Fire All of Them Summarily

The Arun Nigvekar committee was constituted with a purpose. We are witness to the fact that Delhi University has failed to devise a logical way to implement the promotional scheme proposed and recommended in the sixth pay revision. Teachers of this university have been stranded without promotions for almost the last decade. When it was felt that the provisions of sixth pay recommendations with regard to promotions are primarily encouraging pseudo-research and promoting mushrooming of fake publications, the UGC decided to constitute this committee. When it was established beyond all doubts that the API-PBAS scheme is spelling disaster in the field of higher education, this committee was constituted to suggest ways to arrest the declining standards in research activities as a result of this faulty promotional scheme. When teachers began to feel that in order to secure promotions, they needed to give less importance to their teaching assignments and more to the activities that can lead to score API points, they were forced to engaged in all such activities that promised them to somehow accumulate these points. And the committee came into existence only when it became more than clear that for whatever purpose the API-PBAS system was invented, it had got completely defeated.

The Nigvekar Committee was given the assignment of addressing a specific issue but for some reasons it seems to have lost its direction and purpose completely. Instead of its report opening a debate on the new system of scoring points for promotions, teachers are now being compelled to agitate on the inexplicable increase in their workload as a result of recommendations of this very committee. While proposing the new scheme of scoring points, the Arun Nigvekar Committee appears to have attached an appendix to the document and a few explanations therein that are found to be completely unacceptable from all point of views. The increase in the workload as indicated in the UGC Gazette Notification 2016 is a prescription of disaster for the higher education. No government in its right senses can think of increasing workload almost by fifty percent! With one stroke, no government would have dared to leave almost half of the teaching strength with no choice but to come on the streets. How couldn’t they speculate the damage done by such a notification that is bound to leave teachers with nothing more to lose further? Don’t they understand that sudden loss of job for a sizable lot of teachers will be the direct result of implementation of this draconian notification?          
           Wasn’t that stupid to assume that such a massive increase of workload would not stir up the teaching community? Was that difficult to speculate the unrest that it has caused in the university system? Anyone could have predicted complete unanimity among teachers on issues of bread and butter. Who, on earth, has found the complete boycott of evaluation work as surprising? How could one assume that even after all the adhoc teachers are left with no other option but to agitate, they would keep quite? Was that sane to expect teachers to offer their neck when the gazette exposes the shining sword to axe their livelihood? Tell me who can extract any positive from this third amendment without seeing the writing on the wall?     

         I can smell a rat in this. There is something that is hidden more than what appears exposed in the open. I would refuse to reject the possibility of a game of mischief played by political players to suit their politics. Those who were trying hard to find an issue to mobilize against this government have been awarded the same with this UGC Gazette notification.In fact asking complete withdrawal of this notification would be an incomplete demand to accept even from the government’s perspective. To save the government from further such unnecessary embarrassments, they must investigate how it came to this stage in the first place. There is no alternative – instead of firing half of the teaching community – they must fix up responsibility of this obvious and unpardonable lapse immediately and fire all of them summarily.

Dr. Ambedkar preferred living as a HINDU

Some facts are often overlooked by those who are in a habit of over-exploiting the statement - “Though I was born a Hindu, I solemnly assure you that I will not die as Hindu” - of Dr. Ambedkar. This statement showing an unwavering determination for conversion was given by Dr. Ambedkar in 1939. Isn’t that intriguing to notice that he formally adopted Buddhism only in 1956 - after more than 20 years of his explicitly expressing this intention? Unfortunately he left us only after a few months of his converting to Buddhism, without explaining the real reason behind this inordinate delay. If allowed to extrapolate, how wrong will it be to assert that he only tried to keep his words that apparently he was not very keen to? Otherwise, what kept him postponing the implementation of his plans and made him wait for 20 long years? 

To say that he was not being allowed to take a call, will be an exhibition of dishonesty. Those days, Hinduism was not known for offering any ‘external’ pressure on those who intended to convert and people kept themselves away from pressures of conversion following entirely their own convictions. Instead, Hinduism was known to offer resistances through a strategy of non-acceptance to those who wanted to convert back. Isn’t the choice of ‘Buddhism’ also baffling? Wasn’t that one of the most ‘friendliest’ to Hinduism - available to him at that time? Wasn’t Dr. Ambedkar aware of the fact that outside this country, people were used to identifying all non-Muslims - primarily as Hindus? Didn’t his nationalist urge encourage him to choose Buddhism as compared to Islam and Christianity? In this analysis however, I find communists in a contradicting self-defeating cameo role. They have intended to exploit the legacy of Dr. Ambedkar in a rather dishonest manner. Like Ambedkar even communists are also known for expressing their extreme dislike for Hinduism but they are known to showcase ‘Islam’ as a better option. Their dishonesty however becomes evident as, only when they get cornered, they argue that they are against all religions but unlike Ambedkar their selectively use of ‘Islam’ against Hinduism to prove a point is the obvious contradiction between the two approaches. Ambedkar's approach was positive - to find solutions within us whereas Communists' approach is entirely negative - to ensure destruction.

To conclude, Dr. Ambedkar was born a Hindu and yes, he died not as a Hindu, but it would be difficult to challenge an assertion that he actually preferred living as a Hindu. Ambedkar’s approach was that of a reformer’s whereas Communists’ approach has been of a destructor’s. 

An open discussion on communal behavior

Please forgive me for deciding not to quote from the holy books of any of the religious texts for such a discussion as I firmly believe that all such books propagate the message of peace in their primary narration and therefore the discussion most often ends up inconclusive. On the other hand, behavior of communities have always remained marked different for reasons that often extend beyond their religious preaching. Probably the instinctive behavior that a community develops is primarily a function of its past tradition, ancestral practices and by witnessing its own surroundings.

                It is an open fact that residents of this land never required words like ‘communal riots’ or ‘communal harmony’ till the medieval period when Muslim rulers arrived over here. Not that this land was then a land of singular belief as more than many kinds of religious practices and beliefs existed in this part of the earth even before Islam arrived here. But yes, it is also true that the harmony that existed traditionally always over here, have remained on a real test only since then. It would be however, dishonest not to admit that medieval period Muslims rulers of India were probably different from their fellow-counterparts in other countries. There are enough evidences to show that even they did/could not implement their instinctive communal style of governance which they followed almost everywhere else in other neighboring countries. That they practiced ‘communal harmony’ over here therefore only proves the huge influence of the traditional non-Muslim population (loosely identified as ‘Hindus’ since then) on them. Can anyone deny that we started using the word ‘communal harmony’ probably to express a peculiar human-behavior that sprung up here only after the arrival of Muslim rulers? And isn’t that true that the word ‘communal riots’ itself, discovers its meaning only at a place where Muslims are present?

As a matter of fact, while ‘communal harmony’ was a routine behavior expected from the non-Muslims, the ‘unlike Muslim-behavior’ of the Muslim rulers of India caught more attention of some ‘narrator’ since such deviations in their style of governance in favor of ‘communal harmony’ were completely unexpected and entirely unheard of. As per our ancient traditions, before the arrival of Islam, fights over differences in religious practices of different religious communities were always a temporary issue and traditionally all such differences were ultimately settled without leaving any deep divide among different communities. However, it cannot be denied that unlike all other ‘benign’ religious differences within the non-Muslims, unfortunately the Muslim & non-Muslim divide has always remained potentially explosive and exploitable.

Strangely, the communists’ narrative of India paints an entirely opposite picture of this issue. They have always shied away from giving the non-Muslims their due credit to have established a tradition of practicing religious harmony on this land. And instead, they have never hesitated from exaggerating the indicative/token practices of religious harmony by Muslims. In the process they (un)intentionally hurt the sentiments of the real reason behind this influence on the Muslims. Extinction of non-Muslims in Pakistan and Bangladesh provides enough evidences to prove this point beyond all doubts. To conclude, we must accept that while the practice of communal harmony comes natural to the non-Muslims, Muslims are used to showing such behavior only in the presence of non-Muslims.  

Left with Suicidal tendencies – Rohith’s death

There is absolutely no doubt that the ‘caste system’ is an unjust, inhuman and a ‘real’ discriminatory practice that is still being negotiated by the Dalits and other discriminated sections of the society. Nevertheless, any conclusion presuming Dalits to be necessarily anti-Hindu by default would be a blunder. In fact, Dalits are not anti-Hindu and instead they are ‘more Hindu’ than the upper castes themselves. As a matter of record, but for Dalits, Hinduism could not have survived the continuous onslaught by the invaders over the past few centuries. However they feel disappointed as they have unjustifiably been denied their due place, proper recognition and a dignified status in the society. For example, their genuine grudge against the temples is not that they exist and are built, but instead they want to enjoy dignified entry in them.

Unfortunately the Dalit movement in India has been hijacked by the left. In their frustrated quest to paint Hinduism merely as a repressive social construct, leftists relish denouncing everything that a Hindu likes to be proud of. They fail to realize that all sections of Hindu society do not have the luxury to abuse their past, condemn their history and shame their origin. The ‘upper castes’ with rulers’ background find this challenge glamorous enough as they often derive a sense of ‘greatness’ in abusing their own past. On the other hand, the discriminated castes feel hurt and devastated in doing the same. Making them to disrespect their Gods, worshipped by their own ancestors and family members, is depressing in itself but forcing them to worship their ‘Asuras’ creates an emotional disillusion for them. Snatching their Hindu-pride and at the same time demeaning their past often force them to pass through an emotional crisis similar to that of Rohith’s.

The ‘left’ rob ‘Dalits’ off their glorious past so much so that unless they are in a constant state of agitation and turbulence, which is an unnatural terrorists’ state, it becomes impossible for them to survive. And as and when they calm down, they feel miserable and culturally devastated. Dalits, who start believing in left ideology, are left with only a few options – either revolt and opt for the path of destruction and terror or stop believing in their ideology or commit suicide. Being Indian (Hindu) by heart, they rarely follow the first option. The disenchantment against ‘left’ often grows so unbearable for them that in search for pride and identity, instead of Marx, they begin looking up to their own Dr. Ambedkar. But in this process, irreversible emotional damages are caused resulting in situations similar to those that led to the unfortunate end of Rohith. The moment you start feeling yourself as empty, worthless and meaningless and realize that there is no aim worth pursuing in your life, you end yourself.

You need the luxury of having an alternate supporting mechanism at your disposal so that you are able to negotiate the ever-contradicting, self-destroying and frustration-generating arguments pursued typically by the Indian-leftists. With all their negativity, Indian leftists – are able to retain these characteristics only if they are able to get a space in academia or politics – otherwise the ‘Left’ inside them die out sooner or later. This is because the only skill they are able to develop, while living with left-ideologies, is how to find enough reasons to hate their own origin. It is therefore not surprising that although leftists vociferously sell themselves as being champions of the Dalit’s cause, they have not been able to improve the condition of Dalits even wherever they were in a position to do so.

RSS, on the contrary, without the support of the government, carries out several positive initiatives in helping the socially discriminated sections of the Indian society in achieving their aims through non-governmental organizations like Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Sewa Bharti, Samkalp and others. RSS attempts to share the common glorious past with Dalits that helps them transform into proud individuals – one of the essential characteristics required to progress. RSS initiatives have helped many Dalits in realizing their dreams of occupying policy-making positions. Compared to these the ‘left’ have used only the government-run academic institutions to spread their political influence and that too only by exploiting the discriminated class so that they can be disconnected from their roots.