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The Daily Janchetna

Year11, Issue:9, Friday, Nov.13,2020.

. Message of the Day .

No matter, wish or don’t wish, we have to depend on the society to exist and meet our needs to make both ends meet. At the time of the birth, man is nothing more than a breathing piece of flesh. Had the family, a unit of the society, not extended a helping hand, we would have been finished there and then. Even after that, one has to depend upon the society for the basic needs and security. Life without society is not possible. Now, if we have to live in the society, why should the necessity be not made a virtue? We ought to organize a loving and caring society at service in fever and fret and still liberal in independent living. And this is possible only when we socialize ourselves to participate in its activities even at our personal costs.

. History of the Day-5 .  

Following the king’s execution, war with various European powers and intense divisions within the National Convention ushered the French Revolution into its most violent and turbulent phase. In June 1793, the Jacobins seized control of the National Convention from the more moderate Girondins and instituted a series of radical measures, including the establishment of a new calendar and the eradication of Christianity. They also unleashed the bloody Reign of Terror (“la Terreur”), a 10-month period in which suspected enemies of the revolution were guillotined by the thousands. Many of the killings were carried out under orders from Robespierre, who dominated the draconian Committee of Public Safety until his own execution on July 28, 1794. His death marked the beginning of the Thermidorian Reaction, a moderate phase in which the French people revolted against the Reign of Terror’s excesses.

. Today’s History .

13th November

Important Events:

1905 – Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, the fifth President of India, was born

1956 – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Indian spiritual leader who founded the Art of Living Foundation, was born

1967 – Dr. Zakir Hussain, became the third President of India

1998 – The Pokhran II nuclear tests, took place

2001 – R K Narayan, Indian author, died

 

“Functioning within the parameters of the Constitution to carry out its mandate to legislate and deliberate, the Council of States has engaged itself incessantly to translate into action the lofty vision of the founding fathers of the Republic.”

 Dr. S Radhakrishnan, Chairman of the first Rajya Sabha session, talked about the Upper House on 13May 1952.

13 May 1952, is remembered with pride and joy as the newly constituted “Council of States” sat together for the first time. This “Second Chamber” of the Parliament of India, was later named as the Rajya Sabha, on 23August 1954. Since, India’s independence in 1947, the government had a vision of creating a democratic infrastructure that would represent people from all walks of life and all ages. Creation of a Second Chamber, was also in sync with the ideals of bicameralism. Today, the Rajya Sabha is an important part of the Indian Parliament, that provides the necessary deliberations on important matters of the nation, with the Lok Sabha.

Origin of the Rajya Sabha

The concept of the Rajya Sabha can be seen as early as 1919, when the Montague-Chelmsford Report was brought forth. It recommended its formation, similar to that of other democratic countries of the time. The responsibilities of the Second Chamber were although marginalised, and “did not reflect any federal features in the true sense.” One of the major stand-offs of the Chamber, was the fact that women were neither allowed to vote for the candidates nor stand as one. The Second Chamber was also considered as a British “Government” Chamber, holding only colonial interests. Despite protests from the Indian faction, the Council of States, in the restricted form, continued to operate until the country got rid of the foreign rule in 1947.

The newly independent India, with its idealistic views, imagined a bicameral legislature that would uphold the democratic traditions. In this regard, the “Union Constitution Committee”, under Jawaharlal Nehru as Chairman was formed, and the report in 1936 mentioned, that the Second Chamber or ‘Upper House’ would be “reactionary” and its responsibility would be to “check any forward tendencies in the Lower House.” Prominent freedom fighter and political personality, M A Ayyangar further explained, that the Upper House would provide opportunities for different people to participate in politics, and “whatever hasty legislation is passed by the Lower House, would be checked by the slow movement of the Upper House.”

Initially named as the “Council of States”, this legislative unit was given the “historic responsibility of unifying the nation,” by “representing the States and Union territories and voicing their interests.”

The First Rajya Sabha

According to the official website of Rajya Sabha, the first time Council of States was constituted was on 3 April 1952. It had 216 members, of which one was a nominated woman member – Rukmini Devi Arundale. The first Chairman was Dr. S Radhakrishnan, also the first Vice President of the nation. The Deputy Chairman was S V Krishnamoorthy Rao, and the Leader of the House was N Gopalaswami Ayyangar.

The first sitting of the Council of States on 13May 1952, was begun by the President’s address for both the Upper and Lower House. This tradition still continues every year, and after every general election. The difference was that the address was neither followed by a “Motion of Thanks,” nor had a “Question Hour” session, which nowadays happens regularly.

In addition, the Rajya Sabha decided to meet for four sessions in a year – twice during Budget Session (between February and March, and then between April and May), Monsoon Session (between July and August), and again during the Winter Session (between November and December). After 1994, the number of sessions was considered as three, as the two Budget Sessions were clubbed into one.

With time, rules and regulations of the Rajya Sabha were reformulated and designed to address matters of the modern society.

Important Facts about Rajya Sabha

The Rajya Sabha is considered as the Upper House. Whereas, the Lower House or the Lok Sabha can be dissolved in certain cases, the Rajya Sabha is a permanent wing of the Parliament and cannot be “subject to dissolution.” According to the Constitution of India, there can be a maximum of 250 members in the Rajya Sabha, of which 12 are nominated by the President from different professions and sections of society. The others are elected by the members of the legislative assemblies of the States and Union territories, who are elected by the people. The Rajya Sabha members have a six-year term, but one-third of the members must retire every two years. The members are above 30 years of age, and are the representatives of the population of each state.

. Current .

India's quest for skills

A couple of years ago, in a moment of heroic idealism, I volunteered to teach algebra to Class VIII students in a neighbourhood school, a few yards away from where I live, in Colaba, Mumbai. A sizeable proportion of the children in the class were sons and daughters of fishermen working off the nearby Sasoon Docks.

 My lasting memory of this brief episode (alas, work-related travel put an end to my attempt at heroic idealism) was the raw talent of these children and their eagerness to learn.

If any of them had been born into middle class families such as mine they would have been the front runners for IITs and IIMs.

Regrettably, many of my students get pulled out of school to start earning money to support their families in jobs such as delivery boys or maids.

None of this would come as a revelation to anyone. You are merely recounting all that we all know, is likely to be the reaction.

And in the next breath, we are likely to hear a recommendation that the real solution to such issues is to have a vocational education system.

Train these children in some skills that will let them earn a decent living because what is the point of them pushing on and earning a three-year college degree -- they still won't be able to earn a living.

Except that a decade or so of attempting to do skill-building programmes with most states and the central government naming dedicated departments and ministers tasked with skill-building, there doesn't seem to be much to show.

Committees have met and drawn up lists of skill-based jobs that will be in demand in the future, curricula have been drawn up to impart such skills.

Many companies such as Siemens and L&T have been making valiant efforts, but compared to the scale at which India need such skill training such efforts don't seem to make a dent: Many millions of Indian kids are streaming out of middle and high school, and the efforts so far is at best in the thousands.

I checked the other day with a group of deep-thinking people who have been making valiant efforts in this field. One of them told me something that is still ringing in my head.

'Doing things with your hands and being praised when you do a good job, for example, of fixing a broken window, starts from childhood in countries like Germany," he said. Children grow up in a culture where such skills are admired and praised even among white-collar middle class parents.

Such a culture in society is the key to vocational education and skill-based jobs being valued.

In India, for some inexplicable reason, societal aspiration is for 'office jobs', jobs where you sit at a desk and work with pen and paper, or its modern variant, a computer keyboard.

The social dynamics of a country can never be divorced from the goings-on within the educational system. I got a first-hand experience of this when I immersed myself in studying the functioning of polytechnics in eastern India.

Indian polytechnics are often criticised for not producing graduates with in-depth skills and I realised why: Social pressure from parents of children who could not gain entrance to engineering colleges resulted in a quota for polytechnic students to enter engineering colleges laterally.

This resulted in polytechnics changing their curricula to mimic that of engineering colleges so that polytechnic students when they entered engineering colleges through this lateral entry scheme would be able to cope.

This, of course, results in no time being available for the one who continue on in polytechnics to have any skill-based courses.

Kathleen Thelen, a professor of political science at Northwestern University, in her book, How Institutions Evolve: The Political Economy of Skills in Germany, Britain, the United States, and Japan, describes the processes at work in society in Germany, where a flourishing vocational education system exists, and England, where no vocational education system has taken root in spite of valiant efforts like what is going on in India now.

Britain's chronic undersupply of training goes back to what economists call 'free-rider' problem: In a country where skilled people are in short supply, if one firm has a high-quality skill training programme, others will pinch their employees and thus get a 'free ride'.

Britain thus got into a vicious circle in which dearth of skills in the economy encouraged firms to pursue product strategies premised on low skills, which in turn discouraged investments in skills, and so on, she says.

Ms Thelen quotes the sociologist Gary Becker as saying that skills are of two types: 'Specific skills', which are specific to a firm, and 'general skills', which are transportable across companies and employers.

When companies do skill training they will have little incentive to impart 'general skills'. 'Specific skills', on the other hand, are completely non-transportable and have value only for that particular firm.

You can now also see why depending on companies to impart skills training may not solve the economy-wide skill-deficit problem. In liberal market economies, says Ms Thelen, there are high incentives for young people to acquire skills that are generally marketable rather than acquiring skills that are industry or firm specific.

Even whether new technologies get developed has a link to society and social structure.

A large domestic market, and absence of a skill-development regime, has historically driven American businesses to standardise their products and search for skill-displacing technologies.

It is happening even today.

. Informative .

ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ

I walked down the street in Barcelona , and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz ... We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In

Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.

The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all,  as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.

And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted  to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.

They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime.

Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts. And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical

hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition.

We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for

our children and theirs.

What a terrible mistake was made  by miserable Europe The Global Islamic population is approximately 1,200,000,000; that is ONE BILLION TWO HUNDRED MILLION or 20% of the world's population.