What, Me Worry?

I hate to quote myself, but in the post Educating Rita, I asked a question. Do you think that it is a flight of fancy to consider that India will someday actually spend money on Pakistan's education? Here's one thing that I have learned in my years of being an Indian: "Never, EVER, say never."

Almost prophetically, India has made good on that promise. Read the short article below with some patience. My rant follows the article.

India willing to offer IIT seats to Pak. students
Apr. 18, 2005

India is willing to offer seats to Pakistani students in institutions of higher learning such as the IITs and management institutes, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said today. He saw tremendous potential in Indian and Pakistani scientists working together in the field of bio-technology and attached great importance to promoting cooperation in the field of education. Singh told Indian and Pakistani Editors here that he had mentioned this broadly to President Pervez Musharraf, during their talks here but "he could not do more in a meeting lasting only two hours". Responding to a question about restrictions on the exchange of newspapers, books and magazines between the two countries, Prime Minister said that in the age of internet and communication revolution such restrictions made no sense. When a Pakistani Editor complained about the difficulties in journalists obtaining visas to visit India, Singh said that all irritants affecting people-to-people contact should be removed. External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh, who was present, promised to have the visa difficulties sorted out.

The gist of the article above is that Pakistani students will now have seats reserved for them at the IITs and IIMs. For non-Indians on this blog, IITs are the Indian Institutes of Technology and IIMs are the Indian Institutes of Management. These colleges are world class and Indians fall all over themselves to get into these colleges because getting into one means that you are set for life, career wise.

To sweeten the deal, these colleges are publicly funded, which means that those who study there get a world class education for practically free. Imagine a Stanford eduction. For free.

The catch is that there are a limited number of seats and the candidates are carefully screened by a pretty challenging entrance examination. Many Indians who try get screened out. If the latest proposal goes through, a chunk of this limited number of seats will be set aside exclusively for Pakistani students. Note that I said Pakistani students, not foreign students. This generosity is aimed squarely at Pakistan. It is not an egalitarian measure to open up the IITs to all foreign students.

It takes all of what little self-control I have to restrain myself from saying what I really feel about this latest gesture of goodwill. I am aware that about a dozen people read this blog including several women, and in deference to that, I will only say that mere words cannot describe the emotion I felt when I saw that article in the newspaper. I have an averagely large vocabulary but it failed me. And maybe it's not my vocabulary's fault.

Words have limited utility in the sense that they are able to describe only a small window of emotions in the spectrum. Events sometimes occur that push the human emotional response beyond the borders of this window. That is why people say things like, "I was left speechless with amazement." or "I was struck dumb by his actions." I now understand exactly what those sentences mean.

So why is this latest move so bad? Here's why.

Most people would accept this as a fair statement that it is wise to reward good behavior (but not excessively) and punish bad behavior (unless there are mitigating circumstances, but if you do, then firmly). This is true at an individual level and so must necessarily apply even more steadfastly at a national level, given the high stakes that nations play for. And most nations play roughly within this framework of reciprocal incentives. Sometimes you may reward somebody just for the heck of it, without a corresponding gesture, but rewarding bad behavior is definitely a no-no, a strategic gaffe that only the utterly politically naive would commit.

Having said that, one would be tempted to think that this latest gesture from India is the result of a corresponding gesture of goodwill from Pakistan.

If you find this corresponding gesture, do drop me a line. Meanwhile, allow me to point out that the Theocratic Fundamentalist Islamic Republic of Pakistan, with sickening frequency, sponsors acts of terrorism on Indian soil. Almost daily, Indians are butchered in cold blood in Kashmir and elsewhere in India by Pakistan-backed terrorists. And what is our response? IIT seats, that's what.

I'll probably bust a blood-vessel saying this over and over in this blog, but here goes again: The divide between India and Pakistan is not an economic divide, it is not an educational divide; it is an ideological divide. And there is nothing, nothing that India can do that will bridge that divide. No amount of IIT seats, no number of buses will close that gap. The burden is on Pakistan to change. The best we can do from our side, as the wise man said, is to speak softly and carry a big stick. And, for the love of god, let's stop handing out the carrots indiscriminately.

Why exactly are we falling all over ourselves to reward Pakistan and to become Pakistan's sugar daddy? The United States is filling that role quite nicely, thank you very much. Let's give it a rest, shall we.

I have one thing to say to the dim-witted earthworms that currently pass for the leadership of India. And I'll say it in a few different languages in the hope that one of them will stick.

Appeasement doesn't work.
Appeasement no workie.
Appeasement nopus workum.
Appeasement no workus, you lobotomized fucks.
Appeasement nochito workibus.
*###&&&**!, you **&##ing miserable troglodytes.

That is all.