SPECTRUM ECSTACY AND AGONY OF SECMOL

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SPECTRUM ECSTACY AND AGONY OF SECMOL
-A golden era of education reform in Ladakh is coming to an end-I

By Sonam Chosjor
Freedom is not free The Britishers had left India in 1947 after
ruling India to its ruin. Such was the magnitude and the intensity of
their colonization of India that the presences of their hostile
legacies are felt on a daily basis even after 60 years of its
independence. They left behind them a hostile police force, and an
oppressive and powerful bureaucratic structure both of which in a
vicious nexus with the power-hungry politicians still tyrannize and
alienate the common masses in independent India. Rakeysh Omparkash
Mehra's pathbraking movie Rang De Basanti brilliantly tells this agony
of independent India. The theme of the move is aptly summed up by the
title of Shiv Khera's book: Freedom is not Free.

Yes, we have attained freedom from the Britishers but not from our own
rulers, policemen and bureaucrats. The 'Politician-BureaucratPolice
nexus' estrange the common masses upto an extent that they are yet to
realize the value of citizenship, freedom and democracy. What is
clearly evident is that freedom does not come in one stroke: Every
generation has to fight for its own freedom, for, so far, we have only
witnessed a transfer of power from the Britishers to our own rulers,
not freedom per se.

How the powerful officers oppress the powerless people can be seen
from the way the Students Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh
(SECMOL) had to face the wrath of authorities. Before making any
comment further, it would be pertinent to know the genesis of the
issue. Genesis of the Problem On April 3, 2006 in a conference on
"Youth and Employment" organized by the District Industries
Department, Leh, Sonam Wangchuk (as one of the speakers) made a remark
that all government officials including the DCs and Chief Secretaries
live on tax payers money. This irked the authorities. Wangchuk
subsequently apologized realizing his responsibility to do so. It is
desirable that the entire issue should have been disposed off once the
person who made a controversial remark realized his mistake and
apologized. However, unfortunately the story did not end here. The
authorities declared Sonam Wangchuk an antinational and made many
other serious allegations. Ecstasy of SECMOL Now, let us look at the
credibility of the man and his organization being dubbed as anti-
national. SECMOL came into being in 1989 and was a brainchild of Sonam
Wangchuk. He with the help of some other fellows started to improve
the state of government schools in Ladakh where majority of Ladakhi
students study. In the course of its journey (from 19892007) the
organization and the man behind it was hugely acclaimed both
nationally and internationally for changing the face of education in
Ladakh drastically. For me, three noble initiatives of SECMOL have
been as under: (a) Initiation of Operation New Hope (ONH) with an aim
of integrating and coordinating the three important pillars of
education (Government, Community and Civil Society), and making them
work cooperatively to achieve its broader goal of the 3Hs - a skilled
Hand, a bright Head, and a kind Heart. It became the official policy
of the Ladakh Autonomy Hill Development Council, Leh in 1996.

(b) The second initiative was the re-writing of the school textbooks
and change of medium of instruction to English. The re-writing of the
textbooks upto primary level with Ladakhi examples and stories was to
enable the children to get an easy and solid foundation of education.
The change of medium of instruction (from Urdu to English) was to
lessen the burden and pressure the students had to face immediately
after 9th standard (when the medium used to change from Urdu to
English). This policy is now being adopted by the J & K Board of
School Education and is being implemented throughout the state in all
the government schools.

(c) Third radical step was the setting up of Village Education
Committees (VEC) and arranging Teachers' Tainting. VECs were meant
primarily to enforce and monitor transparency in schools at village
level so that teachers remain accountable to their duties. It was,
however, not an antiteacher mechanism (as believed to be so by many
teachers), for one of its primary purposes was to take care of the
convenience of the teachers in villages. The teachers' trainings were
pro vided to facilitate the teachers with new and studentfriendly
tools of teaching and learning.

At a broader level the agenda behind all the abovementioned programmes
was to help people realize their stake in government schools. Because
despite the huge investment made by the gov ernment in the government
schools, the private schools were far ahead of them with lesser
monetary and human resource investments. So the people had to be
awakened to take their due share from the government schools.

In recognition of the drastic change brought about in the government
schools in Ladakh through the aforementioned new initiatives, Sonam
Wangchuk got huge popularity and recognition (which, I believe, could
not be digested by many of his rivals). The following honors stands
testimony to his good works: · 'Man of the Year' by The Weak, in 2001
· Nominated to the Governing Council for the National Mission for
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan by the Ministry of Human Resource Development,
Govt. of India in 2004 · Awarded Ashoka Fellowship for Social
Entrepreneurship in 2002 by the Ashoka Foundations USA.

· Awarded Governors Medal for Education reforms in Jammu & Kashmir in
1996 · Awarded Green Teachers Award by the magazine 'Sanctuary Asia'
in 2004 · Selected for the 'Asia 21 young Leaders' Summit Seoul, Korea
in 2006 · Two documentary films made on his life and work by
Doordarshan (PSBT) and ETV.

Apart from these, Tehelka (hailed as one of the best sources of news
by the London based newspaper, The Guardian) hailed SECMOL's work as a
model for public education system in India. Renowned magazines like
Cultural Survival, Down to Earth, Outlook, The week and Sanctuary Asia
have hailed the work done by SECMOL from time to time.

Given this kind of a background and recognition nationally and
internationally, it is completely surprising to brand this man and the
institutions as anti-national.

Who is an anti-national?

In India while attaching the tag of anti-national to someone, the
spirit of nation and nationalism are often being overlooked. Rather
those in power use the letters of some draconian acts like the
Official Secrete Act (OSA) to brand someone anti-national on very
trivial grounds. For those who are not ready to accept this line
argument, I will give two examples (one national, and one very local)
to justify the point.

Firstly, anyone who is interested in knowing how draconian laws
torture innocent citizens on flimsiest grounds should go throng
Iftikhar Gilani's prison book, My Days in Prison (Penguin, 2005).
Iftikhar Gilani, head of bureau of The Kashmir Times in Delhi, was
arrested on 9 June 2002 for sharing some information with a Pakistan-
based research institute. The mainstream national media lose no time
in declaring him as an agent of ISI, and within days he was avowed as
a terrorist in the form of a journalist. He was imprisoned without
bail under the draconian and much-abused Official Secrets Act (OSA).
He was in Tihar Jail for seven months where he was even compelled to
clean toilet flashes with his shirt, and was subsequently forced to
wear the same shirt.

After seven harsh months of imprisonment, the government withdrew the
case in January 2003 in the light of strong protests by civil right
activists and some media personalities.

Later on, it became clear that the information he shared with the
Pakistanbased research institution was abundantly available on the
official websites of Government of India (GoI). Later on, it was also
affirmed that during the course of his trial, the IB fabricated
evidence, and the Directorate General of Military Intelligence (DGMI)
was inconsistent in his statements and remarks. The second example is
much more local, but was also highlighted in the national media.
During the Kargil War (1999), a group of Jammu and Kashmir Police
(JKP) (headed by a sub-inspector) arrested two persons (Sukay Bulu, a
Buddhist; and Mohd Ali, a Muslim) from this writer's village, namely
Achinathang (about 140 Kms away from Leh). This writer happened to be
there in the village when the police raided their houses. The Police
recovered a little quantity of dynamite and one ancient rifle from one
of their houses. It is important to make it clear here that most of
the families in villages in Ladakh owns/uses dynamite for leveling the
rocky terrain to make houses and fields; and many families own ancient
rifles (more as an antique piece) which generally are in too bad shape
to kill even birds with them.

However, the next day ( 29 June 1999) an unbelievable (at least for
me) news item appeared in the Kargil Special segment of The Indian
Express saying that the police have recovered huge arsenal of weapons
and arrested many militants from Achinathang and Turtuk areas of Leh.
That was completely unbelievable and very shocking because both the
persons who were arrested (and declared militants) were hard-core
nationalists. Just days before their arrest, they had been voluntarily
serving the Indian Army in the rocky mountains of Dha Hanu as porters-
carrying rations, cloths and ammunitions to the army so they can fight
war in the difficult geographical terrains where there were no
motorable roads.

But both of them were put behind the bar. They were released, later
on, after many days in jails; and (given the triviality of ground of
their arrest) a year later, the charges against them was dropped. Both
the persons were too innocent that they do not know even to this date
that they were once dubbed as militants in the national media. If they
(in the future) happen to know this, I am very sure, that day is going
to be the saddest day of their life.

Both Bulu and Ali were arrested by a team of JKP headed by a sub-
inspector (SI). Now if an SI and his team can dub innocent citizens as
militants, what officials with much more powers like DCs and SSPs can
do is well understandable. Moreover, later on, some reliable sources
told me that the arrest of Bulu and Ali was conspired by a family from
our own village, (having links with some influential persons and
police) to settle their personal grudges.

Now Sonam Wangchuk is facing the heat of being declared 'anti-
national' alleging him of having links with 'China and some other
countries'. Given his track record as a social activist and reformer,
it is completely unbelievable.

In all the above three cases (of allegation of anti-national), one
thing is very similar and clear: All the persons, against whom charges
of anti-national were framed, were responsible and dutiful citizens.

· Iftikhar Gilani's story tells how (despite serious allegations and
abuses of ones civil rights) important it is to uphold the rule of law
as a responsible citizen and seek justice through the same; · Bulu &
Ali performed their fundamental duty of rendering service to the
nation during national crisis by working voluntarily as porters to
help the Indian Army defend the nation. Despite being illiterates they
had this sense of duty towards the nation which many of the literate
and powerful (read officer) citizens always tend to forget/neglect.

· Sonam Wangchuk's story tells that how a responsible and dutiful
citizen can empower other less empowered citizens through social
reforms. In Wangchuk's case, he undertook the responsibility of
reforming the education system so that many citizens are empowered to
realize the status of a real and responsible citizen.

One more thing is similar in all the above three cases: How easily
some irresponsible officers misuse and abuse the laws to their end.

There are many more Gilanis, Bulus, Alis and Wangchuks whose stories
are untold & unknown, and who suffer from similar physical and mental
tortures in democratic India.

It should not be difficult for us (if we apply the logic of true
nation and nationalism) to differentiate between a nationalist and an
antinational. For me, the test of a person's nationality should not be
reduced to the letters of the draconian laws and the whims of the
egoistic and powerful officials: it should be judged by the true
spirit of nation and the duty one renders in the national interest.
Going by the spirit of nation, all the persons accused in the above
cases were truly nationalistic. Anti-nationals were those officials
who misused the draconian laws to their end.

*(The author is a Ph.D student in the PG Department of Political
Science, University of Jammu, Jammu) -(To be concluded)