Student plus politics (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: National
Prelims level: NIRF data
Mains level: Highlights the NIRF data on educational institutions and explains how it differs form politics

Context:

• Delayed by the COVID-19 outbreak, the annual lists of the National Institutional Ranking Framework have finally been released by the Union HRD ministry.
• It makes sobering reading for those who had convinced themselves, and others, that academics and politics do not go very well together.
• The very campuses which have been demonised as dens of anti-national activity and bunkers of the “tukde-tukde gang”, the mythical bugaboo conjured up to warn university students off politics, have emerged among the most important nurseries for the leading citizens of tomorrow.

Upper echelons:

• The most politically active campuses in the country are in the upper echelons of the list — Jawaharlal Nehru University, Calcutta University, Jadavpur University, the University of Hyderabad, Jamia Millia Islamia, the University of Delhi.
• That deflates the notion, popular in ...............................

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Conclusion:

• There is no contradiction between academics and politics.
• In fact, politics only signals the willingness to join the fray for a better world.
• And therefore, a student on a campus which has suffered the coercive attention of political thugs or the police is probably doing something right.
• Campus rankings reveal that the very institutions demonised as sanctuaries of ‘anti-nationals’ are leaders in learning.

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Prelims Questions:

Q1.  With reference to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), consider the following statements:
1. It was established as the Prime Minister’s Secretariat in 1947.
2. The prime minister, according to convention, has five private secretaries.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: ............................................

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Mains Questions:
Q1.  Campus rankings reveal that the ..............................