Our politicians are coming up with new and weird ideas by the day. Kapil Sibal would surely go down in the history of Indian politics as one of the most active education ministers in terms of work. When I say active, I mean that he has continuously come up with new ideas and reforms and made sure these ideas turned into reality.
Whether the ideas / reforms have been successful or unsuccessful is a different question altogether :) Many of his moves like having a single entrance exam for medical students and abolishing board exams have been ridiculed and praised in equal measure.
But one of his most recent ideas seem to have reached the limit of stupidity. He made this statement in the media yesterday.
"China is our powerful neighbor and emerging as a biggest consumer of global resources. We cannot wish it away. The best way to introduce China in India is to introduce its language at primary level so that our kids develop interest and knowledge about China”
If anyone thinks that this does not border on ridiculousness, please comment…
Some of the other points mentioned by him include –
- Training a large number of Indian teachers to acquire the language skills to make it part of the syllabus
- Making it part of the CBSE curriculum
The only reason he has given to introduce Mandarin is that China is a growing consumer of resources and “We cannot wish it away”.
But there are a lot of reasons which point to the fact that introducing Mandarin in India is not beneficial – There are many more important issues such as Kashmir, Aksai Chin, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim etc. to solve before engaging into such soft diplomacy confidence building measures.
Chinese have always tried to be one up on us whenever any matter is concerned be it international policy issues or outsourcing jobs from the US. Introducing Mandarin in our country is an indication that we are trying to keep them happy even though they do anything they want
Mandarin is spoken by the largest speaking population in the world. For that matter Hindi comes at 5th place in that list. But will China even remotely consider introducing it in their country?…I think not!
Chinese use such tactics to gain access to the whole world and make it their backyard and we Indians are sadly falling prey to this game. Why do we have to be so accommodating and keep pleasing anyone and everyone?
Before introducing Mandarin, Mr Sibal should make sure if not Hindi, at least everyone knows proper English in our country.
Instead of spending tax–payers hard earned money, the Indian government should spend money in the education sector to make the students learn English, Hindi and their local language.
But is anyone listening?
Do you think introducing Mandarin in India is the right move by our government?
P.S- Can anyone tell what is written in Chinese in the image :)