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Backward classes

Snapshot of what education has come to mean in Maharashtra in the early 21st Century. Bear with me, the story's somewhat intricate. The 12th Standard (HSC) results are declared on May 25. A young man from Kolhapur, Madan Nagargoje, is the state topper, scoring so close to 100 pc as makes no difference. His name is suddenly on hoardings and prominent newspaper ads everywhere. These come courtesy Chate's Coaching Classes. Which establishment claims his success is proof of their excellence, since Nagargoje attended their classes (in other words, say the ads, he is a "Chatean").

Nothing unusual so far: Chate puts out such ads every year. But the worms are just emerging from the can.

Machchindra Chate, proprietor of Chate's Classes, takes Nagargoje to meet Anil Deshmukh, Maharashtra's minister of state for education, on May 31. Why such a meeting is necessary, I don't know; Chate describes it as one of several "courtesy visits" he made with Nagargoje to state ministers.

However, "courtesy" is the last word you'd use to describe what happened in the minister's office: some kind of altercation between Chate and Deshmukh. Deshmukh says Chate "barged into" his ante-chamber. Chate claims that the "meeting started on a cordial note, but became heated when he sought an explanation from the minister" about things Deshmukh has been saying about Chate's classes. He has accused Chate of paying off toppers to say they had been coached in his classes, and has spoken publicly about complaints against Chate's Classes. "I was illegally detained in the ante-chamber for three-quarters of an hour," Chate says. "My cellular phone was confiscated. Is this the way respectable citizens should be treated in a democracy?"

No idea. But no word, not one, about what state topper Madan Nagargoje is doing as this little storm swirls about him during this visit so full of old-fashioned courtesy.

And it only gets muddier, trust me. Deshmukh calls the police and has Chate forcibly removed from his chamber. He is booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 451 (house trespass in order to commit an offence, yes, "house trespass"), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), and 506 (criminal intimidation). At the Cuffe Parade police station, Chate files a case against Deshmukh under Section 342 (wrongful confinement). A judge has issued a summons to Deshmukh to appear before him in this case on June 23.

With me still? Hold on, the worms are turning some more. The courtesy call turns out to have enormous political ramifications. Also at the Cuffe Parade police station, helping Chate along with his counter-case and his release on a personal bond, are once-ministers Narayan Rane of the Shiv Sena and Gopinath Munde and Nitin Gadkari of the BJP. Surprised at the sudden appearance of these major-league political bigwigs? Well, a couple of days later, Chate organises a massive function to "felicitate" Nagargoje. The three ex-ministers are all there, as is the Sena's Bal Thackeray, as chief guest. Thackeray uses the occasion to lavish praise on Chate and make some acerbic remarks about the present state government and several of his usual bugbears.

No word, still, about what state topper Nagargoje is doing as this "function" carries on around him.

But on June 6, Thackeray declares that "the Sena has nothing to do with Chate classes." So why was he at this function? As he was "invited to be chief guest," he went there to "compliment a young achiever." And if the Sena has "nothing to do with Chate classes", what was Rane doing at the police station? Thackeray finds "nothing wrong" in his presence there, as the arrest of Chate "involved the civil liberties of a common citizen."

Meanwhile, Deshmukh alleges that Munde has business links with Chate's classes. It's not clear what the offence here is, but the allegation has Chate and Munde issuing angry denials. "Mr Munde is a relative through marriage," says Chate. "He is also my friend and inspiration. But we have no business partnership."

For his part, Munde "expressed his readiness to face any probe about his alleged links", and describes Deshmukh's allegation as "baseless." (In one interesting sidelight to this imbroglio that does not lack for interesting sidelights, Deshmukh used to be minister of state for education when Rane and Munde were CM and Deputy CM, in the Thackeray-controlled Sena-BJP regime in Maharashtra. I am confident he did not raise this matter of a Munde-Chate link then).

Meanwhile, too, Deshmukh asks the chief income tax commissioner to inquire into Chate's financial dealings, bringing to the commissioner's notice that Chate's advertising budget alone is "Rs 60 or 70 million." He also urges the commissioner to investigate the tax returns of the parents of the kids enrolled in Chate's classes. "The fees prescribed by the classes [are] certainly not affordable to all," he explains. Seems to me a flimsy reason to investigate those tax returns -- after all, movie tickets are certainly not affordable to all, yet Deshmukh does not seem to want an investigation of the tax-returns of film buffs. But there you are, such an investigation is just what he demands from the commissioner.

Take a deep breath, now. For we are going to return to our friend Madan Nagargoje. I feel positive he never imagined just doing well in the HSC examinations could have set off this conflagration. "I just want this matter to end and not affect my future," he pleaded on June 3.

But while he is understandably worried about his future, Madan has had his own hand in stirring this particular pot, unwittingly or not. The young man was a student of Vivekanand College in Kolhapur. Dadasaheb Patil, principal of that institution, has produced a letter signed by Nagargoje in which he says he owed his success to the college and was not associated with any coaching class. Of course, this is no ordinary piece of paper; if this is true, Chate's claims on the boy are so much horse-puckey. As adamantly as Chate claims that Nagargoje was his student, Patil is just as insistent that he was not. "Madan used to be with me for eight to ten hours every day," Patil says.

For his part, Madan says he did write the letter. "That letter was asked to be given by the college as a matter of routine and I did not find anything wrong with it." But he also "specifically stated" to UNI that he had indeed been a student of Chate's classes since August 1998, and "feels his success is equally due to the classes as well as his college and parents."

Enter Vishakha Gupta. This young lady was a 1998 topper, and has been a predictably prominent part of Chate's ads since then. She, her father, Deshmukh and Patil hold a news conference on June 6. She accuses Chate of "issuing threats and abuses to her family." The Gupta family has filed a case against Chate for wrongly taking credit for her academic success. "I have never enrolled or attended Chate's classes," she says. "I only appeared for a test series" held by Chate, she says. After the 1998 results were announced, two Chate employees visited her, gave her a box of sweets and took her photographs, which were then used in Chate's ads.

Sweets and photos apart, Chate also gave her a generous prize for her success: Rs 75,000. He issued it in two cheques, for Rs 10,000 and Rs 65,000. Very generous. Only, the Rs 65,000 cheque bounced. Chate demanded it back. The Guptas refused, and filed a case to recover the money. Chate, they claimed, then asked for an out-of-court settlement and gave them Rs 65,000 in cash.

For his part now, Chate says Vishakha was a "special test batch" student of his classes, whatever such a beast may be. "She had paid a fee of Rs 1,500 to attend the batch and I can prove it in any court of law." Fine, but what about that dud cheque? "I stopped the clearance of the second cheque for Rs 65,000 when [Vishaka's father], along with Mr Deshmukh, tried to create a controversy regarding her association with my classes. Subsequently, an out-of-court settlement was arrived at." One of the terms of that settlement, says Chate, was that it would remain confidential. He claims that the Guptas are "under pressure from the state government."

Meanwhile, Dadasaheb Patil the principal announces that he has been getting anonymous calls asking him to drop the business of Madan Nagargoje's letter. "The caller offered me Rs 2.5 million," he says.

I'm done for now, though I have no doubt this entire issue is not. Nor will there be any lack of such tangles as long as we continue with our present exam-intensive, marks-driven manner of schooling our kids. "The existing education system puts several constraints on schools and colleges," a Bombay college principal told The Times of India. Coaching classes don't need to worry about those constraints, he went on, and they certainly do not bother with "concepts or the intricate details of a subject." They prepare students for the exams, period. So there are institutes that teach "memory and concentration techniques, exam-writing skills and presentation techniques", among other techniques to gather marks.

This is what education has come to be.

And in this soul-destroying milieu, coaching classes like Chate's have bloomed, becoming immensely lucrative enterprises. This is the root of the ugly mess set off by that courtesy call.

This is, too, the nuclear bomb that's ticking away as we allow education to rot under us.

Dilip D'Souza