From Kashmir to Ayodhya, the BJP’S total domination of politics
Modi government does is an innocuous coincidence. It is no accident that the temple bhoomi pujan was chosen for the very same day that J&K lost its special status within the Indian Union. It was the BJP signalling that two of its key ideological commitments had not just been fulfilled, but that there is widespread political support for them.
Even in Kashmir, where the detention of mainstream politicians has been arguably the most indefensible decision of the administration, parties were unable to drum up mass support or even an outpouring of local anger. The marginalisation of the mainstream is dangerous in my view, apart from being wrong in principle, but that does not diminish the hard truth — the BJP has not had to pay any political cost for it so far.
An idea you disagree with has to be fought with a better idea. A message you abhor has to be trumped with a more powerful one. An ideology you reject has to be contested with one that is more imaginative in expression. You cannot hurl textbook principles of right and wrong in the age of fake news, Whatsapp campaigns and personality-centric cult politics. Elections are not a moral science class.
But India’s Opposition parties appear to be doing one of three things: Setting themselves up as a minor variant of the BJP, giving up already, or countering the new politics with instruments that are rusty and old.
All three approaches are destined to fail. India needs a new Opposition. systematically, one step at a time, keeping in mind the goals and ground realities. Further, different departments, parents and teachers must work closely together to ensure a smooth transition from early childhood centres into schools.
While at the ground level, many co-located anganwadis and primary schools use common sense to share and maximise resources, convergence at higher levels of their departments and ministries will urgently need to be planned and operationalised. For example, there are roughly 13,000 government primary schools and close to 27,000 anganwadis in Punjab. Of these, well above 10,000 anganwadis are in school compounds. In both Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, where governments are giving serious priority to preparing the pathway from preprimary to primary, discussions on how to productively bring in anganwadis as an integral part of this process are well underway. Learning from these experiences is essential. It is possible that a careful analysis of budgets from the ground up may show that more effective deployment of existing resources is possible for enabling young children to get more out of their pre-primary experience.
NEP 2020 boldly states that if the stagewise goal of foundational skills is not achieved by class 3, the rest of the policy is irrelevant. It also lays out timelines and asks states to create implementation plans and goals to be achieved by 2025. Every child needs to have a strong start to their educational life. The high priority to early years given in the policy document can give a strong backing to effectively translating policy into practice. Ten years after the Right to Education came into force, let us take bold and much-needed steps to give every child the right to learning.