ROGUE ELEMENTS IN EDUCATION TRY TO DERAIL MODI 3.0 AGENDA

Examination processes need to be reconfigured in ways that ensure that rogue actors find it impossible to wreak havoc on the lives of millions of deserving youths.

- MADHAV NALAPAT

At the very start of his tenure as the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi was emphatic about maximising governance through minimising government procedures. “Minimum government, maximum governance” was his motto. Since 2014, it has been a difficult but continuing task for PM Modi in his efforts at transforming the administrative structure such as to ensure greater accountability, transparency and domain expertise. Given that Narendra Modi works to a 15year Master Plan, Modi 3.0 (2024-29) has been designated as the period when such a transformation of the governance structure becomes fully operational. Since his third term in 7 Lok Kalyan Marg began, the Prime Minister has made several unprecedented moves, such as responding via social media to the message of congratulations sent by the newlyelected President of Taiwan, Ching-te Lai. Although such messages came routinely in the past from Taipei, this was the first time that the Prime Minister has himself responded in public to them, while elsewhere emphasising the need for Cross-Strait stability and tranquillity. Or in other words, asking the CCP led by General Secretary Xi Jinping to tone down the rising level of bellicosity of its warlike remarks on Taiwan. Similarly, the Prime Minister publicly highlighted his meeting with the Speaker Emerita of the United States, Nancy Pelosi, and other members of the US Congress immediately after they had called on His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. The US Congress has meanwhile passed a Tibet Bill, which needs only President Biden’s signature to become law. India has refused to accept the new names imposed on several Tibetan locations, and has stuck by the original Tibetan names.