Its not being talked about very much — but this is beneficial for party high commands — they can look at seat allocation afresh without feeling too beholden to the incumbent. In previous elections it was difficult to replace the incumbent unless performance was really dreadful. Many incumbents still got tickets because they had too many IOUs pending with the party.  This made it difficult to replace average candidates for fear of “bad blood.”

This bill shifts the power away from the MPs in favor of the party leadership. Many MPs will fall by the wayside conveniently when a constituency becomes reserved for women.

No wonder the Congress, Communist and BJP leadership loves this bill.

If the parents want their children to have primary education in English, they are not committing any crime. It is not illegal or opposed to public policy. The choice of medium of instruction is left to the parents and children. The decision of parents to impart education to their children in well-known international language like English cannot be bypassed, forgetting the hard realities of life [emphasis mine]

– Karnataka High Court in a recent Judgment

Every once in a while a news item comes along that brightens up your day. Today was that day.

For sometime now, about 3,000 unaided (don’t get a penny from the government)  schools in Karnataka have been facing the threat of closure. Their only crime: having the temerity of using English as the primary medium of instruction. That’s all.

The cultural police of Karnataka decided way back in 1994 that children in primary and secondary schools could only be taught in Kannada and some other Indian languages like Urdu, Hindi, Telugu etc. English was out. This was probably justified on grounds of foreign cultural “invasion”, erosion of values, decline of Indian languages and so on. This wide ranging order affected all the schools that had been teaching English to mostly poor little toddlers. The rich were not affected because they already sent their kids to posh and long established English Medium CBSE/ICSE schools that were outside the direct ambit of the order. Now its not hard to understand why poor Indian parents are desperate that their children learn English and why this was just so bad for all the school children in Karnataka.

The Indian Constitution, on even a cursory reading, gives its citizens linguistic freedom and the right to pursue professions and callings relatively unmolested. So the Karnataka government couldn’t really stop children from studying in English. Especially if the school they went to did not get any funding from the state. This was lost on the minister who managed to pass such a jingoistic order way back in 1994. If you have read Yes, Prime Minister you will realize that this is precisely the kind of initiative that a politician cannot oppose in public. It is like cow slaughter or banning dance bars. How many politicians will be able to comfortably come out in public and say that people who don’t believe that the cow is sacred should be able to eat beef? Or that the ban on dance bars is unfair? Similarly, this was one of those orders that just got notified and stayed on the rule books because no local politician could be seen to oppose it. Elections are fought on 3-4% swings and you’d rather not take a stand and risk irritating the “Sons of Soil” constituency which is quite strong in Karnataka. Given that it was also a simple government order, and not a Bill, there was no room for sabotage in the legislature, during which each politician would have publicly sworn their commitment to Kannada and then just let the bill die an easy death in some backroom (most politicians can be pretty rational people). This brings me to another issue on which I must vent: our parliamentary system is so weak and our executive so strong that we simply keep passing boilerplate legislation through which you can drive a truck by issuing notifications, exemptions, circulars and other such bureaucratic devices cheerfully called “delegated legislation.” The American Congress on the other hand zealously guards its domain and frames laws so specifically that no scheming additional-joint-provisional-whatever-secretary and his evil overlord minister can pass wide ranging policy changes. This way stupid initiatives die a silent death in a parliamentary committee instead of passing out unimpeded through the executive order route (as it probably did in this case).

Thankfully, due to the inherent creakiness of the Indian state and our lack of commitment to real action, the implementation of the Karnataka order has been fitful. Some schools kept teaching English on the sly. Every time a government in Bangalore reached new lows it would resurrect “safe” issues like “Tamils are stealing our water”, “Farmers are in Danger” and in this case “Ban English” from the classroom. They now had the 1994 government order handy to threaten schools with “derecognition” (a term that has acquired a particularly Indian feel to it).

Court cases against this government order were filed way back in 1994 in the High Court of Karnataka by the aggrieved English medium schools. After mulling on it until the cud became rancid and fermented our Justices have finally said in 2008 that the government order is against the Indian constitution. Phew! It took 14 years. By the way, the timing of the judgment should not be seen as a coincidence. This judgment has come soon after the inward looking Gowda & Co lost power in Karnataka. Perhaps the Noble Justices thought that delivering the “landmark” judgment under the BJP government would be safer because the party would not seriously pursue an appeal in the Supreme Court. And this would ultimately keep the legacy of these Judges alive. But don’t worry, this judgment too will go on automatic appeal to the Supreme Court to save (future) ass on all sides. And maybe allow some previously unappreciated Supreme Court Justice to make his own definitive “landmark judgment.” After which, the poor High Court Justices’ 319 page judgment will no longer be read, studied or referred to in the press. Dammit. High Court Justices want their own legacy too!

Anyways, this curious political dance has come to an end and children can finally go back to learning their A, B, Cs in Karnataka. Post High Court decision, there will probably be another round of bribe taking from “renegade” English schools in Karnataka. Soon they will be “regularised” (another word that Indians have adopted as their own. Its actually a sister term to derecognition. Derecognition is the older sibling because its threat always comes before eventual “regularisation”). Now, the appeal in the Supreme Court will only be pursued half-seriously to act as a lever for school managements who refuse to pay up regularisation “fees.” Meanwhile, the next landmark judgment from the Supreme Court heads our way a few years from now. That judgment will essentially say the same thing as the Karnataka High Court one, but with greater literary flourish, a greater anguish for the “weaker sections of society” who desire social mobility through English and a few more pages of ink (319 being the lower limit).

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Resources for the non-jaded and eager.

[Merinews] Can government impose the medium of instruction?

The above article has some nice background information

[The Telegraph, Calcutta] Court speaks up for language right

[Zeenews] Karnataka HC order on Govt`s order on languages in schools

[Sahilonline] Private schools free to choose medium of instruction

[Khaleej Times] HC trashes Kannada as medium of instruction

[The Hindu] Primary education only in mother tongue violative of the Constitution: HC

[NetIndia 123] Primary education only in mother tongue violative of the Constitution: HC

But even when [someone has spurious cases filed against him] the law eventually does not punish, the processes of the law are itself a punishment

This quotation is by Rajeev Dhavan, Senior Advocate, Supreme court. He has written a wonderful article in Mail Today on the Ashis Nandy case.

Essentially, the Indian Judicial System is so slow and broken that filing a case that will eventually not stand any scrutiny itself is punishment. The Indian Penal Code gives a lot of powers to the police and magistracy to harass an innocent citizen if the Political Masters want that.

As a very famous Chinese curse says: “May you be involved in a legal case in which you are in the right”

A funny ad with a real message. Judges: are you hearing?

Its safe to say we won’t have a Bharat Ratna awardee this year because of the political controversy. Ditto for the last seven years.

I’d like to nominate someone for the Bharat Ratna myself: Dr. Manmohan Singh.

It was Manmohan Singh who almost singlehandedly unleashed India in the early 1990s by undertaking economic reforms. He abolished industrial licensing, brought down taxes and duties and tamed the bureacracy (somewhat). The energy, enthusiasm and change that we see today is because Indians can conduct business without government inspectors getting in at every point. That is Manmohan Singh’s legacy. The seeds of 9%+ annual GDP growth rate that we see today were sown while Manmohan Singh was finance minister in the Narasimha Rao government of the 1990s.

I think Dr. Manmohan Singh is far more deserving of the award than many on the current rooster. Many got the award purely because they happened to be born in the right family or had the right politico-religious-caste credentials. Their contribution to India has been quite minimal.

Its unlikely that a sitting prime-minister would get the award. So I propose that he gets the award a year or two after he retires!

What do you think?

BEIJING, Dec. 25 — Outraged that his Internet posting about dogs had been banned, Chen Yuhua wrote to the mayor of Beijing. No answer. He wrote to the city council. Still no answer. When all else failed, he consulted a lawyer, studied China’s civil code and marched into court with a lawsuit.[link]

This bizarre but telling article indicates the level of terror the bureaucrat wields on an ordinary Chinese. Read the article to get a sense of the inability of the average Chinese citizen to criticize the government.

For those people who are jealous of China’s success I tell them: Yes, there is much to be jealous of in China. But here in India we have much to be proud about too. Our economy is much smaller than China’s but we are now growing at 9% + every year. Not bad for a democracy where people are free to have as many children as they want; as many dogs as they want; criticize, vote out and participate in government. They say India is where China was 10-15 years back economically. Well, fine! I’d take a slightly backward but democratic India over a totalitarian but rich China any day*! Secondly, China is probably 20-30-who knows how many years behind India politically. When China will transition to a democracy is anybody’s guess! I believe Chinese citizens will not be sophisticated enough compared to Americans, Europeans or Indians to be able to understand and react to changes in tomorrows world. They will be susceptible to rabble rousing and extreme nationalism (citizens of democracies understand issues far better because they is much more transparency and debate on all aspects of an issue). The Chinese state is likely to make grave errors in the future because citizens will not able to guide it on the correct path.

Underpinning all this is my sincere belief that you need a free mind to understand what is happening in the world in every sphere: social, political, economic and scientific. You also need a free mind to innovate and create. India is freeing its citizens economically and socially and that is something amazing too.

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*I’m not implying that democratic freedoms cause a reduction in economic growth rate. India is behind China economically not because it was a democracy but because it made some poor decisions like adopting a dirigiste model of development. We all know what the License-quota- permit-notification-exemption-circular-raid Raj did to India.

I had no clue. A Prof. just told me he saw my letter. Here it is:

Link to Rajiv Desai’s amazing article that I had responded to.

[Click on image for a larger version]

The “Reform and End the Forms” images made by me are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Today, Maharastra (India’s richest state) repealed an archaic land law, the Urban Land Ceiling Act (ULCRA), 1976. ULCRA was enacted to decrease the concentration of land holdings in cities. If you owned more than the “permissible” amount of urban land in Maharastra, it could be forcibly taken away from you and redistributed to the “needy.” Compensation for your land was a pittance.

The ostensible purpose of ULCRA was to provide low cost housing in cities. But as we all know, these socialist legislations can have very perverse effects. Instead of an urban socialist utopia where the government was going to build low cost housing with hospitals, roads and other urban amenities we have slums and virtual garbage dumps around our cities. Instead of decreasing land prices we have the third highest land prices in the world in Mumbai. The reasons are simple:

(1) As the government tried to forcibly overtake land in the city, thousands of landlords filed cases in the courts. We all know the speed of the Indian Judicial system. Land that could have been privately developed got locked up in court battles. One could argue that that the fault lies in the Indian Judicial system and if the cases were resolved faster this would not have happened. I have two counterpoints to that:

• Its a reality that the Indian Judicial System is slow and that will not change in a night. Any legislation needs to take ground level realities into account. UCLRA was a foolish act that expected people to just give up their land meekly. We all know that landowners were not going to give up without a good fight and do everything to stop the lands from being taken over.
• Acquisitions sometimes bring up real questions of law and this takes time to work its way through the system. The state has to justify why a certain landowner’s land is “surplus.” UCLRA raises important legal questions: How far can the Indian state forcibly acquire property from its citizens? Why should successful, law abiding citizen who own a lot of land be penalized for their success? Not all wealth is ill gotten or gotten by oppressing the poor. In this whole debate we need to realize that India is democracy with respect for property rights. It is not a communist state.

(2) A whole new bureaucracy sprang up that put its dirty hands in every land deal. Clearances of all kinds were required and “exemptions” an “No objection certificates” (NOC) needed. These bureaucrats essentially became, in the language of economics, rent-seekers.

(3) Land that was successfully acquired under the act was hardly developed because of the general lethargy of government departments. The quality of urban governance is so abysmal in India that one can not even be sure that deserving recipients would get housing in these acquired lands. Many of these lands fell in a legal limbo or were encroached upon by squatters or politicians.

Until a few years ago, almost all Indian states had UCLRA in place. One by one they have repealed it. Today Maharashtra, AP and West Bengal are the three major states where UCLRA is still operative. Andhra Pradesh is a very progressive state and I believe it will be ultimately repealed there too.

Bengal is the only major state where the politicians are ideologically committed to the objectives of the law. And its no surprise because these rent control and land ceiling laws are showcase legislations for the left parties in India. I hope West Bengal climbs down from its fundamentalist viewpoint and repeals these anti-development and corruption inducing legislations. Calcutta and Mumbai, our most majestic cities have become shantytowns partly because of these cancerous laws.

To the left parties who support these laws I would request them to see the real ground level effects of these laws. Lets recognize human nature and motivation and then frame laws. Communism failed because it was a fundamentally flawed ideology. Many people say that communism failed because it was not “implemented properly” or failed due to a western conspiracy. My view is that it failed because it could not be implemented properly. Any system that denied humans fundamental freedoms like the freedom to trade, to choose a profession, to choose how to live, to choose beliefs and concentrated control in an unelected, all powerful bureaucracy was doomed to failure.

“What does it matter if the cat is black or white as long as it kills rats?” is a very famous quote by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. Our leftist leaders must realize this and repeal all legislations that have failed in the past decades. Most often these leftist “leaders” have some vested interests (a union to run, a government department to lord over, bribes to collect) so they hold back these reform moves. Whatever the reasons for holding back reform, whether ideology or vested interest, Indian citizens should put pressure on our elected representatives to overturn these archaic legislations that are holding our country back.