Why Modi Must Be Protected At All Costs .

 Mahatma Gandhi was silenced by a bullet .So was Mrs Gandhi and her son Rajive(both Prime Ministers )  .The after effects  are well known –it led to  brutal killings as a retaliation .India seemed to be on the edge of a bloody civil war on each occasion .We limped back to normalcy because it was taken as a “internal matter” .However it  exposed how casually we take the security of our leaders. .That is what worries  common citizens  like me because any drift into lawlessness affects the common man the most .Law and order in India is very fragile .Anything (like the assassination of the PM) can upset the apple cart and create a situation akin to the “law of the jungle” .Is our present PM absolutely secure  ?

 Even if you hate Narendra Modi  ,we cant afford to lose him  to a bullet of a mad assassin . The stakes are too high .Why ? Lets  have a brief look at the comparision between South Asia (of which India and Pakistan are parts) and the state of Europe  prior to the First World War in 1914. .For many of you who are  uninitiated into History, a brief background of .Europe in 1914 is important .It was the year in which the First World War broke out .Europe at that time  was dominated by Empires –the Austro –Hungarian Empire ,the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire .It  was not a continent having independent nations (nation states ) as of now ,and it was ruled by monarchies .As the Ottoman Empire weakened(it was called the “sick man of Europe”) –states started getting independent .One of them was Serbia which became independent of the Ottomans in 1878.Serbia saw itself as the leader of the Slavs many of whom were under the Austro Hungarian Empire . ( Slavic people are classified into West Slavic (chiefly Poles, Czechs and Slovaks), East Slavic (chiefly Russians,Belarusians, and Ukrainians), and South Slavic (chiefly Bosnians, Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Montenegrins, and Slovenes) They had very little in common with the Austro Hungarian Empire which was basically a German speaking Empire .

 The Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia were neighbours, much as India and Pakistan are neighbours. There was no comparison between the military power, the economic strength and the political clout of the two neighbours: Austro-Hungary, like India vis-a-vis Pakistan, was undoubtedly superior. Nevertheless, tension between the two neighbours was rife, as in the case of India and Pakistan. Serbia-based non-State actors were secretly readying for a major terrorist strike against the Empire, backed by powerful forces within Serbia but out of government control, much as Pakistan-based non-State terrorists are constantly preparing for terror strikes against key Indian targets, backed by powerful forces within Pakistan, but outside government control. The Serbs were wanting to incorporate parts of Austro German Empire (Bosnia and Hergegovina ) into what they called “Greater Serbia “ Much like what Pakistan wants to do with our Kashmir(they already in illegal possession of a part of it which they call "Azad Kashmir"!!!!)  .

When a young band of Serbian terrorists slipped into Bosnia to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand,(the son of Franz Josep the Emperor of A-H and nowhere as popular as Narendra Modi)  the Government of Serbia did not know, even as it is entirely likely that the Government of Pakistan did not know that Ajmal Kasab and his gang had slipped into Mumbai to target the iconic Taj Hotel. But, as in India, so in Austria, the suspicion was so strong that there were rogue elements in the Serbian establishment that were backing the terrorists, no proof was needed: suspicion amounted to conviction. Therefore, when the Serbian terrorists struck, assassinating the heir-apparent to the Austro-Hungarian throne, the Empire needed no conclusive proof that the Serbian government was behind the assassination. It knew, as India "knew", that 26/11 was master-minded by the Government of Pakistan. And even as the Pakistan government denied any involvement in such cross-border terrorism and undertook to set in train an investigation into the dastardly terrorist attack, so also, a hundred years earlier, did Serbia condemn the assassination and offer to investigate and bring to justice those responsible. 

But Austria –Hungary  would not be appeased.The war started due to a unreasonable set of demands and the coming into play of the alliance system .It made sure that a war between Austria -Hungary and Serbia would not remain confined to just the two of them .

Modi is a very popular leader .Call him anything ,but one thing is certain –it will become impossible to prevent a war with Pakistan incase “non state” actors from across the border attempt and get him .The repercussions are scary if that were to happen .Listening to a debate on TV a couple of days back ,I was shocked to hear a very senior ex  Pakistani official say that all they need to do is to drop a nuclear bomb on Delhi and how people will shit (sic) in their dhotis .A nuclear exchange is very possible considering the inflamed public opinion and their love for Modi and the hate for Pakistan if something were to happen to him which is from across the border .

That is why –we must protect our Prime Minister at all costs .God forbid a Pakistani terrorist gets him ,there will be mayhem .There wont be a Third World War .We will bilaterally  bomb each other out of existence .

Kulbhushan Kain

 

Oh God -What A Mess !!

Our educational system is in a mess .We seem to be totally confused because we don’t know what to do .Do what about, you may ask ?The problem is in the times we are living in .The other day we went to a restaurant and one look around made me aware of the times we live in .There was  near deathly silence –everyone was interacting either with their smart phones or ipads .Even while gorging into the biryani at Gazebo ,people were eating food all the while talking over their cell phones .The name of the locality in which Gazebo is situated –Dubai Internet City !! Well that’s the world we live in .But the problem with education is more serious .The biggest problem in using technology is that if you use technology to improve the learning outcomes with the present curriculum and the present education system, then there’s a conflict. A huge conflict .The technology, information technology, is essentially a nonlinear tool. You can go to the Internet and search  just about any content .You can skip from one field to another by just typing in the address .However  the education system as it exists   is a very linear one.Its a throwback of the Industrial Revolution and is out of sync with the Technological /Digital /Computer /Space age !!

Education over the years has been fashioned like an assembly line. Children get placed on a conveyor belt that carries them from grade level to grade level.As if they all learn at the same speed . At each stop on the way they are receive the same knowledge as everyone else. Rather than become  problem-solvers, students are expected to simply absorb the facts provided to them.And the schools do that by charting a syllabus on a week to week basis and with old fashioned systems of assessments which fetches you a “zero” if you answer differently because it is not part of the “marking scheme” or if the answer is not from the standard explanation of the chapter .!! How dare you say that Indians ate beef during the Vedic and other ages !!Its not part of the social history Mr Kain taught you in your 11^th Grade !!

But  technology enables a new, nonlinear curriculum, one that emphasizes problem-solving over memorization. But such improvements are impossible under the traditional educational system:

When you take technology and place it in the learning environment, if you make it subservient to the current linear system, then the power of the technology is constrained and then, to that extent, it is not affected. Then its effect is only as much as the school system’s effect.

Giving children access to technology is important, but doing so will only have an effect if we make fundamental adjustments to our education system. If innovation is going to shape the way the world runs in the next 50-100 years, it only makes sense to shift how we prepare students to face that future:

So the important thing is to learn the skills of learning, to learn cooperatively. The old system says you are going to learn and you are going to appear for the exam.And in the exam room you are sitting like a living dead with fierce looking invigilators .You are sitting trying to cover every millimeter of your answer script and will be lucky if you can lift your head up for fear of being told you are cheating . The new world  is saying you can work in groups and learn and crack the problem. So I think we need to fundamentally change the way we’re learning, the way that we are being assessed and certified as well.

You may well ask as to what the hell am I doing to change all that after being in the field throughout my life .Well as long as CBSE and other Examining Boards change the way they look at the childs achievements –we can do very little .The brilliant students are always going to be the ones who can cram the syllabus written in books by the NCERT !! And sit in classes packed in a orderly way like sardines !! Good luck .

Kulbhushan Kain