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FOR the academia, there is never a dull moment. And nowhere is the ‘action’ more engaging than at the MHRD, the ministry instituted to keep our academics and their institutions free of pollution. Without falling prey to the hyperbole associated with its more glamorous kinsmen, the ministry under Murli Manohar Joshi has successfully managed to extend the tentacles of its control apparatus.

The early days were all about weeding out potential malcontents and replacing them with the faithful, preferably those who favoured the saffron hue and extolled the virtues of the Vedic Age. Starting with a Secretary better known for seeking to impart a moral (read Hindu) tinge to our education, Joshi’s ministry has restructured the Boards of every key institution – the UGC, ICSSR, ICHR, NCERT, IIAS, IGNCA, and the list can be expanded ad nauseum.

The next stage was to centralise school and primary education in the country. An attempt was made, fortunately still unrealised, to route all bilateral and multilateral funding for literacy and primary education through a single nodal point as also bring all these diverse schemes under the overarching umbrella of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Alongside is the effort to reformulate the school curricula through the NCERT such that future products would conform to the official notions of what is worthwhile.

The latest move, of placing restrictions on foreign scholars, be it for carrying out research in the country or for interacting with their Indian counterparts in locally organised seminars/workshops, is fully in line with the desire to play big brother. We are now informed that host institutions have to acquire prior clearance, a certification that the invitee poses no threats to the country’s or government’s security, before he can be given the necessary visa. Evidently our masters operate with a very strict definition of swadeshi.

It is not that these efforts went unresisted with our academia crying foul about the saffronisation of education. However, given its weak structural location in the power structure as also the fact that we have rarely given due importance to institutional norms, the protest could easily be dismissed as partisan.

Apologists for the regime point out, and correctly, that this rule of ‘prior permission’ is not new, that it dates to the days of Indira Gandhi. They also point to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act brought in to control inflow of foreign funds to Indian NGOs. They might as well also add that Indian scholars, particularly from government controlled institutions, need prior clearance before attending seminars abroad.

Nevertheless, it should be remembered that barring the Emergency years, these restrictive clauses were hardly brought into play. If anything, exceptions apart, foreign scholars had a freer run of the country than their native counterparts. How many Indian scholars have enjoyed the privilege of sitting in and observing the functioning of the PMO as James Manor did at the time of P.V. Narasimha Rao? The late Myron Weiner often remarked at the happy openness of the Indian establishment.

Clearly all this is now in the process of being modified. The Home Ministry is keen that we register every foreign guest at the nearest thana. Newspapers that write about scams get visitations from tax authorities. And instead of blaming the CIA for all our ills, the favoured agency now is the ISI of Pakistan. The ‘foreign hand’ has indeed made a remarkable comeback.

Many of us either do not notice these discrete happenings or more likely dismiss them as of little consequence. Afterall, is not the country now in a globalizing mode, actively seeking foreign interaction. Our rulers too seem more sensitive to their image abroad, that is, if the number of trips our external affairs minister makes is any indication. To, however, be taken in by this overt openness, the flurry of comings and goings, the proliferation of foreign goods and satellite channels, would be a serious error.

We are today being ruled by a regime which is deeply insecure. The jumbo NDA coalition is wracked by internal contradictions and is rapidly losing popularity and legitimacy. As stories of incompetence, and worse, come to light, the tendency is to clamp down, to control the world of ideas and discourse.

Even more, the effort is to people all official positions with those who share the ideological out-look of our current rulers. In this way, even if the regime collapses under its own weight or loses elections whenever held, the longer term project can continue. Physically controlling access to foreigners is one small step. The real battle is for controlling our minds and our future. It is this that must be resisted.

Harsh Sethi

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