EDUCATION for RADICAL REFORMS 

• (Relevant for Sociology Syllabus: Paper 1- Social Change in Modern Society & Paper 2- Visions of Social Change in India)
•   (Relevant for GS Syllabus: Paper1- Social empowerment)

EDUCATION OF MASSES MUST FOR RADICAL REFORMS

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a man in a hurry, and he ought to be because the agenda of the BJP manifesto on which it contested elections in 2019 had to be implemented well in time to prove its sincerity.
• The recently enacted farm acts are supposed to be linked to the pledge in the manifesto to double farmers’ income by 2022. However, the response to farm bills has thrown in bold relief once again the need to educate the public before bringing in radical changes.
• There are exceptions like the silent acquiescence of people in the demonetization in 2016. It happened because of the immense goodwill for Modi post-2014 elections.
• There was a misplaced Leftist touch to it when the impression was created that the measure hit the wealthy businessmen and corrupt politicians only.
• There was understandably no scope for prior announcement or education of the masses here.
• The education and mass contact programs worked well when the Ram Janmabhumi decision was to be announced in the Supreme Court. It was a huge public contact program in which not only the party functionaries but the government agencies from top to bottom, including police were involved, and this programme was contacted at all levels through every available means.
• Political compulsions weighed with different political parties as they could not have taken any side and offended the other side and so the leaders of all hues appealed sincerely to people to maintain calm when the SC decision was announced.
• The hotheads in the ruling BJP, too, were advised by the PM not to resort to chest-thumping if the decision favoured BJP’s stand. Thus, a momentous consensual turn took place in national politics without creating any turbulence where mayhem was feared.
• In Kashmir, the BJP-PDP combine that ruled the state for two years broke down in 2018, but the BJP had taken good advantage of the short period of rule.
• In 2018, it fared quite well, in elections to Panchayats and other local bodies. It also organized its cadre base. It is claimed that a 3,50,000 strong membership base was created during this period. So, the drastic step of changing the status of Articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution with strong anticipatory measures worked or so it seemed because we see the state leaders (other than the BJP) clamouring for status quo ante.
• That, however, is another narrative floated by the traditional leadership ruling for generations but now divested of power. That the PDP has had a spate of resignations from among its ranks points to the chinks in the armour.
• The lack of pre-education, however, created problems in the wake of the Citizenship bills. While the response from Assam and other northeastern states was along expected lines, the Shaheen Bagh protest with its domino effect at several places in the country was unexpected and it caught the government unawares.
• How far the current allegations of all this being the handiwork of anti-national forces funded by foreign agencies sticks will be clear only when the case is decided in the court.
• This should make the Prime Minister and the BJP realize the necessity to educate the public well before bringing in radical measures. Had it been done in the case of the farm laws, the question mark on the federal structure that the passage of different farm laws in Punjab has done would have been avoided.