Rajeev Ranjan Roy, Senior Assistant Editor, Daily Post, Chandigarh

He observed that when inclusive growth was exclusively meant for the elite, leaving common people in the lurch socially, educationally, politically and economically, then India would never become a strong nation even with its vaunted nuclear power.

Roy held that the government’s indifference to these communities stemmed from the belief that if they were educated policy formulations would have to be changed in order to accommodate them. This would create a lot of problems for the policy planners. This was best illustrated by the fact that the number of teachers in universities and colleges had remained static for years. He said that vice-chancellors of almost 85 percent universities belonged to castes and classes other than 80 percent of population. He said that Gurgaon (renamed as Gurugram) in Haryana, on Delhi’s border, was a highly developed town in several respects, but the adjoining Mewat area was most backward, for the inhabitants there were Muslims. He maintained that the majority community’s mind had been poisoned to the extent that patriotism was weighed against religious persuasion. “If one was a Hindu, he would be regarded as patriotic and, if he happened to be a Muslim, he would have to prove his patriotic credentials. He scoffed at the suggestion that possessing a mobile phone or a TV set symbolised progress, adding that these consumer goods had, in fact, increased poverty. He said that the basic indicator of progress was every citizen’s access to education, healthcare and other civic entitlements. It was the duty of the state to give equal treatment to every citizen irrespective of his or her status, he added.