Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru)

The once well-governed southern state of Karnataka (pop.68 million) is rapidly transforming into ‘broken windows’ society. In 1982, American academics James Q. Wilson and George Kelling ideated their Broken Windows theory. They posited that if civic neglect and official corruption in any society or neighbourhood remains unpunished, an outbreak of serious crimes and criminality becomes inevitable. Continuous tolerance of everyday petty crimes — road traffic offences, shoddy public works execution, bribery in government offices, arbitrary garbage dumping — has precipitated a major crime wave in Karnataka.

Last November, the Karnataka State Road Contractors’ Association (KSRCA) wrote directly to prime minister Narendra Modi complaining that elected representatives of the BJP-ruled state government are routinely extorting commissions of 40 percent for award of civic maintenance and road construction contracts.

Even as resolution of the KSRCA complaint is still pending, in a letter dated August 26, RUPSA (Registered Unaided Private Schools Association), which has 13,000 member schools, also wrote a letter directly to the prime minister accusing Karnataka’s BJP government and education minister B.C. Nagesh in particular, of extorting massive bribes for renewal of school recognition, issuing no-objection certificates to new CBSE and CISCE schools, RTE fees reimbursement, and other routine administrative functions.

“Due to irresponsible behaviour and greediness of our education minister, private unaided schools are facing unbearable hazards. We have brought our plight to the notice of our honourable chief minister on several occasions, but in vain. But the education minister is clever enough to manipulate in connivance with department officials. They give scant respect to the chief minister’s instructions and throw our appeals into the dustbin. Because of this, thousands of private schools, especially in educationally backward districts like Bidar are left with no option but closure,” says the letter to the PM signed by RUPSA president Lokesh Talikatte.

RUPSA claims that last August (2021) renewal of registration/recognition certificates, which was mandated every 10 years, was reduced to annual renewal. This change has cost private school managements “lakhs of rupees”. In addition, schools have to pay bribes of up to 30-40 percent of the amount owed to private schools as reimbursement for admitting poor neighbourhood children under s. 12 (1) (c) of the RTE Act.

Unsurprisingly, education minister Nagesh indignantly denies these charges. “RUPSA has made baseless allegations against me and the department. If they have any proof and documents, why didn’t they lodge a complaint until now? We will take necessary action if there is proof,” he says.

However, such denials cut little ice in the academy and among private school promoters in Bengaluru which hosts 3,500 private schools including top-ranked globally benchmarked schools such as Indus International, Inventure Academy, Vidyashilp which educate the progeny of the garden city’s upscale IT professionals and businessmen. It’s a matter of common knowledge that corruption is deeply entrenched in the education ministry regardless of the government in office, and that education ministry officials have made large illegal fortunes by extracting huge bribes from private school promoters represented by shady ‘consultants’ whose expertise is to make pay-offs and manage the system.

With the legislative assembly polls scheduled next summer, rising public indignation about unchecked corruption under its watch bodes ill for the BJP whose leadership regards Karnataka as its gateway to states of peninsular India. With teaching-learning standards in the state’s 49,000 government schools declining, the open revolt of private schools against brazen institutionalised corruption in the education ministry may well upend its electoral strategy.