Modi's Sardar Patel memorial to dwarf US landmark

Rewari (Haryana), Sep 15 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections Sunday said his government wants a unity memorial double that of the Statue of Liberty.

The Statue of Liberty in the bay off New York City, of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, was a gift to the United States from the people of France and was dedicated Oct 28, 1886.

"We will build a statue of unity as a memorial for Sardar Patel who unified this country. This statue will be two times bigger than the Statue of Liberty," Modi, addressing a rally for the ex-servicemen here, said.

He said Patel, the country's first home minister, had made immense contribution in unification of the country but has been forgotten.

For the ambitious project, Modi urged farmers to send him some iron metal. "We will need just 200-300 gm iron from each village in the country," he said.

Instead of making such idiotic announcements NaMo would do well in competing with other aspects of US life.

I'll give just two examples.

My son took his family, (wife, daughter and son) to the USA in December 2012.

The weather was very cold, snow most of the days, and it took him two months to settle down.

He tried for admission in a government school but failed in the first attempt.

There they give priority to weak or handicapped students.

He hoped that the children's lack of English speaking knowledge was sufficient handicap for their admission.

However, since they knew their alphabets and numerals, they did not get admission.

However, my son was told that if later any vacancy arose, he would be informed.

For two months, the children went to a private co-operative pre-nursery school where the fees of each child was USD 100.

After two months, the government school teacher turned up one morning.

She said that they had tried to contact my son over the telephone but his phone was unreachable.

They informed that there was vacancies in the school and if my son wanted, both the children could be admitted from August, 2013.

My son readily accepted the offer as 1)the children could complete their entire schooling from here, 2)being a government school, no fees were charged 3) the school had the best of all facilities.

My daughter-in-law said that this school was better than the best of any private schools in India.

A bus collects and drops them right in front of their home.

The bus driver is in constant touch with the school authorities so that at any point of time, the authorities know where the bus is.

Children stand away from the bus and start walking towards the bus only when it has come to a standstill and the door has opened.

Each child, sits by himself on a twin seat.

He is strapped with a seat belt by the driver and his bag is placed on his side seat.

The door is then locked and only then does the bus move.

From 22nd August, both children are going to school and they like the school better than being at home.My grand-child starts crying while getting down from the school bus. He would like to go back to school.

Every Friday, they are allowed to bring books from the school library to read at home.

Each child has been given a page with 21 stars.

Each child is to complete 15 minutes of reading per day.

After each 15 minutes reading a star is coloured.

On competing the colouring of all 21 stars, the paper is handed back to the school and the child gets a free gift from the school.

This inculcates the reading habit in a child.

Would the above be possible in India.

Here schools take donations and charge astronomical fees and admit the cream of the students. The weaker students just have no chance. The government schools (except for the Kendriya Vidyalays) are hopeless in most cases.

Teachers are selected based on reservation criteria instead of qualification and aptitude in teaching.

We are seeing the result.

Politicians controlling the appointment of teachers.

Teachers molesting and raping students, students beating up teachers and parents and outsiders ransacking schools has become order of the day.

My daughter-in-law wanted to learn driving.

First she had to appear in an online examine which tested her to see if she knew all the rules.

Before appearing in the exam she trained herself with the questions and answers through mock tests where correct answers were shown after the test.

She practised the mock test for abut two months before she was ready to appear in the actual test.

You are allowed only 5 wrong answers in 40 questions.

Once you pass this test, they give you a certificate and you are two pass an actual driving test within one year of appearing in the online test. She then took 6 driving lessons, each of 90 minutes duration.

Her trainer was still not satisfied of her driving capability and advised her a few more lessons but my son told him that he would take up the teaching himself on their car.

In USA, you have to appear in a rigorous driving test before they give you a licence.

In India driving licences are given without even appearing in the driving test.

We are seeing the result in the number of accidents on roads.

There are many things worth copying from the USA and a Statue of Sardar Patel copying the Statue of Liberty, should be last on the list.

Remember all the useless statues of elephants made by Mayawati in Lucknow.