Some quick links.
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You all know that the distinguished sociologist Andre Beteille resigned from the National Knowledge Commission recently. Pratap Bhanu Mehta is the other Commissioner to resign from NKC. Their resignation letters were made public, and you can read them both here.
Yogendra Yadav, one of the authors of a fine-tuned plan of affirmative action (which I linked to here), wrote a letter addressing some of the issues raised by Mehta, who wrote a reply -- both appeared in the Indian Express [links via Aswin].
Now, Andre Beteille opens up and reveals some of his concerns about Indian universities in this ToI op-ed.
2 Comments:
If the great Prathap had said this ("I do not buy the binary of social justice versus merit that their arguments are based on" ) in the first letter itself (by himself, rather than after being pointed out) he would not have faced criticism
Doc,
Pratap probably doesn't care for the opinion of those who aren't sincere. That is why he took some time off to respond to Yogendra's poorly written rejoinder. As for the strident but stupid rants that have been launched at him, Pratap, it seems, will not dignify them with a response.
BTW Narayanamurthy and his colleagues deserve some serious respect. Imagine building up an organisation in 20 years that can hire 1000s at one go, that doesn't have to advertise to attract job applicantions; and receives lacs of them every year. Free India hasn't quite built anything like this. Narayanmurthy's wife Sudha Murty has set up a community and educational development organisation that has helped establish a number of development projects. The Azim Premji Foundation (azimpremjifoundation.com) supports primary education projects. The Tatas have a tradition of philanthropy and service and have set up some of our finest institutions. These people know what they are talking about. They aren't looking at the next election. Of course we did have serious statesmen and leaders at one time. If you want to find statesmen like Minoo Masani or administrators like Sir Mirza Ismail, you won't find them in political parties. Look beyond in corporate India and you will.
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