Having the cake and ........

A controversy is raging across the newspapers and television channels and anchors are burning midnight oil to interpret, misinterpret the rules and provoke the participants. It's all about allowing a student who does not fulfill certain requirements to appear for an exam. If it had been an ordinary student nobody would have cared for a second look, but the student here happens to be the latest cricketing hero - Unmukt Chand, Captain of the Victorious Under19 World Cup Indian Cricket team.

In pursuit of that coveted cup, Unmukt has not been regular to his classes at the prestigious St. Stephens College, Delhi. College, quoting rules is refusing to allow him to appear for the First year exam

A section of the people are up in arms that Unmukt was doing a yeomen service for the country and that he should be supported with extra classes to cope up and write the exams. Some section always hysterical about the game went further that the delinquent skipper must be declared passed even without writing the exams!

College principal, clearly buckling under pressure walked out of a TV talk show not before stating that the College is acting within its rules and that only the Vice Chancellor can make an exception to this!

Kirti Azad, one of the heroes of the 1983 triumphant world cup team says that he was also a student and was well supported by the College when he had only 8% of attendance against the expected 33% to clear the exams and questioned as to why it is not being done now!

Keeping aside the hysteria around the game and the hyperactive responses, let the College assess the situation- the candidate was admitted under sports quota anticipating that his strength in the game would bring more laurels to the college. While the college wanted a share in the laurels are they blind to the realities of the game and its expectations? They must be well aware of his constraints and so it is upto them to support the student instead of throwing the book at him. Come on St. Stephens - you cannot have the cake and eat it too. Kirti Azad made a valid point that in 1983, he was representing 7 leagues and that there was no way he could have attended the college. The then management fortunately realized this and supported him in his cause and for the nation. The present college would also do well to remove the dark glasses and have a better vision. I am sure that the college would ultimately buckle, as the public furore supported by the Minister of Sports would be too much for them to handle.

But, let us be clear that Unmukt and his likes should only be supported to appear for the exams and in no way should be given a pass without an exam. This is precisely the situation which the old maids of the College fear about, losing to Cricket the values of education!

All said and done, it must have taken a lot of courage for the St. Stephens to put down their feet and quote the rules. Here, win or lose is not the point; atleast they have the mind to shout against the eroding values of education, however feeble the voice may be.

Crooks becoming richer & fools becoming poorer?

Few weeks back there were furor in the media and the wires were burning with the news of frauds through Emus. Among the many charges made, a section of the irate losers also mentioned that they had invested in this dubious scheme only because some of the popular film actors came on the Ads and vouched for the returns. I was wondering and even expressed in some other place about the ownership   of the actors in such Ads against whose words only some of the innocent people invest.  

On the same lines, when the popular singer SPB was making a strong pitch for investments in a housing scheme, I was wondering whether he is fully aware of the consequences of the blemish to his otherwise clean image, when things do not go on the expected lines.

In another recent instance, my wife was looking at an Ad in today's TOI and pointed to an advt regarding Internet based work from home jobs (http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/AdPrimView.asp?BaseHref=TOICH/2012/08/28/6/Img/Ad0061609.png) . 

When we browsed the website, http://www.allindianetgroup.com/, things appeared so genuine and convincing that would have prompted anyone to proceed further. But, having seen many such ads whose aim was to cull out fat upfront money in the name of Registration fee, the cautious part in me prompted to dig further deep. When searched for feedback & opinions through Google, I came to know from many postings that it is a bogus company aimed at extracting initial amounts.

But what caught my attention was a feeble cry of anguish from a victim as to why popular newspapers should encourage such advertisements which ultimately fool the public and was wondering whether the newspapers have any social responsibility in publishing such Ads (http://www.consumercomplaints.in/complaints/all-india-net-group-fraud-job-c716475.html )

This has rekindled my initial thoughts/doubts on the accountability in such promotions as to what is the responsibility of such newspapers? They may not be conniving explicitly with the advertisers of such dubious products but are the newspapers not obliged to do some background research before they publish these claims, purely to safeguard the interest of their readers? Or are they empowered to publish whatever material is being given for Ads?

On the part of individuals such as film artistes, singers and other reputed/ popular persons in the eyes of the public, though most of them participate in such advertisements more for commercial gains, what is their moral responsibility in protecting the interest of their fans, who go by their word?

Also when the Government is keen on curbing malicious news impacting the security of the country by putting an embargo on social networking websites, is it not for the authorities to pull such erring companies and caution the newspapers about the release of such advertisements? When the complaints are available in dozens on the internet, are the Police not obliged to put a watch on such advertisements? Over to the authorities and Cyber law experts to mull over.

It is time some legal minds look into the matter and clarify to the gullible public about heeding to the words of the "reputed" personalities and their stake, if the proposed project goes bust. It should also help the popular personalities to think twice before participating in such advertisements.

Bottom line is, so far as public are innocent and naïve, there are always new people with newer ideas to take them for a ride.