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Journalism of Courage
It is part of the great Indian dream: obtaining a foreign degree and subsequently a job abroad. And given the aspiration,theres a clear risk of the ambition being exploited by fraudsters,and equally education being used as a cover for immigration rackets. In equal measure,we saw both aspects when the racism in Australia row hit the headlines. We may well be seeing another eruption,with the Tri-Valley University in California,which has been accused of enabling foreign nationals to obtain illegal student immigration status in return for huge sums of money. When US authorities called Tri-Valley a sham and radio-tagged its students,the majority of whom turned out to be Indians,it exposed the possible faultlines in the system.
Minister for External Affairs S.M. Krishna has protested against the radio-tagging of Indians,calling it an inhuman act,and demanded action against US officials. This is unfortunate. The MEA,and its missions overseas,certainly have a duty by Indians caught in such unfortunate situations,deservedly or not. Deservedly,because Tri-Valley is a classic case that,at least in hindsight,should have set off warning signals for students as well as authorities a college without even a campus,except for an administrative building,one which offers only online courses and provides visas to over 1,000 foreign students when it can give them to only 30. The case highlights the need for a process to guide the growing number of Indians applying to study abroad. There could be,for starters,an education checklist to help them stay away from scamsters,even an online directory that would list the credentials of educational institutions. Krishnas populist outrage doesnt help,and in fact obfuscates real issues.
Beyond the avoidable rhetoric,India would do well to see the Tri-Valley incident as a wake-up call.
