Advani's multipurpose
I-card must make everyday life easier for the citizen.
No doubt, many will scoff at Home
Minister Lal Krishna Advani's announcement that every Indian citizen will get an identity
card. Critics of the BJP will read a hidden agenda into the statement. Others will point
to the logistical problems of giving every adult Indian a personal card -- and stress the
failure of the voter I-card scheme. It would be prudent not to adopt such alarmist or
defeatist postures at the very outset. A multipurpose I-card must work towards making life
convenient for the citizen, not harassing him. Part of the reason why the voter I-card
project is in tatters is that the common man sees no great incentive in acquiring a card
which he can use only at polling time. To gain mass acceptability, the new I-card will not
only have to replace the voter I-card but also improve upon it -- and make itself truly
useful to daily living.
This is an age in which governments are becoming increasingly
responsive to citizens. Progressive administrations everywhere are seeking to reinvent
themselves as gigantic service-providers. Yet, the Indian state system is still designed
to thwart rather than facilitate. No wonder today's Indian has flung upon him a plethora
of identities: a voter I-card, a pan card from the income-tax authorities, a driving
licence and a ration card. Is it not possible for the Advani card to combine all these
functions? If the new card is marketed in this manner -- as a democracy's ultimate cachet
-- every Indian will make it his business to possess it. This will truly make everyday
existence that much more comfortable. The problem with the earlier voter I-card proposal
was that T.N. Seshan, then chief election commissioner, made it a self-publicity campaign.
Also, in the best traditions of the left hand of the government not knowing what the right
one is doing, other state agencies did not recognise the voter I-card's multipurpose
potential. In the end, Rs 100 crore went down the drain. If Advani can now make amends,
the nation will forgive him the cost.
Live and
Let Learn
As West Bengal now knows, banishing English from classrooms achieves nothing.
In the '60s, when the wounds of the
colonial years were still raw, Indian educationists advocated abolition of the teaching of
English as a second language up to Class VI. West Bengal, where the British
empire-building had begun, had initially been hesitant to discard English but it too
joined the chorus in 1983, six years after the Left Front came to power. The following
years witnessed -- in West Bengal as well as the other states that had banned English at
the primary stage -- the emergence of a new privileged class which could afford to send
its children to private, more expensive schools that taught English right from
kindergarten. The increasing demand for an early English education shows that there is lot
more than patriotism to the choice of languages that parents would like their children to
learn. The six extra years of learning English gives the child a headstart in the later
competition for seats in professional institutes and high-ranking centres of learning --
and the job market.
In West Bengal, swept by a strong middle-class resentment ,
the "no English" policy is being seen as further evidence of Marxist orthodoxy.
The CPI(M), jolted by urban hostility, is confused. Chief Minister Jyoti Basu had detested
the policy from the start, which is one reason why the threshold for English teaching was
lowered to Class V. Now a section of the party, including Basu, would like English
teaching to begin in Class III. But the mandarins in the Marxist set-up refuse to yield.
The matter has now gone before a committee headed, ironically, by a champion of the
"nationalist" cause. While the state Government may at last agree to some
relaxation of the anti-English policy, other states that are yet unconcerned should sit up
and take a new look at this self-defeating idea, which puts a premium on English
education. It militates against equity and natural justice.
No doubt, many will scoff at Home
Minister Lal Krishna Advani's announcement that every Indian citizen will get an identity
card. Critics of the BJP will read a hidden agenda into the statement. Others will point
to the logistical problems of giving every adult Indian a personal card -- and stress the
failure of the voter I-card scheme. It would be prudent not to adopt such alarmist or
defeatist postures at the very outset. A multipurpose I-card must work towards making life
convenient for the citizen, not harassing him. Part of the reason why the voter I-card
project is in tatters is that the common man sees no great incentive in acquiring a card
which he can use only at polling time. To gain mass acceptability, the new I-card will not
only have to replace the voter I-card but also improve upon it -- and make itself truly
useful to daily living. 
In the '60s, when the wounds of the
colonial years were still raw, Indian educationists advocated abolition of the teaching of
English as a second language up to Class VI. West Bengal, where the British
empire-building had begun, had initially been hesitant to discard English but it too
joined the chorus in 1983, six years after the Left Front came to power. The following
years witnessed -- in West Bengal as well as the other states that had banned English at
the primary stage -- the emergence of a new privileged class which could afford to send
its children to private, more expensive schools that taught English right from
kindergarten. The increasing demand for an early English education shows that there is lot
more than patriotism to the choice of languages that parents would like their children to
learn. The six extra years of learning English gives the child a headstart in the later
competition for seats in professional institutes and high-ranking centres of learning --
and the job market. 
