Courting Monsters; Burning Future; Critical Thinking
Opinion Watch
Courting Monsters
Avalanche of propaganda in mainstream threatens to dim spotlight on Manipur mayhem, and The Asian Age in its Editorial has questioned frozen hands of the Central government, while quoting reports that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had taken support from the militant group – United Kuki Liberation Front – in the last Assembly election in the state, brokered by Ram Madhav and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma (who has denied the report), to win the poll.
The daily has opined that the Centre’s ability to deal with the rampaging crisis in Manipur will be hampered amid suspicion that “the ruling party was in bed with an armed militant group for electoral gains and has stoked the communal cauldron”. The daily has also stated that the situation in Manipur was not even seen at the height of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, as tens of thousands of weapons have been stolen in the Northeastern state.
The BJP had won all the 10 Assembly seats in the Kuki stronghold in the last year’s Assembly election, and the Congress has been alleging that the party was not even allowed to campaign in such pockets. It’s numbing that President’s Rule has not yet been imposed in Manipur.
Burning Future
Laws are made slave to the moneyed class, and the horrific scenes of the students jumping out of windows to escape death from raging fire in a coaching institute in Mookerjee Nagar in North Delhi reaffirms that administration is moth-eaten and callous at the core. The Pioneer has given several accounts from all across the country where students lost their lives due to fire incidents with sole culprit being the flouting of the norms by unscrupulous elements.
The Noida-based daily said that mere providence saved the young students in the Mookerjee Nagar coaching institute fire incident. It lamented that over 500 students were enrolled at the coaching institute.
No coaching institute in the national capital can operate if the laws of the land are strictly enforced, but administration for years has turned blind eyes to the recklessness of the greedy businessmen who take lakhs of rupees from students for facilities run in ghettoes. Laws battle for breath within a few kilometers of Parliament, and that is the sad reality of the country.
Critical Thinking
The Telegraph has welcomed the decision of the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination to increase questions testing critical thinking of the students and also to encourage them to analyze. The daily noted that the Indian education system and entrance examinations somehow encourage rote learning.
The Kolkata-based daily lamented in its Editorial that the intent of the National Education Policy is being defeated by action on the ground as regimented learning and dumbing down are now the norms.
Rote learning doesn’t produce innovators, and for years India has produced men and women helming administration by memorizing answers of a few questions of Pali and other subjects in the UPSC examinations.
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