யாருக்கும் வெட்கமில்லை-A Matter of National Shame

The recent expose by TimesNow of the "sale" of seats in medical colleges in Tamilnadu and Karnataka just confirms something that has been common knowledge to anyone who has been through the admission process in India, but still no one has been able to do something about it.

Death of merit: Capitation scam exposed

Brazen Auction of Seats in Bangalore

Just look at the video of the expose, especially look for the reaction of the minister at the end-he says he has never been involved with the institution, but then immediately goes on to say-"We have run the college for 25 years and there has been no capitation fee!" Shame on you! TimesNow also found the minister's name on the website proudly displayed as the Chairman of the institution, with his wife as the chairperson-the website has been taken down since then. There is a popular political satire by Cho Ramaswamy that I am reminded of-"யாருக்கும் வெட்கமில்லை" (Translates approximately to "No one has any shame left").

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkwoJUjHs-c]

We pride ourselves on being one of the best countries for primary and college education, but beneath the surface, that sophistication comes at an enormous cost to the common man and through a process that lets several of the corrupt political sharks get to keep the costs so extracted. Simple law of economics tells us that any time there are subsidies for a product or service, it masks the real price of it, and if there are no effective controls on the seller, he/she could extract the economic rents that represent the differential, to illustrate with a popular example, a Ford car model (I forget the name now) released with a price tag was lower than what people were ready to pay for it and over time the dealers found this out and comfortably increased the price tag with a "market adjustment" and kept the extra money for themselves.

Now, if there are people ready to pay the entire 40 laks for a medical seat, and there are enough of them, then the price of the seat should be 40 lacks and not 4 lacks! I am not suggesting that every student be forced to pay the huge fee, but let there be scholarships and subsidies to meritorious students to bring that amount down to the current fee levels, for the rest, let the government (and the medical college) collect the true price of the education they provide, with appropriate tracking mechanisms to make sure that the entire amount goes into the right coffers. That way, the system will be transparent, and any "minister" who demands an extra on top of the hefty fee will be fooling himself, as no sane person will be ready to pay for it.