The National Knowledge
Commission (NKC) has been in the spotlight over Chairman Sam Pitroda’s
runin with Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh over
the reservation issue. The NKC is divided on the issue. In an interview
with Deccan Herald, NKC vice-chairman and well-known scientist Pushpa
Mohan Bhargava, former Director-General of the Centre for Cellular and
Molecular Biology, who is based in Hyderabad, airs his views on the
controversy. Excerpts:
Arjun
Singh has criticised the NKC and its chairman... within the NKC there
seem to be differences. What’s going on?
It is important
to respect dissent. I did send a letter to the minister stating my conditional
approval of his policy. His criticism of the entire NKC is uncalled
for and unfair. I am pained and I do mind his casting aspersions on
us. This is most unexpected from a person of his standing and experience.
However, if what Sam Pitroda has said about him being unaware about
the constitutional amendment is true, I find myself surprised.
Your
views on reservation?
I was 19 when
India won her freedom. At that time, most were in favour of time-bound
reservation because it was expected that we would be able to create
a situation that would make reservation unnecessary after a period of
time... a situation where every child would go
to a good school. Remember, at that time, we all went
to government schools
which were excellent. All our leaders were products of government schools.
Reservation
has failed..?
The
primary reason is that the school system failed us. If every child has
equal opportunity and quality of education, where is the question of
reservation? (But) with commercialisation of education - do you know
that all these are owned and run by MLAs and MPs or their relatives
- our government schools were neglected. Today, 80 per cent of our children
do not have access to these private schools.
So
must reservation be continued?
While
there is ground in the argument that one cannot have reservations until
eternity, it is essential to provide opportunities so that it will lead
to a situation where there is no need for reservations. I have, therefore
suggested reservations in educational institutions, with certain conditions.
These
are...?
Four
lakh high schools should be set up in the 600,000 villages of India
of the standard of Central schools where children of both rich and poor
study under the same roof. These schools should be run by local bodies
like panchayats and zilla parishads which will make their functioning
transparent. The creation of these schools, say at the rate of
40,000 every year for 10 years is possible with the education
cess amount available with the government. Increase the number
of seats in educational institutions where reservation is sought to
be implemented. The Government should help these institutions
in building up the necessary infrastructure like buildings, equipment,
faculty etc. These institutions should be given about a year to
implement reservations from 2007-08. Commit to ceasing reservations
in about 15 years of time. Since reservations would become meaningless
by that time due to equal opportunities, the government should
gradually decrease reservation until there is no reservation after 15
years.
Building
four lakh schools in six lakh villages... is it doable?
Certainly,
if there is a will. I worked it out with the (Union) Education
Secretary. It is indeed possible to set up four lakh schools of the
best quality. It has to be the government’s priority No 1. We should
do it even if money has to be taken from other sectors. Education
is at the top of the five problem areas we have identified that
need to be solved... and these are water, energy, corruption and
good governance.
You
blame the middle-class for this state of affairs. Can you justify it?
One of the great tragedies
of India is that the middle class has become extremely selfcentred,
oblivious to the situation of 90 pc of the people who lack even basic
amenities. The only value it has nurtured is
utter selfishness. They are extremely insensitive
to the plight of a vast majority of population, i.e. SCs, STs, and OBCs.
They want these communities to keep serving them for their lifetime
and hence, do not want them to prosper.
There
has been many reports on reforming the education system. How is the
NKC mandate different?
Firstly, we
are unafraid of people whose stature does not depend on
NKC. The NKC needs us and not vice-versa. We owe no political allegiance;
we are all reputed professionals in our respective fields. Our suggestions,
I hope, will bring about a revolutionary change.
The science
establishment has been sexist... there are very few women scientists?
I agree. For
instance, it is well known how in the 1940s, Lisa Meitner was deprived
of a deserved Nobel Prize by great people like Neils Bohr.
In India, not
a single woman has ever been elected to the Royal Society, London or
the US National Academy of Sciences. I wonder why the Council for Scientific
and Industrial Research has never had a woman as director in any its
40-plus laboratories.
|