Atishi Marlena; We Didn’t Deserve You

I am neither from the Anti Modi squad nor among the Bhakts. I respect Mr Modi for all the good work that he has done but curse him for everything that he said but didn’t do. There is a very famous term in Eastern UP called “Bhaukal” which is used for people like Modi who talk a lot but do a little. Anyways, I am happy that he got elected once again as our Prime Minister and really hope that this time he actually takes all his countrymen together without creating any further prejudice.

Now that the dust of this election has settled, when I look back at all the events, one thing that actually broke my heart was the defeat of Atishi Marlena. Her defeat shows that people of our country still do not go through the profile of their respective MPs and happily vote for vague statements. Let’s just get a glimpse of who Atishi Marlena actually is?

Atishi did her schooling from Springdales School, New Delhi and graduated in History from St. Stephens College, New Delhi. She got the Chevening Scholarship to study Ancient and Modern History at Oxford University. Eventually, she joined Magdalen College of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

This was just her academic background, now let’s have a look towards what she gave to the people of Delhi.

After coming back from Oxford, initially, Atishi wanted to do a PhD but the thought of doing something substantial for the society compelled her to start teaching in Rishi Valley School of Andhra Pradesh. After one year of teaching, she went back to Oxford for a year to do a Masters in Education. After that, she worked for 4-5 years at the outskirts of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh where she met few of the Aam Aadmi Party’s members and became interested in India Against Corruption movement.

In 2013, she officially joined Aam Aadmi Party in its Policy Formulation Wing. Eventually, she served as an advisor on education from July 2015 to April 2018. During this stint, she overhauled the entire education system of Delhi. She played a pivotal role in launching “Mission Buniyaad” that aims to improve learning levels of primary and secondary students and the “Teacher Development Coordinator Programme” designed to create a platform for peer learning among teachers, dealing with the grievances and inputs from School Management Committees and for restructuring the directorate of education.

She was the key person in shaping the Happiness Curriculum which focuses on the social-emotional development of children and claims to be a solid step towards creating good human beings. It was designed to pave the way for physical and mental health well-being, solving problems caused due to negative and destructive emotions like anger, hatred, and jealousy. 

She did reap the fruitful result of all her efforts when Delhi Government school students got the best- ever result in CBSE this year. The number of schools securing 100% pass percentage has risen to 203 this year from last year’s 168 schools. Similarly, 732 schools have secured more than 90% results, higher than last year when 638 schools achieved the same.

But for all her efforts what reward did we give to her? She just lost her first Lok Sabha election by 4,76,828 votes. With all our heart, we really need to introspect and understand who truly deserves to sit in that Central Hall of Parliament: “A scholar” who is trying her best to bring in a change or a “Pretentious Sadhvi” who has terror charges against her.