Kerala - Kannur   

`Kumbakonam should be an eye-opener'

By Our Staff Reporter

KANNUR, JULY 18. The CPI(M) Central committee member, M.A. Baby, has said the Kumbakonam tragedy should open the eyes of those who are advocating uncontrolled privatisation in the education as well as other key sectors.

"When E.K. Nayanar was the Chief Minister of the previous LDF Government, the votaries of privatisation projected Chandrababu Naidu and S.M. Krishna as model Chief Ministers or CEOs.

They should not now forget that the Kumbakonam tragedy is the outcome of reckless privatisation in all sectors, including the education sector, that skips safety measures.''

Mr. Baby said this at the Press Club here today while inaugurating an exhibition of photographs taken by the news photographer, Rajan Poduval, that captured different moments in the life of the late leader.

The late Chief Minister had always been a feast to media persons in general and photographers in particular, Mr. Baby said adding that the personality of Nayanar had offered basic humanness to photographers to be captured in the film. "Those who disparaged Nayanar in his life time and advised him to emulate Chandrababu Naidus and S.M. Krishnas have now started realising the pro-people and human approach of the late leader,'' he said.

The tragedy in Kumbakonam exposed the dangers of the uncontrolled privatisation that was now being blindly imitated in the State.

"Black-market commercialisation" of education would lead to such tragedies as safety and other norms in the rules concerning school buildings and surroundings were often given a go by in the rush to sanction private schools, he said. "We are not at all against privatisation, but it should be privatisation with social control.''

Mr. Baby also complimented the power of the photographer to capture and bring to light sorrows, tragedies, horrors and social realities.

Still-photographs of great photographers always captured action beyond the stillness, he said.

The two-day exhibition, being organised by the Creative Photographers' Forum of Kannur, will begin on July 19 at the Chamber Hall.

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