Has Higher Education Failed India?

Re: # 30
krishna_abcd
Okay let`s not get carried away by this sort of reasoning or prejudices. There are factual errors in your statement. Continental africa does include Egypt which had its script and for that matter the old state of Israel. There are also scripts like the Bassa in the area of Liberia , there is Ethiopian script , there is the Vai script from West Africa .....

There have been African inventors too. For example Graville Woods invented the telegraph system for communicating with moving trains. He was awarded a patent for that in 1887 . David Blackwell in Berkeley has done fundamental work in game theory. George Washington Carver is well known in the area of biology.

Closer to home , I`m not sure you could dismiss Ambedkar as a moron could you?

I would wish to see a level playing field for all , as difficult as it sounds. Otherwise we just exchange one set of reservations for another.

Behl dude,

Your job is to report things. Its upto the people to protest for whatever reason they deem worthwhile.

``As far as opposition to this quota system is concerned it has become a fashionable thing to do.``

-- Oh, yeah? People are availing benefits of reservations multiple times in their lives. Don`t you morons have anything to comment on that, you loose mouth? On a side note, I don`t remember morons like you saying that it has become a fashionable thing for Islamic freaks to hit the streets in violent protests during Bush`s trip.

``Another interesting facet to note is that upper caste communities in Jammu and Kashmir are getting reservations under the garb of Residents of Backward areas``

-- If there`s any one valid criterion for applying reservations, it is this, and not caste. But with an abundant jobless journalists, driving the point home is sorta hard.

``Infact guys who have become doctors using this quota are today shouting in the streets against the quota system. ``

-- Then, why the flying fcuk are you complaining? Obviously, they know better than a jobless journalist.

``Upper caste people control the media, have a strong presence on the net and are more articulate- as such the dice is loaded in their favour.``

-- Are you gainfully employed? Do you feed your family well?

Bizarre article. The author is obviously one of these left-wing sickos who is obsessed with ``caste`` and making high-faluting statements about things he doesnt understand. This article is almost free of any logic and consistency.

The real issue with education in india is that we dont have enough of it at every level. Our do-nothing govt and left-wing leadership wont expand enough of the good schools and it wont allow the private sector a leading role either. People may not have realized but recently the great reformer Arun Singh has shelved the proposal of doubling number of IITs and is quietly now converting existing institutes into IITs (capacity expansion ZERO). Instead, we have this sad tamasha of ``brahmin`` vs. others or OBC quotas.

#23 by mineguruji

Although it might be criticised for being a one sided version, but still it exposes the way these hallowed institutions function.

Ironically, Abhishek wants admissions based on caste, but when the IIT Director selects faculty on the basis of caste, his undies are on fire. Why?

#24 by mineguruji

This proves that upper caste guys like you have lost temper and are not ready to discuss things and find a solution.

And this is what happens when absolute good-for-nothings like you avail of reservations and go on to become journalists and professionals. You talk from your rear-ends without using your heads. What makes you think I`m upper-caste?

Its people like you, who are the problem. Casteism and bias is inherent in your genetic makeup and you are not ready to share space with common men.

Don`t talk to me about common man. I`m as common as they come. But like I said, you talk from your rear-end, which means you assume a lot of things about others.

BTW, you didn`t answer a very pertinent question in that last post of mine. If 60 years of reservation could not better the lot of SC/STs, what makes you think more reservations will? No ad-hominems please.

Quote
So what does that prove moron? If almost 60 years of reservation could not better the lot of the SC/ST community (less than 5% of faculty among 500), how is increasing the quota going to help?


This proves that upper caste guys like you have lost temper and are not ready to discuss things and find a solution.
Its people like you, who are the problem. Casteism and bias is inherent in your genetic makeup and you are not ready to share space with common men.

Just relax. LOl

Abhishek Behl

To enlighten my dear friends and to make them aware of the real nature of the IITs, I am posting an interesting article that i found on the web.
Although it might be criticised for being a one sided version, but still it exposes the way these hallowed institutions function.
Whatever the case may be but it is very well researched and friends like BJ Kumar wont complain about lack of facts.

Abhishek Behl



Dalits & BCs suffer under Brahminical dictatorship in IIT - Madras
BY BJ THOMAS

Under the Institute of Technology Act 1961 (``Act 59 of 1961``) passed by Parliament, six institutes were declared as ``Institutes of National Importance``. One such institute is the IIT Madras. Every year these institutes receive Rs. 1,000 crore from the Govt. of India (HRD).

The IIT Madras is situated on a 300-acre campus in the heart of Madras for which the credit goes to Chief Minister Kamaraj. Despite the IIT being located in Tamil Nadu, the representation of Tamils here is minimum.

BRHAMIN MONOPOLY
It has become one of the foremost Brahmin bastions all over the world in the field of academics. In the past four decades of its existence the Brahmins who occupy all the decision-making positions have dominated it. In all these years of existence, the Institute has not had a single Dalit or Backward Caste director.

In the past decade, large-scale financial irregularities and mishandling of public funds have attracted the adverse notice of the public and the media. The arbitrary selections and appointments made to the post of faculty members have been challenged under several writ petitions. In fact, within this short period of 10 years over 200 cases have been filed against it.

Human rights violation:

Though the Constitution guarantees reservation (human rights) for the OBCs and Dalits in matters of education and employment, this policy is not followed here either at the level of student admission or faculty selection.

Faculty appointments:

Out of the total faculty strength of 450, only two are Dalits despite the constitutional mandate that 22.5% of all positions must be reserved for the Dalits. Hardly 50 faculty members are BCs.

The rest of the faculty are upper castes, most of them Brahmins.

Writ petitions on reservation in faculty pending before the court are:

(1) W.P.No. 5415/95 filed by IIT BC Employees Welfare Association; (2) W.P.No.16528/95 filed by the Vanniar Mahasangam; (3) W.P. No. 16863/95; (4) W.P.No. 17403/95; (5) W.P. No. 4242/97 filed by Dr. Muthuveerappan; (6) W.P. No. 4256/97 filed by Dr. W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy; (7) W.P. No. 4257/97 filed by Dr. W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy and (8) W.P.37020/2003.
To escape the constitutional mandate, it has cunningly followed the ``contract`` system hiring faculty members on ``ad hoc`` basis. Faculty members from the upper castes are eventually made permanent.

To escape legal problem advertisement is published. All the advertisements will not stand up to review. Because all material particulars will be clearly absent: number of vacancies, number of positions reserved etc.

Student admissions:

As in faculty positions reservation policy is not followed in student admissions. It was only in 1978 it first thought of reservation to Dalit students. But this 22.5% quota is not completely filled up. Instead the eye-wash of using lower cut-off marks is said to be followed. Besides, in a gross violation of the fundamental right to equality, Dalit students who gain admission to B.Tech are made to undergo a one-year preparatory course before being admitted to B.Tech.

No reservation exists in the IITs for Backward students. There is also no relaxation of criteria. In the name of merit, the legitimate rights of the deprived castes are denied. In September 2005, a writ petition was filed in the Madras high Court seeking 27% reservation in IITs for OBC students.

IRREGULARITIES DURING NVC SWAMY PERIOD
Occupying office illegally:

The Director of the Institute during the year 1995 was Dr. N.V.C. Swamy. He retired in April 1995 but continued in the post till June 30, 1996 under the pretext that his appointment had been extended. He had by then attained superannuation and was well over 60 years. The appointment of the Director of the IIT requires the prior approval of the President of India who is the Visitor of all IITs. Without the presidential approval, the then Education Secretary of the HRD Ministry, S.V. Giri, sent a DO Letter No.12-17/95 TSI (Oct.31, 1995) giving an extension to N.V.C. Swamy for three months. The Faculty Association of the IIT filed a writ before the Madras High Court (W.P. No. 15486 of 1995). This writ petition was admitted and subsequently Swamy resigned.

Recruiting 80 faculties:

During his illegal term as the Director, Dr.N.V.C. Swamy hurriedly advertised and filled up faculty positions. Within three months he appointed over 80 upper castes to faculty positions. Reservation policy was thrown to basket.

NVC Swamy went to the extent of reissuing advertisements to ensure that his favourite candidates were selected. For instance, the advt. (No. IITM/R/8/94) for the post of Associate Professor, Maths Dept., was clearly given ``the candidate should have a basic degree in Maths``. If this criteria had been strictly followed an upper caste man would not have been selected.

So to select their favourite, Dr. S.G. Kamath, who had a B.Sc. degree in physics, to the post of Associate Professor, they changed the very selection criteria. For this, they issued a re-advertisement No. IITM/R/1/95 relaxing some of the previous criteria and taking out this necessity for basic degree in maths itself. Though the advt. invites applications only from those who hold first class degrees, a second-class degree holder, Dr. A. Rangan, was selected to the post of Associate Professor in Maths Dept. At the same time, though Dr. W.B. Vasantha was extremely meritorious she was not selected because she belonged to the OBC community.

Reservation policy not implemented:

According to the Board resolution no.11 of 1994 in the 145th meeting of the Board of Governors, it was resolved to implement the reservation policy as per the Ministry of Human Resources Letter (1/11/1993). Also, the Office Memorandum of the Dept. of Personnel & Training (13.01.1995) extends the reservation to BCs in civil posts and services to be filled by direct recruitment to bodies like the IIT.

In the faculty selections that were carried out during the five-year tenure of Dr. NVC Swamy the constitutional mandate of reservation was clearly missing because it was blatantly breached.

The IIT BC Employees Welfare Association headed by K.N. Jothi filed a writ (WP No. 5415/95) before the Madras High Court challenging the non-implementation of reservation. After the filing this writ petition, in all the appointment orders given to the posts of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor, it was mentioned:

Please note that the High Court of Madras by its order dated 17.4.1995 in W.M.P. No. 8893 in W.P.No. 5415 of 1995 has made the following order: the offer of appointment is subject to the result of the writ petition.

The Vanniyar Sangam filed a writ (16528 of 1995) challenging the non-implementation of the reservation policy for the OBCs. Similarly W.P. No. 17403 of 1995 was also filed for a similar purpose.

FERA violations:

He undertook frequent foreign trips in the name of signing Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with universities abroad. During these trips, he never took clearance from the Ministry and the Reserve Bank. He also collected donations in dollars for corpus fund from the alumni of IIT who were living abroad. But he never deposited the amount in the IIT account. IIT sources said the amount collected ran into a few crores of rupees.

Illegal lease of institute property:

Dr. Swamy leased the Institute`s sports stadium to a private company, Chemplast Sanmar, violating the IIT Act that says: that no part of the Institute premises can be leased or rented to anybody. The premises of the Institute can be used solely for the purpose of research and student activities. (Act, Chapter II 6(j) and 7(2).

Creating 197 categories of posts:

As the Director, he had created over 197 categories of workers which does not exist anywhere in the Act and statutes. The same sources said he gave illegal promotions to his favourite cadre.

R. NATARAJAN PERIOD (1996-2001)
1996 faculty recruitment drive:

As soon as Dr. R. Natarajan took over, he too issued an advt. for faculty positions. In these selections, those who were the favourites of the ex-Director, and those who protested in a signature campaign against the Faculty Association for filing a case were given promotions as if it was a reward.

The appointments and the advt. were unnecessary because only a year ago there had been an enormous selection process at the faculty level. This selection was also filled with all kinds of irregularities. No reservation was followed at all for the OBC/SC/ST.

Caste, not merit:

For the post of Professor, 98 were selected but some of them did not even have a single Ph.D. guidance, no PG project guidance and hardly half-a-dozen research papers. Merit and excellence were not taken into consideration, only caste played a prominent role. This selection was also challenged (W.P.No. 4257/97) by Dr. W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy as there was no reservation for BCs and it did not follow the Supreme Court order in the Indira Sawhney case (AIR 1993 SCC 477).

Dr. Muthuveerappan, an OBC faculty member of the Mechanical Engg. Dept., also challenged the faculty selection done in 1996 before the High Court (WP No. 4242/97).

Even in the list of those selected faculty, there was not a single Dalit. There would have been hardly half a dozen non-Brahmins.

Backdoor entry:

Ad hoc appointments are resorted to effectively deny entry of weaker sections into faculty positions. These ad hoc appointments are effected in the nature of selective reservation for persons who are connected to a coterie which is at the helm of affairs at the Institute.

During 1986-1997 it made over 180 ad hoc appointments to the faculty positions under 17 job titles. Nearly 80 of them have been made permanent subsequently.

After R. Natarajan took charge, between Nov.1995 till 1998, about 37 appointments had been made without recourse to the regular selection process. These appointments were made through the backdoor thereby shutting out open competition and genuine merit. The IIT Act does not allow such contract appointments.

In 1998, the Backward Class Employees Welfare Association represented by its Secretary, Prof. N.R. Neelakantan, filed a writ (W.P. No.3570 of 1998) challenging these ad hoc appointments.

Faculty recruitment drive:

In 1998, it issued an advt. (IITM/R/3/98 in the Hindu April 25, 1998) for the post of Asst. Prof. in the various departments flouting the constitutional provision of reservation for SC/ST/OBC.

This advt. was basically aimed at regularizing and making permanent those appointed illegally on the ad hoc basis. The BC Employees Welfare Assn. headed by Prof. N.R. Neelakantan filed a writ (W.P. No. 6313/98) before the High Court challenging this advt.

Dismissal of Natarajan demand:

Ex-MP, Era Anbarasu filed a quo warranto writ (W.P. No. 12128/98) before the High Court seeking the dismissal of Director, R. Natarajan.

Natarajan had fabricated his date of birth. According to the record, he joined first standard at the age of 3. Besides, instead of a proper meeting of the IIT council comprising 33 members, only three people had met and selected him. He was also accused of having plagiarized research matter which is pending before the High Court of Madras (W.P. No. 7775/97).

Employees Union strike:

Employees of the IIT staged a series of protests against Natarajan in 1999. The strike lasted for 120 days and T.R. Balu, Union Minister for Shipping, had addressed the employees.

The Director was furious that T.R. Balu asked him to come down from the fifth floor to meet the employees. The IIT comes under the parliamentary constituency of Balu.

Natarajan later took revenge by sacking the office-bearers, dismissing them from service, conducting inquiries and serving them show-cause notices. All this resulted in a series of writ petitions being filed in the High Court and several of them are pending even today causing extreme distress to the employees.

1999-2000 faculty recruitment drive:

Towards the end of his tenure in a hurry he wanted to promote all his favourites and henchmen. Hence an advt. (No. IITM/R/5/999) was issued on Nov.3, 1999 inviting applications to the posts of Asst. Prof, Associate Prof. and Professor. The selection was kept in abeyance for around a year.

The interviews were hastily held from Sept.11 to Sept.25, 2000 and the results were announced at 8 p.m. on Sept.25. The selected candidates joined the very next day. He arbitrarily recruited over 99 people, a great majority of them from the upper castes to fill up these positions. Not even a single Dalit was selected. Against this a writ (No. 17835/2000) was filed.

MISCHIEF DURING M.S. ANANTH PERIOD
Arbitrary selection of 130 new faculties:

Immediately after M.S. Ananth took over office in 2002 he issued an advt. calling for applications to the post of Asst. Prof. Those selected were Brahmins. However, he soon changed his tactics.

In a stealthy yet massive recruitment drive over 130 faculty members have been hastily appointed since 2003 without open advertisement or a regular selection process.

In a recent interview to rediff.com (www.rediff.com/money/2005/may/23iit.htm), Dr. Ananth said:

I have hired 130 faculty members in the last three years, of who 36 have B.Techs from various IITs who`ve done Ph.D. abroad and come back. But I have lost 90 by retirement and so I am running very fast to stay where I am.
This large-scale appointments reveals the undue haste, lowering of eligibility criteria, favouritism of recruiting alumni and absolute lack of transparency. Moreover, with a callous disregard to social justice and the constitutional mandate of reservation, not even half a dozen Dalits have been selected as a faculty member.

Shameful role:

To facilitate this hasty, biased selection process, the advt. on the Institute`s website (http://www.iitm. ac.in/Faculty%20 Openings) says:

This is a standing advertisement. There is no specific requirement on when a candidate can submit an application. Applications will be accepted throughout the year. Candidates who meet the prescribed qualifications need not wait for any formal announcement of recruitment to submit an application.
The ambiguity is apparent because even the number of vacancies is not announced. To broad-base this arbitrary activity, applications to the entry-level position of Asst. Prof. is invited for all the 15 departments in the institute.

Norms and guidelines for selection are wilfully abandoned and unbridled power to select less meritorious candidates is given to the respective departments. The standing advertisement states, ``the departments have the right to set different as well as higher norms, while shortlisting, taking into account the requirements of the departments``. This paves way for a pathetic dilution of standards.

Today, even the universities stipulate five yeas of research and teaching experience after receiving the doctoral degree as the basic eligibility criteria for the entry-level lecturer positions. Yet, in a shameful role-reversal, IIT Madras stands stripped of its halo of high quality, the standing advt. relaxes the eligibility criteria and invites applications for the Asst. Prof. position from ``candidates who expect to receive their Ph.D. within the next six months`` adding that ``their appointment to the post, if found suitable, will be subject to their receiving the degree``.

Hush hush appointments:

Worse in the rediff.com interview, M.S. Ananth accepted that the IIT Madras has ``adjunct faculty who don`t even need a master`s degree``.

Faculty appointments have been bestowed with an infamous history, having been consistently challenged in judicial avenues for the past decade. Since then, it has shied away from open advertisements and opted for using the internet-based standing advt. which makes the entire exercise shrouded in secrecy. The regular selection process has been subverted by resorting to the tested technique of bulk back-door entries.

This is taking place because the Brahmins here are extremely averse to recruiting people from Dalits and BCs. By using ``standing advertisements`` they can overlook reservation and deny equal opportunity.

Now a fresh advt. has been issued in the press on Sept.26, 2005. It calls for applications to the posts of Professor and Associate Professor. No mention is made of the number of vacancies. Like all the previous times, only Brahmins and upper castes will be selected. No reservation policy will be followed.

Unless this is prevented all the vacancies shall be filled up and for decades no non-Brahmin can enter the institute.

Re: # 23
Okay lets assume that all the facts that have been put here are true. So what you are saying is that increasing the quota system and thereby disregarding merit based admissions is the best way to go. So for you it`s just a question of turning the hour glass upside down again.

Only this time the backward castes and non-privileged people should reap the benefits instead of the upper castes and rich folks, right?

I suppose there is no question here of ensuring that neither the upper or the lower castes are able to jockey themselves into prime positions.

Just replace one set of injustices with another.

I suppose you think this will make things better.

As for the rest of the article, Macaulay`s system at least introduced some form of standardised education in India. Now why are the Universities the last bastion of mediocre teaching talent. I`m sure you wouldn`t mind getting a job with CNN or BBC with a higher pay packet. So an intelligent graduate in any field would no doubt look for a job that pays a bit more money. I suppose that is not hard to understand. So if Universities raised their salaries to a level that is good enough it could encourage a better standard of professors, lecturers etc. But then you`d be paying a little more fees wouldn`t you. So where would all those poor people go?

Let`s see your version of how to change the education system in India? If you`ve thought on this long enough to write an article , you must have some solutions too. I`d already mentioned better primary education. Let`s start with that. What are your ideas? We`ll go onto the Universities after that.

#21 by mineguruji

I would lilke to inform you that out of 500 faculty on roll at Jammu University, not even 5 percent are from OBC or SC/ST community.

So what does that prove moron? If almost 60 years of reservation could not better the lot of the SC/ST community (less than 5% of faculty among 500), how is increasing the quota going to help?

Quote
your article is replete with irksome spelling mistakes - chowk should try to catch the same prior to publication. The article could have used rereadings and would have benefited from some hard facts to reinforce whatever argument it tries to make - instead of its sweeping generalizations and the citing of isolated instances as the norm.)


Respected BJ Kumar and every one who has been kind enough to read this article and gave his or her opinion,

I again apologise for loose editing and few spelling mistakes because of an inadvertant mistake, but i assure you that all the arguments are original and they are not plagiarised.
These are the result of my interaction with different universities as a news reporter.
What i found in Jammu is not an exception but a rule for the entire country.

I would lilke to inform you that out of 500 faculty on roll at Jammu University, not even 5 percent are from OBC or SC/ST community. Despite the fact that Jammu and Kashmir has a very high literacy rate among these sections.
Another interesting facet to note is that upper caste communities in Jammu and Kashmir are getting reservations under the garb of Residents of Backward areas and they are not even excluded by creamy layer criterion.
Infact guys who have become doctors using this quota are today shouting in the streets against the quota system.
What a tragedy.
As far as opposition to this quota system is concerned it has become a fashionable thing to do. Upper caste people control the media, have a strong presence on the net and are more articulate- as such the dice is loaded in their favour.
But, due to the changed political scenario, it will be impossible to stifle the truth.

Abhishek Behl

#19 by burpinder

Great post, burp bhai! Couldn`t have said it any better. Folks like this author don`t seem to think through before penning their rants.

This is a hodgepodge article based on a mixture of opinion, conjecture and plain fantasy.

``The reason behind this mass exodus of quality students, willing to shell ten times the amount which they need to spend to get similar education in India perhaps lies in the failure of our education system which has not been able to offer viable and creative solutions meeting emerging demands.``

So all the remaining stuff is based on this one assumption? Are you seriously telling me that students from IITs and other educational institutions going abroad after graduation is a reflection of their attitude towards the ``failed`` education system they went through? Or are they perhaps, like any rational human being will, thinking of what`s best for themselves and making use of the opportunity that their talent and heard work has afforded them, to seek a better life for themselves and their families?

Most people I know (yeah a lot of them went to IIT and IIM) have fond memories of their school and college years. They seem to have accepted with resigned good humour that the ``ratta`` (rote learning) is part of the deal. But you know, sometimes when I remember those lines by Longfellow that I last read in Class IX, or help my college-going nephews with their organic chem conversions, I feel a little thankful that thanks to this much-lambasted ``system``at least some of that what I was taught has stayed with me to this day. While this is no defence of the absolutely cruel way examinations are conducted in our country, my point is that by no means is the education system a failed one in India. If the dropout ratios are so high, blame it on the socio-political-economic environment, like anything else, e.g. why are we corrupt?

Branding all teachers as mafia hoodlums is a convenient but totally inaccurate explanation. We`ve all had good teachers, and we`ve all had bad teachers. Secondary school teachers in unaided schools in Mumbai, for example, are contract employees earning 2000 rupees a month (in contrast a BMC street sweeper gets 7000 a month plus benefits). It`s amazing to me that there remain people to this day dedicated to the art of teaching. But for how long?

But as usual, like with anything else in this blasted country, we focus on solving all the wrong problems. We don`t care that 60% of our students flunk their secondary school graduation exams, but we sure are concerned about getting the least deserving ones from that bunch into IITs and IIMs! And from thereon into the private sector! And to top it all, guys like the author glibly uttering smug homilies like, ``As far as reservations are concerned, it is without any doubt a positive step being taken by the government.
IITs and IIMs for long have become the preserve of the rich and the upper caste and class elite. Its high time that these institutions begin to give entry to students from all sections of society.``

Rich!

Author, whatever the current limitations of the Indian education system and its institutions, your litany of complaints makes less than convincing reading. By and large, the educational system has served the country well. The correlations of formal education to the state of learning, that of the state of learning to relevance to societal needs, that of one`s earning power to one`s level of skills, that of one`s hard work to one`s level of success, that of one`s level of success to one`s level of happiness, and the like, are usually murky everywhere in the world - and India is no exception. The building up of the centers of excellence was among the few sensible investments that Nehru made - which have been paying off since the mid-nineties in myriad ways - as soon as the other shoe fell - the shoe of economic liberalization. The exodus of Indian students to the US and other countries is at least a three generation old phenomenon - which has been in the past mischaracterized as ``brain drain``. In reality, there is no drain - either of brain power or of money. Usually, such students receive scholarship/assistantship/financial aid of one kind or other and do not ultimately end up spending own resources. Although in many ways the pedagogical style is highly teacher-driven and stifles creativity and leaves a lot to be desired - the universities should not be blamed for just one manifestation of what the society at large is doing wholesale to its population in many aspects of life. (Note: your article is replete with irksome spelling mistakes - chowk should try to catch the same prior to publication. The article could have used rereadings and would have benefited from some hard facts to reinforce whatever argument it tries to make - instead of its sweeping generalizations and the citing of isolated instances as the norm.)

re: #6 by aisha_sarwari on May 17, 2006 4:19am PT
{{{FYI...

List of fake universities (as on March 24, 2006)
1.
Maithili University/Vishwavidyalaya, Darbhanga, Bihar
2. .......}

Dear Asli Paki,


coming from the failed Paki land aren`t u embarassed u r posting this


when everything has failed in ur fake cuntry?.....

Sometimes history is a good guide. I have recently come around to thinking that India is poised at the edge of its own ``Great Cultural Revolution``. What will our gang of four look like? Yechury, Arjun Singh, Laloo and Chautala?

Mr Behl, good luck to you, people like you will rise to great positions in the new order.

We will destroy the old to create the new