and in this instant case – the policy to affiliate every college in the State to the Williamson Sangma University. If we do not oppose this policy with all our might, it is perhaps going to be the most dangerous policy after the Job Reservation Policy of 1972.
