Transparent recruitments
The suspension of a recently recruited Mamlatdar on the basis of a fraudulent Economically Weaker Section certificate by the government of Goa should serve as an eye-opener. In future, the least the Goa Public Service Commission should do is publish the names of selected candidates in newspapers, based on each type of reservation, as well as allegedly paid candidature, immediately after issuing recruitment letters—allowing challenges to such tainted and fraudulent recruitment malpractices and avoiding any subsequent legal scrutiny of the decisions taken or orders issued by such tainted government-recruited employees. If the names of beneficiaries of DSSS can be made public, why not these? Further, in the case of recruitment tests/exams, the answer keys should also be published in newspapers immediately after conducting the same. This is important, especially in the case of the recruitment of school teachers, wherein the Teachers’ Eligibility Test has been made compulsory under the National Education Policy. Publishing answer keys would increase transparency in recruitment. The recruitment process of teachers and other staff in aided minority educational institutions should be left to the management of such institutions.
Praxy Fernandes, Sankhali
Rid classrooms of bias
In 2024, a scene in a Malayalam film, ‘Sthananarthi Sreekuttan’, shows a Class VII student rearranging the class benches in a semi-circular manner to avoid being insulted for being a backbencher (NT July 13). The movie was shown to Kerala’s Transport Minister K B Ganesh Kumar, who was so impressed that he implemented the same in the primary classes of a school where he was part of the management. Already eight schools in Kerala and one in Punjab have adopted this new arrangement, and several in Kerala and Tamil Nadu are set to follow suit. The new setup helps teachers pay attention to everyone, while students can focus better on the teacher. Though semi-circular seating is in vogue in Finland and Norway, given the number of students in most Indian classrooms, it may take a while to implement. In India, there is a general and unsaid misunderstanding that backbenchers are average or below average in studies. This new system does away with backbenchers who rarely catch the teacher’s attention. But one ‘drawback’ would be missing the LLBs (Lords of Last Benches), who are often the wit and soul of the classroom. Many an LLB have reached pinnacles in career and life, despite what their teachers thought about or taught them.
Sridhar D Iyer, Caranzalem
Eliminate law-holes
When even the Israeli criminal ‘Atala’ claims in our court that providing personal information to police is an infringement of his privacy, it gives food for thought about the “law-holes” in our hallowed laws, manipulated by ‘smart citizens’. ‘Innocent until proven guilty’ has literally become a carte blanche for ‘smart citizens’ to escape the so-called ‘long arm of the law’ through long-drawn deliberations and manipulations of the law-holes to their advantage. It’s no surprise that most glorified trials focus on the ‘rights’ of perpetrators and not the injustice suffered by victims. Be it a pickpocket, drug peddler, gruesome rapist, murderer, terrorist, or the political parties that run amok on the streets unleashing mass arson and violence—each of these ‘smart citizens’ is confident of escaping punishment by dumping their crimes into the bottomless law-holes, from which truth rarely surfaces. Unending litigations stretching decades, even generations, have made the common man shun the law. These despicable law-holes have created a divisive system where the law is interpreted differently for different people. Because of these law-holes, citizens no longer see the law as a guardian of justice but as an untrustworthy entity better kept at arm’s length. Instead of fighting over language, ethnicity, religion, etc., it’s time citizens fight to plug the law-holes. For the vast majority, law has become a fearsome entity rather than an upholder of justice. Most would rather stay away than risk falling into the bottomless law-holes and struggle for a lifetime to escape. It’s not language or religion that will make the world safer for our children, but prudent legal amendments that ensure everyone is truly equal before the law—without the law-holes benefiting perpetrators over victims.
Krishna Nair, Karmali/Ernakulam
Rooting for a lingual cause
After 24 years of estrangement, the Uddhav and Raj Thackeray cousins have come together. They joined hands in the successful agitation against the government to bring Maharashtra’s mother tongue, Marathi, as the medium of primary education. Their oneness and distinctness represent the rich Maratha culture that made history during Shivaji Maharaj›s reign in the 16th century. Vivid instances of those who sacrificed themselves for Shivaji were Tanaji Malusare, Baji Prabhu Deshpande, and many others. Their attitude was selflessness in every task, whether it’s war, elections, agitation, etc.
Abhay Karangate, Panaji
