Politicians forget their teaching days
BY AMITA VERMA
LUCKNOW
Sept. 5: It was Teachers’ Day on Friday but not even a single pupil turned up to wish the four best-known "teachers" of the state.
The "teachers", on their part, were unconcerned and their day was packed with the usual politics, meetings, appointments — none of which had anything to do with academics.
Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati, Kalyan Singh, Rita Bahuguna Joshi — all key players in present-day UP politics — have been teachers before they took to politics.
Though these teachers-turned-politicians have virtually severed all their links with previous career, they have left an indelible mark on their pupils.
Samajwadi president and former UP chief minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, was a lecturer in Jain Inter College, Karhal, Mainpuri before he quit his job to enter politics.
"Masterji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) had strong likes and dislikes as a teacher. His favourite pupils were those who practised wrestling. However, he never had an air of arrogance and was always accessible to his students. As a teacher, he would constantly tell us that democracy was important for the survival of mankind," recalls Sarvesh Tiwari, one of his former students who now runs a flourishing business in Kanpur.
UP chief minister, Mayawati’s students, on the other hand, remember her as a teacher with sharp mood swings.
One of her pupils, who is now an office bearer in the Bahujan Samaj Party, told this correspondent on condition of anonymity that the "Behenji of today is vastly different from the Behenji of those days".
"As a teacher, she would laugh easily and lose her temper at the slightest provocation too. We used to be wary of her moods even then and none of us dared to talk to her unless she called out to us. However, she was always very dedicated and serious about her work even then and never got distracted by anything. Today, of course, she is not accessible to any one of us," says the former student.
BJP leader and former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh’s ex-pupils remember him as a stickler for principles. "More than the subject, he would insist on moral science. He always appreciated if we spoke the truth and his lectures were unique because of his oratory skills. He was knowledgeable and had an answer for every question," says Pramod Rajput, a past pupil of the BJP leader.
UPCC president Rita Bahuguna Joshi was a professor in Allahabad University and is, perhaps, the only politician who has maintained a contact with her past pupils.
"She speaks to us fondly if we approach her and is still a phone call away for her colleagues," says Veena Pathak, an ex-student.
BJP president Rajnath Singh and former Union minister Murli Manohar Joshi were also teachers in UP before they turned politicians.
The not-so-famous students of these famous politicians are, however, saddened at the fact that after rising to top positions in politics, their "teachers" have not done much to improve the standards of education in their state.
"In fact, they have made education poorer. Mulayam Singh has encouraged students to take to politics on the campus, Kalyan Singh has taught them the politics of religion and Mayawati is now teaching the politics of casteism," says Mr Tiwari.