Intellectuals confused between capability and academic degree?

Within hours of taking oath as India’s 28^th Cabinet Minister for Human Resources Development, a prominent and articulate face of BJP on TV, Smriti Irani has been dragged into controversy by her opponents and intellectuals citing she is not capable enough to handle the ministry as she is educationally not so sound. India is fortunate to have its first woman cabinet minister since independence. Smt. Sheila Kaul was the first Minister of State for HRD, served under Prime Ministership of Indira Gandhi in 1981-1984.

The newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi had gone through the bio-data of all probable leaders who were to be sworn-in as ministers in his council. It is the prerogative of Prime Minister to allocate portfolios to the elected representatives. In a democratic system, people can criticise over decisions taken by the elected government and it must be accepted graciously by the people in power. But as a constructive and matured opposition, we need to examine whether the criticism will do any benefit to society to which we owe or just satisfying egos. In a case of Smriti Irani’s educational qualification controversy, I don’t think there is any need to make a fuss about. A tweet by senior Congress leader about Irani taking a jibe saying she is not ‘even a graduate’ signifies his mental bankruptcy. His mind has apparently stopped thinking positive and constructive vibes have been confined to particular ideologies, individual or party. Good works must be appreciated and bad must be criticised.

Capabilities and educational degree are two different things. We cannot afford capabilities to go waste just because having no educational or paper degree. Though in our country there is no prescribed educational eligibility for a person to become an MP or an MLA, and there is no legal hurdle that can stop the same from becoming a minister. Even then a bunch of self

proclaimed intellectuals opposed her elevation for a heavyweight portfolio. Executive, legislative and judiciary are three branches of government. The ministers and bureaucrats fall under the category of ‘executive’. The term executive are divided into two parts i.e. temporary and permanent executive. The minister comes and goes so falls under temporary category while bureaucrats are the permanent executive. The work of temporary executive is to give direction and ideas and there are designated officials who implement the ideas. Dealing with CMs and VCs will be the least of her headaches and policy-related issues; she will work closely with Modi, as the PM is known for monitoring closely the developments.

India has witnessed ministries held by Harvard and other Ivy League alumni, yet they have at times failed to rise up to the expectations. We had an internationally acclaimed economist Prime Minister and we all are aware of our state of economy, currently. So my only point is we should give her time to perform and if she doesn’t perform, it, the government has full authority to replace her.

I do not want to go into details about ministers who excelled in their fields despite not having obtained excellent academic qualifications. I have been a vehement critic of former Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, who is an engineer by profession. I would hereby like to draw the attention of all ‘intellectuals’ who need to be a

scholar to head the HRD Ministry. All you need to do is visit Bihar’s villages to closely monitor the quality of teachers appointed by state education minister PK Sahi’s department. The teachers there are allegedly teaching everything wrong. The concerned minister is known to be highly qualified. Another instance is of former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal who is an IIT alumnus.

Conclusively, a good judge may not be a good lawyer, a good lawyer may not be a good judge.