by Imran Ansari 

student at Jamia Hamdard,New Delhi 

The discussion and debate on choosing educated candidates while casting votes started from 13 August when Karan Sangwan, an Unacademy teacher, urged his students to choose an educated person next time whenever they vote while conducting a live session on his Youtube channel ‘Legal Pathshala’ now renamed as ‘Karan Sangwan’.

He was frustrated and quite angry over the new Bill brought into the Lok Sabha by the ruling Party to replace British era IPC, CrPC and Indian Evidence Act. He was very upset at the thought that all his notes and the efforts put into making it will be wasted. He said that whenever you vote next time, don’t forget to vote for educated people so you don’t have to face this again. Elect someone who is well-educated and understands things rather than just changing names.

After the clip got viral on the social media, the BJP supporters trolled him badly saying that he is running a propaganda against their leader. Later Karan replied that he had not even named anybody in his video and how and why they are taking it to themselves. He also said that those who are trolling and taking it on themselves are uneducated and how free and jobless people they are. It was a general statement and I’m still on it, he added.

Now let’s go deeper into this matter. There are few questions which can and should be raised to know more about it. The questions are – Should we cast votes for educated people? What does education really mean? What are the provisions in the constitution to be an election candidate ?.

Let’s start with Education. Education simply means acquiring knowledge, skills, values and understanding through various formal and informal methods. It may be formal through registered school and colleges and informal through experiences, self directed learning, online courses nowadays or teachers (anyone who teaches something informally). Nowadays academic degrees are the means to know the educational background and qualifications of a person but only degrees and the grades do not make you educated or less educated. A person having no academic degrees can also be called educated by his work, moral values, understanding (people or situations), personality (speaking, showing respect, listening). If your degrees do not teach you how to think critically, adapt to new challenges, and apply knowledge practically, then you are not truly educated. You are educated only by name. Yes, degrees are important, afterall it is a means to judge a person’s education easily but not necessary for someone to be called educated.

Now let’s talk about provisions in the Indian constitution to be an election candidate. Before independence not everyone had the right to vote. The first election in the British Colonial India
was held in 1937 by the Government of India Act 1935. The act allowed locals to choose their leader through election and that person governed certain provinces independently but under some limitations. That act had some eligibility criteria to be an election candidate and educational qualification was one of those. Setting an educational qualification, also property, religion or caste, on candidates as well as voters often excluded a large portion of the population from participating in elections. That created a hierarchy in the power center. That was of the blunder done by Britishers and can be imagined how colonial and suppression mindset they had. Even in elections which they called freedom and independence they made such norms to exclude people.
Later on when the Indian constitution was crafted that Act was not taken by our constitution makers. Till today we have mainly three eligibility criteria for the candidates who are directly elected by the people which include being a citizen of India, being at least 25 years old, and not holding an office of profit under the government.

India is a diverse country with different types of communities having their own beliefs and faiths. All of them have their respect for the constitution. It is the constitution which grants equal freedom and rights for all and maintains harmony among differences. There are many communities in India who are underprivileged and educationally backward till now. By the data of census 2011 only 8.15% of Indians are graduates. Among states Assam performed worst with only 4.83% of their population being graduates. In 2011, there were over 73 lakh people in India who had a technical degree. Additionally, there are more than 15 lakh doctors and over 30 lakh teachers in India. As compared to the population these numbers are very low. And among them there are very few who are actually qualified to these degrees. These datas are enough to show that India is an educationally backward country despite having many colleges and schools. So setting an educational qualification to participate in elections is a foolish and clasist argument as even today there are so many villages and ethnic groups who are even struggling to get fresh water and food, education is a very far thing. These eligibility criteria not only exclude them but also make them slaves by the privileged elites.

One might argue on the performance of an uneducated person in politics. One might say uneducated politicians are corrupt and a hindrance to development. I would like to say that it is the intention instead of education which matters most in politics as well as in any field. Degrees don’t make anyone corruption free. An educated person can be corrupt as well as a hate spreader. You can see examples of Hitler, Russian communist leaders such as Lenin, Stalin, Putin, Chinese communist leaders, and Israelis leaders. They are all highly educated and responsible for killing millions of people as well as corruption. You can also see the corruption situation in India. Who are these people, they are mainly the educated ones and privileged ones. They know how to cheat and overcome laws. They have their connections and are more dangerous than others. They don’t fear laws because they have their masters and connections in higher authorities, instead at least an uneducated person is afraid by law.
On the other hand there were several leaders in India who didn’t had degrees and proper formal higher education yet they had done good works with clear, inclusive and developing intentions. For examples K. Kamraj, Jaffer Sharif, Vatal Nagraj, Muthuvel Karunanidhi, Jayaram Jayalaitha, Phoolan Devi, Rabri Devi.

So Intention is more important over education in politics. An educated person can seek help and guidance for his advisors and IAS officers if he really wants to develop the nation inclusively.