Friends,
September 28th marks the 108th birth anniversary of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh.
Bhagat Singh and his comrades not only envisioned India free from British
Imperialism but also an egalitarian society free from socio-economic and
political exploitation and laid down their lives for the cause.
Although
the youth aspire Bhagat Singh as their hero but we are miles away from his
ideology and the popular slogans given by him i.e. Down with Imperialism,
Long Live Revolution, Long Live Communal Unity. On the contrary either he
is projected as an emotional young man who was just fond of pistols and guns,
or all debate around him is sunk to the narrowness like Turban or Hat
controversy.
Bhagat
Singh stressed, “The sword of revolution is sharpened on the whetting-stone of
ideas”. But what we see today is how the image of Bhagat Singh is manipulated
and depreciated by various politicians for their selfish motives. The likes of
Hardik Patel declare that till now they have been behaving like Gandhi, don’t
force them to become Bhagat Singh (when his anti-Dalit demands are not
fulfilled). Here Bhagat Singh is being projected as a mere violent person. Also
contrary to Bhagat Singh’s ideology, Hardik Patel claims India to be a Hindu
nation and valorises fundamentalist goons like Bal Thackrey as heroes. Similarily
Bhagwant Mann, MP of Sangrur (Punjab), often in his speeches speaks of his
gestures like paying allegiance at Martyr’s place at Khatkar Kalan village
whenever he buys things like a new car. These things raise very serious
questions. Was this the Ideology of Shaheed-e-Azam? Did he talk of sharpening
the sword of revolution on these ideas??
By
“Revolution” he meant destruction of social, economic and political structure
based on exploitation and reconstitution of society on socialist basis. He
never claimed arms to be primary.
He further
says that their fight is not only against British but also against their Indian
agents who help the British in maintaining their rule. He added that even if
India gains independence under their (‘Indian agents’) leadership it will be of
no use to majority population because the loot and plunder of the masses will
remain the same. To fulfil their dream of an egalitarian society, Bhagat Singh
and his comrades founded Naujwan Bharat Sabha and also made efforts to
organise people under the banner of HSRA (Hindustan Socialist Republican
Association). In his message to Punjab Students’ Conference, he writes, “The
youth will have to spread this revolutionary message to the far corner of the
country. They have to awaken crores of slum-dwellers of the industrial areas
and villagers living in worn-out cottages, so that we will be independent and
the exploitation of man by man will become an impossibility.”
Bhagat
Singh was a student who, in a very short life span, read hundreds of books and
tried to find solutions to the problems underlying our society. In his essay
Students and Politics, he writes, “we agree that the main duty of students is
to study and they should concentrate on it. But isn’t this a part of their
education to have knowledge of conditions of the country and to develop
capability to think of solutions to improve these? If no, then that education
is useless.”
Our present
system also systematically keeps the students away from understanding the
problems of the society and promotes self-centredness & careerism among
students. Facts clearly show worsening situation of education system, Gross
Enrolment Ratio (GER) for higher education is just 19.4%.
If we take
a look at the changes introduced in our education system from last 30 years, it shows an ugly picture. In 1986, for the first time, Rajiv Gandhi
govt. introduced NEP (New Education Policy) and basically the beginning of
privatisation and commercialisation of education. Under this policy preference
to private over govt. institutions started. The Ambani-Birla report takes it to
the peak which suggested that the govt. should withdraw its responsibility from
higher education and should leave it to the private players. Also students’
politics should be banned. Fortunately, due to much opposition, this report was
not implemented. Despite that the governments are gradually walking on the path
to privatisation of education system. The number of private institutions are
rampantly increasing and self-financed courses are being introduced in public
institutions. To weaken the student politics, Lyngdoh recommendations were
introduced.
That’s not
all. WTO-GATS Doha round negotiations started in 2001. In 2005 Indian govt.
“offered” higher education sub-sector to WTO for commercialisation. The Doha
round negotiations are being concluded during 15th-18th December 2015 at Nairobi, Kenya. Earlier
in July it was decided that at Nairobi session the “offers” of 2005 would be
considered as “commitments” and our higher education would be made an open
business.
WTO: A tool
in the hands of Dominant countries to oppress other countries!
When a
country becomes a member of WTO, it is obligatory for it to abide by WTO ‘diktats’
in matters of international trade. The ‘developed’ countries impose their
exploitative policies on ‘developing’ or ‘under-developed’ countries due to
which countries like ours suffer.
HOW WTO
WORKS
There are
three Integrated Multilateral Agreements viz., 1) General Agreement on Trade
and Tariff (GATT-1994) which includes Agreement on Agriculture; 2)
Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS); and 3) General Agreement on
Trade in Services (GATS). Education, reduced to one of tradable services, is
brought under GATS which is one of the three integrated multilateral agreements
under WTO regime as stated above. Ironically, the trade in education is
governed by GATS Council (Council for Trade in Services) along with and at par
with services such as recreation clubs and night pubs under the same set of
rules, though with some variations due to domestic regulations of
membernations! The ‘offers’ and ultimately the ‘commitments’ in ‘Market Access’
are to be given by a member country in Mode-wise and Sector-wise format for
operationalisation of GATS in the country.
FOUR MODES
OF TRADE: GATS recognized five sub-sectors in
‘Education Service’ viz., 1) Primary Education; 2) Secondary Education; 3)
Higher Education; 4) Adult Education; and 5) Other Education. GOI submitted
‘offers’ in Higher Education Sub-Sector.
Further,
GATS also recognizes four modes of trade in all services. In higher education,
they would work as follows -
a) Cross
Border Supply: The students
receive correspondence education from a foreign supplier & pay service
charges. b) Consumption Abroad: The students go to a foreign land to
receive education and pay service charges.
c)
Commercial Presence: The foreign
providers can establish universities and colleges here, provide service and
collect service charges.
d) Presence
of Natural Person: The foreign
teachers as individuals can come to India render service in institutions in
India and collect service charges.
“Offering”
higher education to Imperialists is nothing but slavery. This means promoting
more and more market-oriented courses, sky-high fee structures and keeping
education out of reach of large section of society. Also through agencies like
IRA (Independent regulatory agencies) the education sector will be directly
controlled by WTO. Countries like Australia, Canada, European Union and even
African Union have refused to accept this ‘diktat’ of WTO to keep their
education policy independent. But our “Patriotic” leaders are bent upon selling
the country. Apart from this, in the name of ‘Bhartiyakaran’, present govt. is
introducing changes in the syllabus and curriculum to serve its ‘Hindutva’
agenda. Also, RSS workers and supporters are being appointed at prominent posts
in universities and other educational and cultural institutes like NCHR, ICHER,
and FTII etc. Due to this, the purpose of education which is to build
scientific temperament, is being defeated.
In just one
and half years, the Modi govt. with its policies like Land acquisition bill,
labor law ‘reforms’, altering environmental and forest laws etc. has paved way
for foreign investment and thus rendering workers, peasants and adivasis helpless.
In order to deviate the attention of people from such alarming matters, the
govt. is imposing its Hindutva agenda and Caste and Communal tensions are being
promoted either by raising issues like love jihad or the ban on beef. The
Hindutva proponents also claim to idealize Bhagat Singh as their leader but
stand against his ideas like that of fight against imperialism and the
prevalence of communal harmony that he lived and fought for throughout his
life. With his slogan Down with Imperialism he meant the opposition of
loot of India by foreign capital. By Long Live Communal Unity he meant
that people from all castes and creed live together in harmony. But various
governments over a period of time made every possible effort to mislead people
by using Bhagat Singh’s personality and try to curtail his philosophy and
ideas.
During
times when the Indian government is trying to rewrite their own version of
history to suit their political aspirations and when our education system is
falling prey to the policies of WTO, it becomes ever more necessary to stand by
Bhagat Singh’s ideas. It is important that we understand the gravity of the
situation and condemn these policies and build resistance against it because
this is the deciding moment for our education system. SFS appeals all to fight
for an education system which is built on scientific temperament and is
accessible to all sections of the society.