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Wednesday, Apr 07, 2004

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Joshi and the IIMs

By P.V. Indiresan

In the IIM controversy, the issue is not fees but autonomy. Murli Manohar Joshi might not agree to a compromise.

In arguing too, the parson owned his skill,
For e'en though vanquished, he could argue still:
While words of learned length and thundering sound,
Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around,
And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew,
That one small head could carry all he knew.

— Oliver Goldsmith on the village schoolmaster in the Deserted Village

THOUGH HE is no village schoolmaster, the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, is like Goldsmith's village schoolmaster in arguing skill. He appeared on NDTV recently and made mincemeat of his hapless opponents. His two opponents, however well informed in their own spheres, were no match for Dr. Joshi when it came to the knowledge of the organisation of the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management. With that advantage, Dr. Joshi could get away with several statements that were literally but not actually, true.

Dr. Joshi is a possible future Prime Minister of India. He is several years younger than the top two leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Dr. Joshi's prominence has been acknowledged outside the country too. On one occasion, I had the privilege of accompanying him to China where he was treated with the respect due to a Deputy Prime Minister and a Prince-in-Waiting. In the not unlikely event of the BJP winning a parliamentary majority on its own at some future date, it is possible the shadowy kingmakers of the RSS will crown him in preference to other contenders.

Nevertheless, it is possible that Dr. Joshi did not do much good to his cause on that day on NDTV. It is true he came out as an indefatigable pugilist, cool and collected even in front of a hostile audience. In a situation where the country is threatened by external dangers, he might be deemed the man of the hour. In more peaceable times, the country would look not for a determined boxer, but for a father-figure, someone to trust, someone who could be relied on to let a hundred flowers bloom.

Dr. Joshi has clear goals. That is a tribute to his single-mindedness, but politics being the art of the possible, that may not necessarily be the path to victory. Victory often needs a compromise here, and a deviation there. Does Dr. Joshi possess such arts of flexibility?

In his otherwise impressive performance on NDTV, Dr. Joshi might have committed one error. He asserted more than once: "I know everything about education; they don't know anything." In particular, he was harsh on the Infosys chief, N.R. Narayana Murthy. Such assertiveness may go well in Parliament; the general public too may gaze in wonder at his courage to take on the likes of Mr. Murthy. Yet it is not always wise to ridicule non-political opponents.

Dr. Joshi is fond of quoting the first line of the Ishopanishad. If he had the patience to go down a few shlokas, he would have come across an intriguing one: andham tamah pravishanti ve avidyaayaam upasate{minute}; tato bhooya ivate{minute} tamoya u vidyaayaam ratah (Into blinding darkness enter those who follow the path of ignorance; into greater darkness enter those that treat knowledge as the vehicle.) The ignorant are unaware (or unconcerned) of what they do not know; the knowledgeable are concerned (as Isaac Newton remarked ruefully) that the ocean of knowledge ever lies undiscovered, and we get to know only a shell here, a smoother shell there.

However valuable assertiveness may be in political debates, in academic circles, a sense of modesty carries greater weight. Once, one of his secretaries remonstrated with Dr. Joshi about some public statements he was making. Dr. Joshi politely and gently ticked off the secretary saying: "You do not know politics!" It is possible that, however much Dr. Joshi might have displeased the academia, he is doing right politically.

Economics is the science of optimum allocation of scarce resources. What that optimum is is always a matter of controversy. Many people are selfish; they want an allocation that offers a bigger share for themselves, and not one that makes society better. It would be impossible to argue with such people that the problem with IIM studies is not the fees but gaining entry, that far too many poor are unable to get entry because school and college education are under-funded. So, Dr. Joshi is probably politically shrewd.

For 50 years, the Indian electorate has swallowed the bait of a free lunch. Even among the educated middle class, there are many who fall for the obvious and cannot think of further consequences. For many, it is a generous gesture to keep IIM fees low. From that point of view, Dr. Joshi is politically correct.

In the IIM controversy, the issue is not fees but autonomy. On that score too, Dr. Joshi has emerged as an uncompromising and frank proponent of the state's overriding responsibility to occupy the "commanding heights" of the polity. In this era of liberalisation, he can claim to stand for a principle that is still dear to the heart of many political scientists.

Dr. Joshi has systematically cowed down one IIM after another; only IIM Ahmedabad is holding out. In that case, we are witnessing an instance of an immovable object meeting an irresistible force. Chairman Narayana Murthy is holding out one face-saving formula after another. Dr. Joshi might not agree to a compromise.

Time alone can tell whether such combativeness is good or not.

(Response may be sent to: indresan@vsnl.com)

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