VIPs genuine, but fake medals for soldiers.

A new bill will make it mandatory for medical students to pass a new National Exit Test before they can call themselves doctors. This will presumably be in addition to examinations on various subjects held by their respective university as part of the MBBS curriculum, and one year experience as an intern. There can be no quibble about the need to maintain a high standard for medical education because of a mushrooming of private medical colleges which charge exorbitant fees but have little or no teaching facilities. Last year 3 girls committed suicide in Chennai because they were learning nothing despite having to pay high fees. India has 0.7 doctors per 1000 population, compared to 0.83 in Pakistan and 6.72 in Cuba. Despite such poor numbers around 2,000 seats in medical schools throughout the country were not filled last year because of very high fees and poor teaching facilities. Should we applaud that the government is setting a uniform standard for the entire country? Not quite. Physiotherapists claim the right to call themselves doctors and, in a country where large numbers are uneducated, they are prescribing drugs they know nothing about. The UP government has permitted Unani and Ayurveda practitioners to prescribe Allopathic medicines, although they have no knowledge of pharmacology. Perhaps to protect people from dangerous quacks the Hon'ble Supreme Court has banned the sale of alcohol along highways. To reduce accidents. Sadly, the Court did not ban the continual digging up of roads, due to a nexus between crooked officials and contractors, or potholes, because money has been spent on unnecessary digging, or on stray animals, which have been dumped outside by their owners. The most surprising thing is that despite frequent visits to foreign countries, our judges and officials cannot see that no one in the country knows the basic principles of safe driving. Since we have inherited our driving rules from the British why not download their Highway Code and make it mandatory. Maybe because, if they did that politicians will not be able to show how much they care, by passing stupid laws, which only complicate our miserable lives. How complicated? Soldiers are now having to buy fake medals from the markets because the government is not bothered to produce enough of them. These are people dying to protect us. While soldiers have to be contented with fake medals, our politicians and civil servants have elevated themselves to Very Important Persons. How many are there? India, with a GDP of barely $2 trillion, has 5,79,092 VIPs, compared to 435 in China, with $10 trillion GDP, and 252 in the US, with $17 trillion GDP. Being VIP allows civil servants to travel abroad as agents of foreign entities. No rules for them, stupid laws for us. Why beg for a ratings upgrade? So humiliating.