Now that the dust over the Cabinet reshuffle is settling down, the changes in the ministry of human resource development (HRD) have easily become the main focus of attention. There are two reasons for this: one, the HRD ministry has always been a key component of almost all central governments for the impact it can have on people's lives and indeed the overall economy; and two, the outgoing minister - Smriti Irani - acquired a image of a feisty and combative lady. Ms Irani will now oversee the textiles ministry, which may not be as salient as her previous ministry, but it certainly is an important job, as she has to oversee the implementation of the Rs 6,000-crore textiles package that envisages introduction of flexibility to labour laws in order to boost exports and generate employment. But for all her youthful enthusiasm, Ms Irani's two-year old stint at the HRD ministry could have been less contentious and it could have focused more on results. The substantive part of the ministry's agenda - a new national education policy, the passage of the Bill on the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and the setting up of world-class universities - is in limbo. Besides, it can be argued that the former HRD minister failed to play the role of a peacemaker and mentor during two of the biggest student agitations of her time: the unrest in Hyderabad after Rohith Vemula's suicide and the countrywide outrage after the incidents in Jawaharlal Nehru University. It is to be hoped that Ms Irani leaves that past behind and focuses on implementing the ambitious plan to revive the textiles sector and create jobs in the economy.
It would, thus, be an understatement to say that Ms Irani's successor, Prakash Javadekar, has his task cut out to bring about far-reaching changes in an education system that is crying for reforms. And the way to do it is certainly not through picking a fight with almost everybody in the system - from vice-chancellors to teachers and from officials in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to those in the NITI Aayog. For example, the HRD ministry could have easily avoided the ugly public spat with nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar, who was accused by Ms Irani of "illegally" pushing his own candidate for the IIT director's post, or with former Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramanian whose report on the new education policy was not being made public. One of Mr Javadekar's main tasks would also be to sort out the long-standing fracas with the PMO on the IIM Bill. While Ms Irani was reported to be inflexible in her view that the government needed to have a substantial say in the running of IIMs, the PMO had other ideas and kept the Bill on hold.
Then there is the issue of another tussle with the PMO on the degree of autonomy that the government's proposed "world-class universities" should enjoy. The PMO and HRD ministry were learnt to have had major disagreements over the draft regulations for setting up 20 institutions of global standards. As a result, the project is still in abeyance. The new minister would do well to deal with the impression, expressed volubly by a few eminent academicians, that the ministry-initiated reforms such as standardisation and centralisation of the education system are seriously undermining the autonomous status enjoyed by the central universities. This is apart from his immediate task of filling up several key appointments. In short, Mr Javadekar, who got a promotion in the latest round of Cabinet reshuffle, is in the best position to understand the clear message that the prime minister has sent out: Put your head down, perform and stay within your limits.
