I have been was perturbed by the death of two women whom I did not know. I will refer to their lives in the chronological order in which their death took place.
Anita
To begin with the life and death of Anita.
The poignant video showing S. Anita cleaning her house shown on TV will move even a hard hearted person to tears once they come to know of her tragic death. The nice fact is that her parents provided a good education for all their children including Anita, that too in a private school. That her Dalit parents faced formidable odds and yet they gave importance to their children’s education is indeed a hope for new India. The evil incidence of the caste system is slowly, steadily but definitely on its way out. Anita aspired to a medical seat. In the normal course, based on her plus two marks coupled with the fact that she is a Dalit, would have qualified her for a medical seat in Tamil Nadu, had there been no NEET. She scored 1176 out of 1200 but scored much less in the NEET. Prior to her examination and her litigation to the Supreme Court, she had alternate plans to study agriculture. Mercifully, she was not totally misled by all the political parties(national sand regional ) and took the NEET exam. Some of the students did not take it because all the local politicians were unanimous in their false declaration that, there will be a one year exemption for the applicability of NEET exam for medical admission in Tamil Nadu. Many of them who took the exam, like Anita, were made to believe that even though they were taking it their Government will get an exemption. So they did not give the NEET exam the attention that it deserved.
Anita met the leader of opposition in Tamil Nadu before her legal adventure in Supreme Court. Unfortunately, all her efforts failed. In the normal course, she and her reasonably educated siblings would have known that she would have two more chances to crack the NEET exam in her next attempt. Yet due to tragic and yet not fully known reasons, she committed suicide. What a sad, untimely end to the life of an accomplished girl who fought the system which includes the Supreme court orders on NEET.
Anita’s death naturally hit national headlines. The government of TN announced an ex gratia of Rupees 7 lakhs, Congress announced an ex gratia of Rupees 5 lakhs to her family possibly to atone for the facts that the wife of one of their leader appeared in Supreme court supporting the NEET exam. Of course it is legitimate, ethical and legal for a lawyer to espouse a cause even though the political ideology of her family may oppose such a cause. But, I am sure Anita alive would have been worth many times more than the ex gratia compensation her family will receive from the Government and others . The fact remains that none of the political parties , including BJP, were doing anything about the eventual reality that NEET is here to stay, unlike the revocation of the ban on Jallikettu. Most of the political opponents of NEET state that Tamil Nadu has more government and private run medical colleges and hence the number of merit seats available in Tamilnadu will be more. But all of them overlook the most important fact that 85% of these seats will be allotted to Tamilnadu domiciled people who score well in NEET. Only 15%of the seats will go to National students from other states as per NEET. Many of these political parties do not want that. They think that they have no obligation to help educationally disadvantaged states like JK, North Eastern States, Union Territories of Andaman& Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu etc. This is short sighted and regrettable. Nevertheless, these same parties insist that other states should give them water even if they don’t have it for their needs. That is indicative of the low level current Tamil contribution to national integration.
Already WhatsApp is full of messages indicating that NEET perse is not all that bad to the serious aspirants to medical education in Tamilnadu because of the following facts
1. 63% of the people who qualify in Tamilnadu had their education from Tamilnadu state board. Navodaya Vidyalayas and Central Schools have facilitated many of their students to qualify NEET at negligible cost.
2. Private medical education lobby that openly sells medical seats is the biggest victims of NEET examination. Many of the Namakkal coaching factories that traditionally filled many Under Graduate medical seats in Tamil Nadu have taken a big hit. I am sure they will respond pretty quickly and adjust to the changing realities, unlike the political lobbies who will stick to their demand for abolition of NEET.
3. Now we all know the following facts for sure. We should make an objective assessment and make intelligent decisions so that the young medical education aspirants in TN are not misled or politicised.
i. NEET is not the brainchild or idea of BJP.
ii. NEET was mandated by Supreme court
iii. In fact, the Supreme Court has earlier ruled that considering the disparities in the availability of Post Graduate Medical seats in different part of the country, 30% of the seats in PG medical courses should be reserved for students coming from other states. Introduction of NEET for undergraduate medical examinations and reserving 15 % of the total available seats to non-state candidates is only a logical extension of this judgement.
iv. The existence of 4 different learning streams within a state namely (a) CBSE(b) State board(c) Matriculation(d) ICSE with varying levels of syllabus, different methods of learning and assessment will necessarily be disadvantageous to some of these four different streams. Bringing a national outlook on sharing educational opportunities and standardising the different educational levels prevailing in different parts of India is indeed a great academic challenge that educational planners around India face while establishing institutions committed to achieving excellence.
v. Many stakeholders in education believe that institutions of professional and higher learning must have a national character notwithstanding the regional dominance in state run educational institutions.
vi. CBSE syllabus that focuses more on problem-solving and is in tune with the current reality offers an edge to the learners in comparison with the state board that focus more on route learning and plagued by liberal evaluation.
Hence by all accounts NEET is good and it is absolutely wrong for the political parties and the private educational vendors to mislead the youth of Tamilnadu that their educational opportunities are taken away by the students (most of them disadvantaged) from other states. If the State Board And Matriculation Schools run by private educational vendors bother to cover the class 11 syllabus in reasonable detail (which they are anyway expected to do but normally do not do) , many of the students from these schools will have a better chance of qualifying for the 15% of the nonstate student seats offered by other states of India.Not many states are opposing the introduction of NEET. In fact, states like Kerala insist that the students should take the NEET in English but not in Malayalam. Incidentally, Anita took her NEET exam in Tamil.
In conclusion, I would say that most of the Tamil politicians who promised Anita that there will be no NEET for Tamilnadu at least for this academic year have Anita’s blood on their hands. In all fairness, one must state that even BJP leaders who now support NEET earlier promised the people of Tamil Nadu that there will be a one year temporary exemption at least for TN students from the ambit of NEET. Notwithstanding the diabolic provocation from ruling opposition regional and national parties of Tamilnadu , Anita had no right to end her life just because she didn’t get a medical seat. Suicide may be legal because there is no offender to punish. But those abetting suicide are guilty of an offence and they must be sent to jail. Furthermore, people like Anita should realise that just because one failed and frustrated soul commits suicide, no nation is going to change the policy or a court to change to decisions . However, I grieve for her untimely death and feel bad for the sadness her family members suffer today. But people should not emulate her. This what I feel as a ordinary Tamil parent.
The ghastly murder of Gauri Lankesh
Just a few days after the tragic demise of Anita, another women’s life was put to an end in even more tragic circumstances. Gauri Lankesh, a Bangalore women born in a Lingayat family,that ran a tabloid journal. One must concede that her father was occasionally accused of resorting to journalistic black mail. These Tabloids were in the limelight for some time ,enjoyed their moments of glory . Undoubtedly, the entire family was known for their journalistic courage. She disowned her caste. Fought with her siblings and mother, divorced her husband, who in fact wrote a glowing obituary eulogising her . She was a part of the left leaning activists who tried their best to rehabilitate the surrendered Naxals. She never got along well with people exercising power. No one knows who killed her. But people who follow the suspicious and unnatural death of left leaning rationalists in the past see a pattern. The Chief Minister has declared that it is handiwork of Rightist Hindutva group. Hopefully the Karnataka SIT will throw more light on the circumstances surrounding at her death. Everyone grieved her death. No religious ceremonies were performed no government relief was announced. In fact, no one demanded that. All through, she had taken pro Dalit and anti-upper caste positions in her deeds, acts and declarations. Very recently, she actually longed to have good Kerala beef curry despite her vegetarian background .
There are other incidents in the illustrious life of Ms. Gauri Lankesh. Very recently she has been convicted for a criminal defamation case filed by a BJP functionary. She was on bail at the time of her death. Her husband has recorded in a message circulated in WhatsApp that she was a smoker. Whether it is tobacco or weed should be left to the reader's imagination. In addition, she is one of the very few journalists who had expressed admiration for Saket Rajan whose life ended in an encounter with Karnataka Anti-terrorism force. Notwithstanding or because of all these things I believe that Ms. Gauri Lankesh is a better role model for the claim of goddess of social justice than her Tamilnadu counterpart.
I am aware that I am trying to compare apples to oranges. Everyone knows they are different. Anita whose the entire life was ahead of her and had two more chances to become a doctor and a sure chance of pursuing a good professional education at subsidised rates in some of the best run Government Institutions, chose to commit suicide . She naively believed that her death will ignite a spark which in turn will change the medial education process in her state. Very sadly, she was mistaken. Her family will get funds. The position of many around her including the so-called mentors, supporters may get better. But public will be aware and shun people who cash on her spilt blood. On the other hand, Gauri was a fierce journalist exposing unpopular causes. She had many enemies who are much better placed in terms of money and power. She was human and warm enough to identify Mr Kannaya Kumar as her beta but nevertheless smart enough to declare him as bura. Despite the odds, she faced from her family, society and professional peers, Gauri thought she should go on regardless of whether she succeeds or fails. Her pursuit invited dastardly assassins. She died. Yet she demonstrated another ancient Indian value, namely that if you believe that your cause is important, then fight for it. But, if you don’t succeed don’t kill yourself. If others kill you in the process, it is sad. Nevertheless, it is a warrior’s death. But if your idea is good many will follow you. On the other hand, dear Anita, I am sorry for you. You ought not to have taken that step. Everyone except your family members are taking advantage of your death. The best that the siblings of Anita can do is to become accomplished individuals on their own right, achieve positions of importance and make the society more egalitarian and less exploitative than what it is today. Gauri Lankesh achieved it. But dear Anita you did not. Finally dear Anita and Gauri, I like, love and respect you both for your achievements. Your death is cruel. It has brought a lot of sorrow to the people who are close to you. But between the two the girl who lives and fights and looses is a winner if not today one day in future. But the person who fights ,loses and kills herself for having lost actually ends up belittling the cause that she is espousing. May both your souls rest in peace.
PS:
1. For instructional use only.
2. No Commercial benefit is made from publication of blog.
3. Photograph may be copyrighted material and author asserts the right of fair use while incorporating the above material.
3. Now we all know the following facts for sure. We should make an objective assessment and make intelligent decisions so that the young medical education aspirants in TN are not misled or politicised.
ii. NEET was mandated by Supreme court
iv. The existence of 4 different learning streams within a state namely (a) CBSE(b) State board(c) Matriculation(d) ICSE with varying levels of syllabus, different methods of learning and assessment will necessarily be disadvantageous to some of these four different streams. Bringing a national outlook on sharing educational opportunities and standardising the different educational levels prevailing in different parts of India is indeed a great academic challenge that educational planners around India face while establishing institutions committed to achieving excellence.
vi. CBSE syllabus that focuses more on problem-solving and is in tune with the current reality offers an edge to the learners in comparison with the state board that focus more on route learning and plagued by liberal evaluation.
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