Ashok Singhal is amongst the most hated men in India (read media). He is supposed to be communal,hate-monger,castist person. He, according to the media spreads "venom". Now get this, he is a qualified Electrical Engineer from Banaras Hindu University (One of the most prestigious institutes in country). He got his degree at a time when most wouldn't even clear their matriculation.
Praveen Togadia is far worse than Singhal according to the media and guess what - He is a Cardiologist (MD), heart surgeon.
Arun Shourie who belongs to the communal BJP is a Doctorate in Economics and has to his credit a tenure with the World Bank. Arun Jaitley is an honours from University of Delhi where he also completed his Law Degree. Lal Krishna Advani, the diabolical face of BJP is a qualified lawyer from Bombay University though he cleared his pre-Engineering exam during those days and couldn't pursue because of lack of money. Even Atal Bihari Vajpayee was an MA from University of Gwalior. Remember during those days completing education was a huge thing and doing Masters in a subject was usually a mile stone is someone's life.
I had read with great interest a survey counducted by India Today on the eve of General Elections few years back. I have forgotten the details but i recollect clearly the message of that survey.
The more you are educated the more likely you are to vote for BJP.
Lets for the time being presume that what the survey says is incorrect or plain blank made up. Lets take a general snapshot of people around us, those whose column we read or those whose view we know. We know that following people either support the BJP or are in tune with its ideology directly or indirectly.
Swapan Das Gupta - a pro-BJP writer has a PhD from England. Rajeev Srinivasan is an ex-IITian and a Management Graduate from Stanford, add to this list of Pro-BJP writers and you will get Rajiv Malhotra,Subash Kak,B.Raman,Bramha Chelleny,Kanchan Das Gupta etc in the list, all of whom are extremely qualified and well educated individuals who have consistently by their articles shown their prefernce for BJP.
So the question is, does your educational background has something to do with your general preference or general inclination towards a particular ideology? May be it is or may be it isn't. Lot would argue that even the communists have a wide range of lumanaries who are highly qualified. I am not sure on that. Most communists that i know of have had their degrees from London where like Jawaharlal Nehru, they were brainwashed into the concept of communism and socialism. Point being they all or atleast most belong to the same school of thought (literally). I mean i don't know of any IITians or MBA's or Doctorates amongst the Communists.
So now let me go further and add another variable to this discussion. Does, not only the degree, but the kind of degree matter in a person's preference? It would be far fetched to say that all Engineers would support BJP and all Arts or Commerce guys would supprt the Congress. But i would stick my neck out and say , well, most Engineers would support BJP and most Arts guys would support the Congress. I'll also add this here, most qualified people who have had education from really really good institutes such as IITs would find them closer to BJP.
So that explains why Congress has consistently been in power in this country for so long. Except for Nehru none of the Gandhi-Nehru family completed their education. Indira,Rajiv and now even Rahul, have dropped out from their courses. Sonia Gandhi's educational qualification has always been suspect though she may claim otherwise. So we as a nation voted en-bloc for the Gandhis who have enjoyed for more than half-a-century, a life that can be compared to any of the richest Kings and Queens who ever ruled in the world. I doubt they would have been in power for so long had Indian population been even 50% more educated than it is today.
The rise of BJP in India is consistent with the growth of literacy in the country. And that off course is a bad sign for Congress which has so far successfully kept India poor and uneducated - a gaurantee to vote bank. Congress had high stakes in keeping the country poor and uneducated. This ensured its survival thus far.
India has very recently breached the 50% mark in the literacy rate. Thats an ominous sign for Congress, though i may add that literacy and education are two very different things.
Its a poetic justice that the first IITian to be a Chief Minister of any state in the country belonged to the BJP. His name is Manohar Parrikar who was reforming Goa like no one. It was only Sonia Gandhi's lust for power that stopped him in his tracks.
There are a whole lot of educated guys in Congress, no doubt. But if we take a cross-section of Congress and another Cross-section of the BJP, we will see the difference very clearly. And we will see a greater difference when we take a cross-section of their supporters.
Vinod Mehta is a Congress supporter and he is blatant in his love for the Gandhis. I am sure his educational qualification is no match to his counter-part and rival - Arun Pourie of India Today who keeps a low profile.
By the way,what is common between Vinod Mehta,Mahesh Bhatt, Teesta Setalvad, Shabana Azmi, Barkha Dutt,Rajdeep Sardesai, Pamela Phillipose, Javed Akhtar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Somnath Chatterjee etc etc...
All of then are loud mouth,hate the BJP,love Pakistan, and are pretty much from a similar educational background.
What is common between Swapan Das Gupta, Rajeev Srinivasan, B.Raman, TVR Shenoy, Arun Poorie, Kanchan Das Gupta et al. All of them keep a low profile, are highly qualified, logical and very neat in their approach and well they hate ... err... sorry, dislike the Congress.
Got the drift ?
Ya right :-) I belong to the good company !!!
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