NTP may merge with PRP?

NTP president T Devender Goud is seriously considering merging his party with the Prajarajyam Party, according to aides close to
him. According to sources, discussions are on between Goud and PRP leaders. The sources told TOI that Goud started exploring options to merge his party with PRP after Chiranjeevi's Telangana yatra failed to evoke as much response as from the coastal Andhra. PRP wants to rope in a strong and senior political leader from Telangana as its representative. Devender Goud's NTP has also failed to leave its strong presence in Telangana as a political force.

Chiru: Old wine in new skin?
It is considered bad form to be severe on promising challengers to the status quo. A legitimate reason for doing so, however, is an indication that their thinking isn’t very different from the present sort. So, it appears, with the founder- head of Andhra’s new political aspirant for power, the Praja Rajyam of cine star Chiranjeevi.
Readers may recall to a brief news item that appeared last weekend, on his remarks at a function organised at his party office to mark Nehru’s birth anniversary, observed as Children’s Day. Around 100 school children were present when Chiru made the mandatory speech in which he regretted the lack of grasp among children of social conditions and like issues, due to their preoccupation with studies. “If the PRP comes to power, it will ensure they are made conscious about several things” was Chiru’s promise of change. To which we’d like to add that if this is his vision of power, he needs a longer learning spell out of it. We already have a surfeit of wizards who have a long list of instructions on what and how to fill our children’s supposedly empty minds, with little regard for their own views on the pace, manner and content of learning. The last thing needed is yet another politician eager to add his own bucketful of orders on the “several things” to be added to the existing burden.
Education in India is, as a rule, a rigid load of courses to be imbibed without question and regurgitated in an approved manner at examination time. Questioning isn’t encouraged and flexibility in allowing educators, parents or students to try it in a different way is usually absent.
The emphasis is on standardising content and procedure, which leaves little room for catering to individual needs or interests, for keeping pace with market needs, for combining with the world of work. We are familiar with all this, as also the severe cramp on state-controlled supply in the face of a crying demand for relevant products for individual needs. All those gates need to be opened and ideas and alternatives to flourish. But our would-be deliverer of change comes with a new list of the things the State will ensure that children must be taught. This is no vision for change; it shows a primary lack of diagnosis. And if this is what is on offer, Mr Chiranjeevi ought to rename his party.