“If I was younger, I would have enrolled myself into the National Law School of India University’s new post-graduate course, Master of Public Policy (MPP),” said Aruna Roy, Founder Member, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangatan (Workers and Peasants Strength Union), and the main force behind the RTI movement through National Campaign for People’s Right to Information, leading to the enactment of the Right to Information Act in 2005. Ms. Roy, along with former Chief Justice S. Rajendra Babu, State Information Commissioner D. Thangaraj, NLSIU Vice-Chancellor R. Venkata Rao, and MPP Coordinator S. Japhet formally launched the new course on the NLSIU campus last week by watering green saplings.
The Public Policy course should focus on the role of ‘people’s trust’ that the aam aadmi invests in, as people have the right to ascertain the details of the policies formulated and comprehend them in the right perspective. ‘Imagination’ as Einstein believed, and ‘dream’ as Tagore advocated were factors primary to any achievement, said Ms. Roy. “Of such a realistic dream (right to know more) was born the RTI,” she said, tracing the contribution of activists from many corners and spheres of India. It is equality and justice through government policies that make an impact on the social life of people.
“The Right to Information Act is unique, in that it is a rare law that owes its origins to people’s movement,” she said. Ms. Roy spoke of people’s strength gained in collective ‘street-fighting’ where voice-power makes the deepest impact compared to polite, bureaucratic formal requests that do not often fructify into realistic responses. “The draft bill was enacted due to the support it received from eminent jurists, journalists and social activists. The RTI movement, a democratic campaign for social justice, was not just about corruption, but the arbitrary use of law ( hamara paise-hamara hisab as a popular slogan put it),” said Ms. Roy. “Equality and justice, therefore, will have to be wide-ranging aspects of learning, and the corner stone of policy studies,” she affirmed.
Earlier, Prof. Venkata Rao and Mr. Japhet explained that the new course would provide comprehensive training to students. “If the Constitution of India took two years for formulation, it has taken the same two years for completely designing this Public Policy course,” quipped the Chancellor. The design and the material contained in public policies for tackling complex societal problems, and the translation of these policies into deliverable programmes are some of the aspects that would be part of the curriculum that the experts’ committee has tried to formulate in the syllabus, he said.
Public Policy as a discipline of study is not yet firmly established in Indian academia, said Mr. Japhet. Although NLSIU offers an exclusive law-centric environment, enriching it with a scholarship in the realm of public policy, interfacing law, development and social welfare is what stands out as the first-of-its-kind course, he said. “All these components are an integral part of public service and our aim is to enable students to gain first-hand familiarity with questions of public policy, service and delivery mechanisms.”
The course intends to combine reflective and interactive learning with field exposures and problem solving tasks. A total of 43 graduate students with science, humanities and engineering background from 20 different States have been selected and we hope to turn them into ‘social engineers,’ said Mr. Japhet. The course, a fitting present for the NLSIU celebrating its silver jubilee year, is the result of two years of extensive consultation and preparation, he added.
Top academicians and experienced persons including S. Parasuraman, G. Haragopal, Abdul Aziz, Babu Mathew, S. Madheswaran and Sony Pellissery have had their hand in its formulation. The draft curriculum was discussed with a number of scholars from India and abroad including Sukhadeo Thorat, William Darrity, Samuel Mayers, and Lawrence Simon.
