Sunday, May 23, 2004

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Teachers and Indian Politics

Antara points out here that both the Prime-Minister and President of India are 'academicians'.

"both Kalam and Manmohan are teachers, the teaching profession is now ruling the country. From my own personal experience, as the daughter of two teachers, that's hardly the case."

Thats interesting. Of course, it merely means that the facade is a little more presentable -- underneath, the system remains as brutal and murderous as ever. Reminds me of what Sinan Antoon said last week. If John Kerry were elected, the US would have a president 'who could speak English'.

Second, I wonder what these two people have really done in academics. Mr. Kalam -- as far as I know -- has made no significant contributions to physics though he may have been a good administrator. (he put his managerial skills to place in the military helping develop missiles). I doubt if Mr. Manmohan Singh has done anything in economics either though, at least he has a Ph.D(unlike Kalam).

So, here we have two quintessential 'academics'. One who sells out to the military and helps it develop weapons to kill people, the other who sells out to the IMF and helps it open up the Indian economy. Hardly surprising.