Live-in Relationships and Marriages

Many seem to be perturbed by the Supreme Court’s stand on live-in relationships, as if Supreme Court has sanctified such relationships. That something is not considered illegal may still be considered “unethical” or “immoral” by the current norms of the society and those norms in our society seem to dominate what is sanctioned by the law or considered as a crime! All the honour killings associated with inter caste / community marriages are a testimony to that situation.

I came across the following argument somewhere, to which I subscribe: ..”the idea of “contemporary morality” (which many seem to be impressed with) is not based on any empirical evidence of social benevolence or a set of principles but simply on the victories of special interest groups forwarding their vested agendas. Arguments can be conveniently weaved around the positions to reflect “Humanist ideology”, “progressive philosophy” or whatever other names one wishes to call, but the core reason for the existence of these moral imperatives in “contemporary pop-morality” is the victories (or losses) of the special interests and therefore logical arguments favoring/justifying them are irrelevant.”

If we accept the quoted argument, we can understand how the legal acceptance of live-in relationships or gay marriages is a challenge. I have no problem with the stand that sexuality, just as religion, must be a private affair and not brought into public space. But we have seen how some practices get proscribed by religion or law over time. Without altering the perspectives radically we cannot expect what we may consider progressive changes merely because the court does not find them illegal.

Why did the need for the court to take up this issue of live-in relationship or the need to legally recognize gay marriages arise? Only when some people are inconvenienced and can afford the litigation take up the issue. Many poor people practice live-in relationships and in one sense it is good that the judiciary has clarified that it is not a crime. Otherwise many of these couples, mostly the women would probably be harassed by our police, not so much on moral grounds but for the purpose of utilizing their power for making some extra income. (I am reminded of one of the segments of the award winning Adoor Gopalkrishnan’s “Naalu Pennugal” (Four women) movie!)

 That brings up another fundamental question. Why should law recognize marriages – conventional or homosexual? We are told that we need that for purposes of sharing income, property, custody of children etc. In my opinion the state / legal system should interfere only to provide some protection to the children born through marriage; no need for any other intervention with respect to property, income etc. These must be decided by the partners through specific written contracts and be dealt with as any other business transaction in the event of the “marriage” breaking up. (e.g. Jacqueline – Onasis marriage?)

In any case majority of the people would sort out the problems themselves; in the case of the fraction of the relationships which go sour, no great harm is done to either “spouse” if no children are involved. “Buyer beware” must be the caveat as in the case of Indian marriages where grooms are “bought” through dowry! (Or through one’s youth in the case of young women “buying” rich old men as happens in the West!). All physical abuse of “spouse” must be treated as “criminal” just as in the case of other physical attacks! Marriage licenses need to be optional. There is no need for tax concessions to facilitate married life, excepting to support children (natural or adopted) by “partners in the marriage”.

Without accepting such a view on marriage, crying foul about the non-acceptability of same-sex marriages by the society or frowning on people who are not able to digest the Supreme Court’s pronunciation on living-in relationships seems to me to be equally hypocritical.

Communism vs Capitalism – Myths

Mr Salman Kurshid, Minister for Corporate Affairs and Minority Affairs, recently pandered to the sentiments of the management crowd while delivering the key note address at the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of Trivandrum Management Association, by using the by now clichéd humour about one does not have a heart if one is NOT a communist during one’s twentys and one does not have head if one is still a communist diuring one’s forties!
I wonder how Mr Kurshid will react to the following excerpt from Fidel Castro’s recent speech:“it is really amazing that 234 years after the Declaration of Independence proclaimed in Philadelphia in the year 1776, which drew inspiration from the ideas of the great French encyclopedists, the government of that country has approved medical care for the overwhelming majority of its citizens, something that Cuba accomplished for its entire population half a century ago despite the cruel and inhuman blockade imposed –and still in force–  by the mightiest country that has ever existed. In the past, it was only after almost a century of independence and following a bloody war, that Abraham Lincoln could obtain the legal emancipation of the slaves.”

Can we only talk about our "glorious" past?

Tamilnadu government is going to be assisted by experts from Singapore on rendering the Cooum river meandering through the city of Chennai – what is the word I can use, I wonder – less of a problem , more “useful” or whatever. That there is some initiative to do something about this river may be welcome. But I can not help feeling a little (?) sad that the city which boasts of  an engineering education institution which was founded in 1857 as a Survey School – an institution which has graduated generations of engineers who created  the several hydro electric / irrigation projects which are still going strong – has to resort to experts from a tiny city state. If I want to rub it in further, our civil engineering expertise goes back to the Karikaal Chozhan period when what is now called Grand Anicut – Kallanai was built. There is a fascinating article in the Tamizh magazine published by Anna university on how divers got the big boulders deep into the riverbed while the Kaveri was flowing full by digging around the boulders and letting the water pressure push the boulders into the sand bed.
Cry thy proud Thamizhakam?

BSMED-Silver Jubilee- The speech I did not deleiver

The following was prepared by me expecting that some time will be given during the main event. But no participation by ex-Directors or faculty during the main event excepting to walk up the stage and get a plaque (which could have been personalized by engraving the names). I managed to  get across some the points below during the interaction with alumni in the afternoon; very few  of the current students were present then!

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The undelivered speech. 

Needless to say, that I am thrilled to be part of this exciting event. For an institution which will go on to celebrate centenary, bi-centenary and so on, Silver Jubilee may be but a small step. But for those of us who have been associated with the institution right from its birth, 25 years is a memorable milestone.

I am sure you would permit me to recall some instances / anecdotes which are relevant in the current context of debates on higher education. BSMED was founded when management education had still not become widespread in spite of the IIMs having been around for 20 plus years. Thanks to visionaries such as the then vice-chancellor of this university who is kindly gracing this occasion,  an IIM B  Dean, Dr MNV Nair was invited to give shape to BSMED. It is unfortunate that Dr Nair is no more with us to participate in this momentous occasion.

I must mention that the caring but liberal leadership of the vice chancellor and the syndicate at that time enabled BSMED to make its mark within a short time. The UGC awarded  grant for infra structure and 5-years support for a full complement of faculty and that grant was several times more than what was awarded for all the departments put together for the 7^th plan!

Another instance of the support of the university leadership is the ready accession to our request to send members of the faculty to the Faculty Development Programme at IIM Ahmedabad  which then was for a full year, not 4 months as I understand it is now. Of course, I have to mention the complete academic autonomy we enjoyed right from the admission process to the curriculum development and the evaluation process.

Such enabling leadership of the then vice-chancellor and the syndicate and the efforts of the committed small team of faculty led to instances of recognition such as a press report of those years in which BSMED was reckoned as one of the top ten business schools outside of the IIM category.

Thanks to such innovative and organic growth, I may claim that BSMED has done a lot to the spread of management education in Tamilnadu. One of our founding faculty team, Dr Uma Maheshwar, became the first Director of the Management Department of Alagappa University; unfortunately, he is also not with us today having been plucked away from this earth rather prematurely. Our alumnus Dr. Chandrasekhar Nair is the current Director of Institute of Management, Kerala of the Kerala University and his batch mate Dr Anandan became the first Director of the Sardar Vallabhai Patel Institute for Textile management here in Coimbatore. Dr Koteeswaran, the first PhD from BSMED is the Dean of a management institution in Chennai. I know there are many more of our alumni both MBAs and PhDs who are serving the cause of management education in India and abroad.

Of course, I have been emphasizing the BSMEDians’ achievement is the academic field because of my preferences. But we are equally proud of all those who have passed through the portals of BSMED and who are today successful management professionals and entrepreneurs. I am glad to see both the Gold medalists of the first batch – Senthilkumar all the way from Europe and Balaji as well as many others from the 1^st batch, have chosen to participate today. Many of our alumni in leading organizations, have proven themselves equal to or even better than their colleagues chosen from what are called premier management institutes.

I am sure with a much larger complement of faculty, user friendly ITC technology that is widely available now, a great demand for management education which should ensure that students with the right attitude and competence are admitted through a good admission process to go through a curriculum, which should never be allowed to become archaic, BSMED will become a model for a university-based management institution worthy of emulation. I am sure BSMED would have reached and will still reach such heights if an enabling leadership which we enjoyed in the early years had been or is continued. In these days of difficult times for higher education, it is a tough task; but BSMEDians, I am sure, enjoy the challenges of a tough task. So let us accept the challenge.

Thank you.

Silver Jubilee of BSMED

The Silver Jubilee celebrations of  the Management school of Bharathiar University, Coimbatore were held recently. I had been associated from the very first batch of students till I retired in 2004. Several of the alumni have been in touch with me personally either through the school’s group mail, through personal mail or through  networking sites. There was also an ad supplement in “The Hindu” prior to the celebrations. A group of alumni had worked hard to organise the event, and they would have used the linked-in, facebook, twitter etc. to reach other alumni, I assume.  Those who had manged to come had a good time, I suppose,  definitely those who turned up for the informal get together in the evening would confirm that.

I did expect a large attendance given that nearly 1000 students have gone through the system. I must admit that I was rather disappointed. Even many alumni, who I know are from Coimbatore did not show up. I would have at least expected some kind of a greetings message from many who cared. May be there were a few, but not to be excited about. I am surprised that with all the “social networking” hype many did not bother to network. Why was that? Did people feel that there is nothing much in it for them? Does the rat race of the work place not allow them time to even send an email greeting? Or may be they did send and the information was not shared during the event? The ever questioning and never satisfied, Ramki again?

Innovative solution for women’s representation

Rather than fighting over the reservation for women, we should let every parliament constituency and assembly constituency be represented by one man and one woman. The suggestion may seem outlandish and is definitely not made in any lighter vein.

The major objection will be the increased expenditure on account of this doubling the members. First of all, we have to see what percentage of the total expenditure for governance is the expenditure on members of parliament and state assemblies. Besides, we need not double the membership. Let us remember that the size of the constituencies were configured when transport and communications were not very easy. Today, it is not the case. The members can visit their constituencies physically in a very short time; they can resort to video conferencing or phone-in sessions and be in touch effectively. (In any case most MPs and MLAs hardly ever keep in touch with the voters of their constituencies; some are not even domiciled in their constituencies!).

Hence, by increasing the size of the constituencies we can retain the same number of members. In that case the quota within quota problem will become irrelevant. Even if the numbers are increased to say 600 for the parliament, the present infrastructure will be amply adequate given that most of the time we see the parliament mostly empty. In any case, compared to the parliament chamber of of the “mother of all parliaments” in England, we have a very spacious hall and some minor reconfiguring can easily accommodate even double the present number!

So why stop at 33% ? Let us be represented by both men and women in equal numbers.