I know what lurks in your mind: is it not the same stuff performing better while they are at NASA or Silicon Valley? Why their performance goes down in the Indian valley? What is the magic that works there and totally missing here?  Taking for granted we have well equipped labs, impressive building and other infrastructure, output doesn’t measure up to our expectation. What is wrong? Did anybody try to find out? How long it will take to remove the snag?

The answer lies in one word:  the ‘ambience’ in and around our research labs. I used the term as one word. Do you think it is as simple as a three syllable word? To consider it that way will be a blunder. It should not be evaluated in isolation: it is permeated in every pore of our social ethos. Whatever we see -- out there -- is but a minute manifestation of a deep rooted malady. In fact, I shouldn’t have touched the topic at all. Now that I wetted my feet let me dip a bit further. Presently permit me to take a digression, presumably not connected with research or science.

Once I read (I’m working off hand; not in a position to quote the source) in a German POW camp a Gestapo, under Hitler’s order, passed an instruction to the doctor in charge of POWs not to treat them properly. And the doctor replied:  he was morally bound to treat anybody coming as patient, irrespective of being POW or whatever. And he was ready to face any consequence for not obeying the instruction. Will you find any doctor having such moral courage in India, despite Hippocratic Oath? Every doctor took that oath without imbibing it in his psyche. That is what we do in everything, everyday. There is total disconnect between what we profess and what we put in practice.

Why J.B.S.Haldane couldn’t be employed as a lecturer in any ordinary Indian college, while he could hold prestigious post of Professor in many European and American universities?

Why Kedar Nath Pande alias Rahul Sankrityayan, a school dropout could serve as professor of Indology in Leningrad University but not fit to be employed as a teacher in a primary school in India?

Why 'Suri Transmisson' had to follow a tortuous route for its acceptance? Why India couldn’t judge its merit first? On the other hand, it created lot of hurdles for him. Every scientist or inventor doesn’t have the stamina and fighting power of a Suri. Why Satyajit Roy’s talent had to be recognized via the West? Why Dr. Dipankar Roy had to face only bureaucratic harassment and professional jealousy for his discovery of vaccine against leprosy? You heard the story of someone inventing small steel production plant? Instead of encouragement and recognition he found only rejection and dejection (Sorry, unable to quote source, relying only on memory). And you heard about China producing steel in smaller furnaces in the backyard? Dr. Shrum could tell Dr. Hargobing Khurana, the India born Nobel Laureate, “I grant you all the freedom in the world, do whatever you feel like”. Why none can say similar thing in India?

There are many such stories of languishing talents. Why can’t we nurture, nourish and flourish promising talents? Not only in science and technology -- it embraces every field of human endeavour. There are so many ‘whys’ starkly staring at us for an answer. In reply to ‘whys’ I am going to explode a colossal bomb now. Be ready to face the blast.  IT IS SIMPLY BECAUSE; WE ARE RULED BY THE AVATARS OF “DRONACHARYAS AND ARJUNAS”.  What a shame for a great country to put Dronacharya – a cruel murderer of talent, a naked practitioner of unethical and unprincipled nepotism – on a high pedestal as a great teacher. And Arjuna, as a model of supreme achiever by eliminating an excelling peer in a most heinous manner. I didn’t use the word ‘challenging’, because Ekalavya was not challenging him; he was simply busy aiming for excellence. Don’t confuse by thinking it is not connected with scientific research. It is the same system we are working with. It is not the cold and inert equipments and massive buildings that advance science or technology. It is the human spirit that works behind it. As a remedy, first cleanse the Augean stable we are in. The researchers should find conducive surrounding to work with – not bureaucratic hurdles and harassment of red-tapes. Do not make them victim of nepotism and manipulation. Capable researchers don’t believe in manipulation. In fact, they don’t know how to manipulate. As an administrator it is your job to foster creativity, spot talents, inspire them, facilitate the working atmosphere and help them to deliver. You are to draw out the best of every capable worker, not to stifle his effort.

Need of the hour is to cast off psychological drag of a wrong legacy. Overhaul this corrupt tradition. Dethrone Dronacharya  --  a butcher of genius and install Ekalavya – an epitome of excellence, honesty, sincerity and humility.  Let everybody in every field be infused with the zeal of Ekalavya.  Make ability and performance main criteria. I know it’s a tall order. But a movement – however feeble it may be – if created in that direction will provide tremendous impetus for achievement in any sphere of life. It will electrify the whole psychological domain for purifying the polluted system.

It will be a Big Bang in the Indian firmament. India will awaken to a New Dawn.

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 A Footnote: Because I talked about Dronachayra and Ekalavya, I am likely to be branded as an advocate of caste system. Let me clarify my position on it. I’m for total moratorium on reservation of any form from now on. We had had enough of it. Continuation of reservation policy only benefit the creamy layer of ‘Reserved Class’; it doesn’t percolate down to the needy. We know politicians and vested interest groups will always try to eternalize it.

If you belong to a higher caste, admit your ancestors committed a barbaric crime against humanity in the past. Now, you atone for it by helping the current underprivileged class – irrespective of caste or creed -- to rise.

If you are so-called Dalit and reading this, you are no more a Dalit. You are at par with anybody in the society. Let your children compete with others on equal terms. Cast off the victim psychology any more. There are many down below you, who need special help to rise up. Help them.

Some of you may be tempted to slap a “Fatwa” on me. Many will trash it as sheer bunkum. And if any one of you find a grain of significance in it, don’t cast the blame on the system, and stand aloof. You are part of the loop. Initiate a change. It begins with you.

I am a non-entity, and an old man – older than Anna Hazare. I’m making a forecast today: if we fail to transform our polluted mindset, many future Manmohan Singhs will be heard singing the same litany of lament in successive Science Congresses, “We are losing out to …”  You will bear witness to my forecast. We are no match for the rising Dragon.

I stand firm for every word I said. If I’ve misquoted anything, I’m solely responsible for it. It’s not done deliberately.