OPINION

For the national Capital’s civic edifice, Master Plan of course is the guiding document. It’s to the credit of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the Urban Development Ministry (UDM) that they have without fail brought Master Plan Document (MPD) every two decades, which have been accepted by the government with some delays and changes here and there.

Going by the contents of the various Master Plans, one would have to concede that these are fine documents, products of diligent work of long years. However, these documents have found acceptance only in words and seldom in spirit.

The millennial Indians born in the third and the fifth year of this century have been the worst sufferers of the pandemic and its related misgovernance. This is true especially with the respect to the students who were to appear for the secondary school (class X) and senior secondary (class XII) examinations this year. They have been at the receiving end of competitive appeasement policy among the freebie distributing political parties, which has left them in a state of maze.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week announced the scrapping of the examination, and assured of delivering a formula at an early date for “assessing” students. So, the Prime Minister’s announcement can safely be said to be a ‘Half-Eureka moment’ of the government, which in the other words could be defined as a decision taken under pressure of political rivals and not arrived at following a judicious evaluation of the situation. The government probably went by the mood of social media, which was against the examination.

The Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) is one of the most reputed institutions of our country with its presence across 28 countries. The examinations could have been deferred or cancelled if the circumstances so entailed but to begin the discussion with the idea of cancellation was most unwarranted. Will such a decision not hamper reputation of the CBSE, a very difficult question to answer. Even if the assessment formula comes at an early date, will that formula would be valid for admission across the globe, or for that matter universally within the country.

On the ongoing controversy on Yoga trainer and entrepreneur Ramdev’s utterances against allopathy and futility of vaccination, a senior ruling party law-maker Sanjay Jaiswal had a very apt comment to make. Jaiswal, a medical professional, called Ramdev a yoga trainer but not a Yogi. “A Yogi is one who has control over all his senses and brain. What he has done for yoga is comparable to what Coca Cola did for beverages. Indians have been, for ages, consuming shikanji and thandai but after the advent of the soft drink giant, every home seems to be stocked with bottles of Pepsi and Coke,” Jaiswal said.

In articulation of his thoughts, Jaiswal has come to give a name -- Cola Yoga -- to a new trend in our society which belittles anything in the name of Bhartiyata (of Indian origin). The epithet of Cola Yoga is derived from what the researchers in economics and sociology identify as Coca Cola culture, which spreads a feeling of happiness for the purpose of maximising profit. It’s entrepreneur Ramdev’s quest of profit which keeps him ‘constantly happy’ and even happier at belittling the rivals in the market.

The relationship between the Centre and the Delhi government is increasingly coming to remind one of the Tom and Jerry cartoon shows. The two cartoon chracater created in the United States in the 1940s-50s, related to fights between Tom, a house cat and Jerry, a mouse. The plot of the several successful short films which were made centred on Tom and Jerry trying to get the better of one another, and in the process bringing chaos and ruin all around.

The game of oneupmanship between the Centre and the city government has indeed turned governance of the national Capital into a Tom and Jerry show. Delineating the traits of two chatacters, a cinema scholar once wrote, “Despite Tom’s clever strategies (whether they work or not), determined and energetic mindset, large size, and exceptional overall intelligence, he rarely succeeds in getting the best of Jerry, mainly because of Jerry’s cunning abilities, luck, and his lack of tendencies in being a bit too reckless.”

Late Arun Jaitley, who was only next to Atal Bihari Vajpayee with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) when it came to articulation, had once said that camera was going to bring much sorrow to country’s politics. He made these comments in August 2011, speaking at the prestigious Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) at the launch of Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice. His remarks were with reference to the Anna Hazare movement which was then peaking, extensively backed by the television cameras.

Little would have Jaitley known that a decade later, the lure of the camera was bringing much sorrow not just to the politics in general but governance in particular. Every ruler has the desire to get documented, many do it by way their work speaking for them, and some prefer marking their presence at every given opportunity. With the camera now readily available, individual documentation has overtaken governance.

The opening lines of  our Constitution, the Preamble, says: ‘WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens: JUSTICE, social, economic and political; LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation.