On 4/8/2020 Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan released a new map that showed Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Sir Creek and Junagadh as Pakistani territories. India did not deal suitably with Nepal when it changed its map to include Indian territory. Now Pakistan has done the same.
The map mentions Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh under Indian rule as Indian illegally occupied Jammu & Kashmir (Disputed territory – Final status to be decided in line with relevant UNSC Resolutions). It does not include Aksai Chin which is Indian territory occupied by China.
India responded by stating that the exercise is political absurdity and these ridiculous assertions have neither legal validity nor international credibility.
Nepal’s PM Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli is on warpath. He said Nepal will send its new map to UN. UN prints and uses its own maps. Every UN map is said to have a disclaimer. One map dt. 28/7/2020 showing India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar/Burma has the disclaimer “Map produced by the JRC. The boundaries and the names shown in this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the European Union.” JRC is Joint Research Centre of European Commission. UN map of China also has similar disclaimer.
Pakistan’s action has to be seen together with actions of China and Nepal. These three countries are hostile to India. China has border disputes with many countries. It claims South China Sea. USA challenges this claim. Australia is on USA’s side.
Australian High Commissioner to India Barry O’Farrell on 30/7/2020 said Australia opposes any attempts to unilaterally alter any status quo along the Line of Actual Control. He also commented about China’s destabilising manoeuvres in South China Sea. Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong objected to that.
China, Pakistan and Nepal are acting together. India has banned Chinese Apps. India has trade deficit with China. Banning Chinese imports will hurt China. India has to get tough with Nepal. Many Balochs wants independence. India can release a map showing Balochistan as an independent country and Tibet as under Illegal Chinese Occupation.
Ministry of Education
The old order changes giving place to a new one.
The more things change the more they remain the same.
What is new today becomes old tomorrow. What is old today becomes new tomorrow.
Ministry of Education is back. Ministry of Human Resource Development is gone. Web site name has to change. At present it is mhrd.gov.in.
India had Ministry of Education since independence which became Ministry of Human Resource Development in 1986 when Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister and there was New Education Policy . Now under Narendra Modi the ministry is back to its original name with another New Education Policy.
On 29/7/2020 Prakash Javadekar announced New Education Policy 2020. Many changes are proposed. It will take some years to implement them. Its effects will be known later. The announcement should have been by HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal. Prakash Javadekar is Environment, Information & Broadcasting, and Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises Minister.
One change proposed is to have mother tongue/local language/regional language as medium of instruction at least till Grade 5. This is problematic because most parents want English medium schools for their children from beginning. Some speak English at home. India has many languages and not possible to teach each child in mother tongue. Big cities have children who speak Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Kodava, Tulu, Sadri, Munda, Oraon, Kharia and so on. Teaching in local language is possible if there are text books in the language. Text books are available in regional language but enrolment to such schools has declined.
NEP has many ideas like replacing 10+2 with 5+3+3+4, increase in Gross Enrolment Ratio, flexibility of subjects, Academic Bank Credits, and so on. Higher Education Commission of India will regulate entire higher education, except medical and legal education.
Students have to choose two Indian languages out of three languages. English is not considered Indian. So most students can not choose French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and such languages. In Delhi many students used to take German as third language.
Education was a state subject. In 1976 by 42nd Constitutional Amendment it was made a concurrent subject. Central Government should leave it to states to make suitable laws regarding education due to diversity of India.
PM at 45
“Where did you want to reach in such a hurry? Whether you wanted to become chief minister at 43 and prime minister at 45 by joining BJP?” That was Margaret Alva’s question to Sachin Pilot.
Why not? Rajiv Gandhi became PM at 40. Any MP can become PM. Age for becoming MP is 25. One who is not an MP can become PM for six months and continue as PM if he/she becomes MP within that time.
When Narasimha Rao was PM he was also Congress President. Many Congress members thought they too could become PM one day. After Sonia Gandhi’s entry into politics that thinking changed. They know PM has to be from Gandhi family or someone approved by Gandhi family. Rahul Gandhi once said if he wanted he could have become PM at 25. He did not want to shout at seniors. He was wrong. At that time Narasimha Rao was firmly ensconced as PM and Rahul Gandhi was not in a position to dislodge him.
BJP is controlled by RSS but not by one family. Congress and BJP have many dynasties. In Congress, Gandhi dynasty controls other dynasties. When YSR died many Andhra Pradesh Congress MLAs wanted his son Jaganmohan Reddy to become CM. Sonia Gandhi did not want that. That led to parting of ways. Congress lost power in AP and Telangana. Today Jaganmohan is AP CM.
Narendra Modi has not allowed dynasties to become strong in BJP. If a family has one member as minister, no other member of that family is made minister. When Vasundhara Raje Scindia was Rajasthan CM, her son Dushyant Singh was not made minister. Maneka Gandhi was minister in Modi’s first term, not in second. Her son Feroze Varun Gandhi did not become minister.
Sachin Pilot felt he should have been made CM when Congress won in Rajasthan in 2018. Rahul Gandhi was Congress President then. He selected Ashok Gehlot. Sachin Pilot felt it was unjust. After Lok Sabha election 2019 Rahul Gandhi quit as Congress President. Young leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot felt they were abandoned. Jyotiraditya Scindia quit Congress and brougt down the government headed by Kamal Nath.
Sachin Pilot has not quit Congress. He said he is not joining BJP. It seems he wants to become CM with outside support of BJP. Vasundhara Raje Scindia does not want that. She has nothing to gain and will lose status as leader of opposition.