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Lessons for Punjab from Oz attacks
WSN Bureau
 Chandigarh:
Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal's Cabinet-rank advisor
Daljit Singh Cheema was recently in a TV studio to participate in a
panel discussion programme on racist attacks against Indian students
in Australia. It seemed to be a cakewalk of a discussion, and there
seemed to be little for which the poor Badals can be held
accountable for. After all, the attacks were happening in distant
Australia, were the work of either xenophobic bunch of individuals
or rank criminals out to loot hapless hard-working Indian students.
Unfortunately for Cheema, talk TV is
not always so mundane and meaningless. As soon as Kesar Singh
Barwali of Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID)
brought up the point that neo-liberal economics leaves behind in its
wake some socially excluded groups that indulge in crime, Cheema was
quietly fielded a query: "So what lessons about development has the
Punjab government learnt since it too is pushing a neo-liberal
agenda; so where's the guarantee that we will not leave behind
socially excluded groups?"
As he fumbled and tried to fall back
on his trademark soberness, the well known Dalitism scholar and
author Gian Singh Bal was soon stressing how governments thrive on
divisive issues and how there is a class angle to the entire racism
debate. Soon the talk turned towards the bigger caste issue and
Cheema was asked whether the castism divisions were not as bad as
racism and whether casteism is not a sort of racism? Soon, the
anchor also threw in the Jat versus non-Jat debates in Punjab, the
Punjabi versus migrant labourers' treatment and the debate was wide
open.
This is the problem with serious
debate. Nothing happens in isolation, and nothing can be discussed
in isolation. In an intricately intertwined and inter-dependent
world, the problems too are multifaceted and soon the anchor was
underlining with amusement the fate of the representative of the
government and the ruling party about how does it fee to answer
questions about government accountability in a debate about crime
happening thousands of miles away.
The gracious Daljit Singh Cheema
agreed to most points raised and scored some brownie points because
he did not seem to be hell bent on defending the government but was
rather more interested in understanding and acknowledging the
linkages. But what really came about was the fact that the way
Punjab was following a peculiar model of growth and development, we
may be headed for big trouble.
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What do the
attacks in Australia have to do with neo-liberal models of
development? And what lessons are we learning about development
in Punjab from where a lot of Sikh students are going to
Australia? |
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It is no different for the rest of
India.
One question posed on most debates
about the racism issue in Australia was why the hell so many Indian
students choose to go to Australia at all?
In 2008, there were 543,898 full-fee
paying international students in Australia. International students
and their families spend $14.1 billion in
Australia
per year. Last year, $4.3 billion alone was spent on food and
accommodation. International student numbers included 97,035 Indian
students. More than 10,000 of these are from Punjab.
Here's why they go to
Australia,
or to any other country for studies:
India's seemingly tough to crack
IIT-JEE system now provides 8000 seats. In 1988, this figure was
2,000 and Indians crow a lot about this marked four times
improvement. Just compare this to UCLA (25,000 undergrad and 11,000
postgrad), MIT (4,172 undergrad, 6048 PG), Harvard (6,714 undergrad
and 12,442 PG) and a total student strength of 11,250 at Yale. There
is so much hue and cry about Lovely Professional University in
Punjab. In the US, Kellogs runs three varsities.
India produces only 70 nephrology
MDs in a year. Only 63 neurologists. Only 88 cardiologists and only
15 oncologists. New Delhi is little bothered that this country of a
billion produces about 7,500 MDs a year compared to United States'
16,000!
So will you ever wonder why Indian
kids go to Australia? It will matter little who will treat our
children in what ways abroad; they hardly have options.
17
June 2009
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