Learned Nothing:

Sept. 13/2011: Parliament Members thumped the desk in front of them when Pranab Mukerjee, with folded hands, asked the Speaker of the Lok Sabha Ms Meira Kumar to pass on the ‘mood’ of the House along with the proceedings of the discussion to the Standing Committee on Law to enable it deliberate on the yet-to-be-drafted Lok Pal Bill. This was probably one of the dumbest games ever played by any Government. Yet it succeeded in fooling the people of this nation and giving a lame excuse to Anna Hazare to end his 13 day fast. That Hazare was desperate to break his solo fast is evident from the alacrity he showed in standing up and waving his hands to the crowd claiming success in his fight against corruption. Everyone in Parliament knew the colossal hoax. The electronic media, tired of the Lila at Ram Lila, hoodwinked its viewers blatantly by lying that a Resolution was passed in the House. All those inconvenienced by the Hazare problem started breathing easy.

Now we have witnessed a similar happy ending take place in Orissa. For 42 long days teachers, receiving block grants from the State exchequer, had gone on strike. Though not fasting, these teachers from all over the State have had nearly one and a half months of fun filled no work days. We should not get into details of their demands. They may or may not be justified. That will depend on which side of the negotiating table one sits on.  What needs to be highlighted is not the victory of the State government. For the government the victory has been complete and full to the brim as well as unconditional. What needs to be seen is the manner in which protests are being initiated and worked out in Orissa nowadays. Demands being frivolous, the inner desire to achieve justice, where the concerned people really are convinced that they have been wronged, is missing. These put together make the strikes, dharnas or protests very fluttery and light as a butterfly. A look at the recently concluded teachers’ agitation clearly projects this image. When the Minister for Mass Education had requested them to withdraw the protest and go back to work on the assurance that the State would look into their grievances, they did not pay heed. Initially started at Bhubaneswar, this protest was made wider and encompassed teachers from all over Orissa. They had gheraoed Block offices and had put up a picture of defiance that seemed to have spread out to the length and breadth of the State. While on one hand they had asked that they be taken off the block grant list and made full time permanent teachers and paid according to the 6th Pay Commission, on the other they had asked for implementing the Sarva Sikshya Abhiyan (SSA) and the Rashtriya Madhyamik Sikshya Abhiyan (RMSA) in block grant schools (not applicable at present) where free bicycles and dresses would be given to students. That the second demand was a clever technique to garner the support of the local guardians, who would have otherwise skinned them alive, was very evident.

Meanwhile, while all this drama was in progress only one thing was hampered the most. Education of children in the urban centers as well as the remotest of villages went for a spin. No one cares to study what kind of ‘child hours’ were lost forever in these 42 days. We are least bothered about what is to happen to the school students who were compelled to miss classes for no fault of theirs. One and a half months of study in an academic year will certainly be difficult for them to catch up. The manner in which these teachers withdrew their strike was clearly a volte face. It showed they had learnt nothing. They seemed to be over eager to find a way out of the impasse. The government had stuck to its guns and did succeed in tiring them out.

That the teachers were tired was clearly visible from their body language during the press conference that was televised. A protest is no child’s play. Teachers may be dealing with children all the time but they are supposed to be mature grown-ups who should have given thought to their future course of actions before embarking on such a futile and damaging exercise. The thought of the future of their students does not seem to bother any of those people who claim to be teachers.

The least these teachers could do is to announce that, after the defeat of their wits and damaging a battle line for all future protests, they will now take up special classes in the respective schools and make the children catch up with the lost study hours (days?). Free, of course! But that kind of a positive and modernistic outlook and reaction may not be dreamt of in this country, why only in Orissa. Yet, if they do some sort of a penance and show that they truly care for the students’ future, they will once again regain all the sympathy that they have so valiantly lost.