Sharks on Campus: The Tragicomedy of Indian Universities

By CBSR Sharma

Brain drain 1: Exodus of trained youth to developed societies; today’s NRIs.
Brain drain 2: Illiterate rural poor due to lack of schools or their accessibility.
Brain drain 3: Absconders from schools or drop outs for earning livelihoods.
Brain drain 4: Untaught, untrained, valueless and corruption savvy youth from colleges and universities.
“Only 30% of students are employable, none is worthy.”
Such comments are due to fraudulent educators of youth – the fourth brain drain, which is the subject of this book. Can the galloping placebo culture be expelled from universities? The youth is corrupted for life by academicians, who have no values. Bitter truths, stranger than fiction, are found in the forty-one articles of this book, which cover some aspects of education in our universities and it also suggests some reforms.
The author represents the fifth brain drain: Obstruction of useful talents by evil forces and their stolen futures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Notion Press
• Release date: Dec 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9789352065264

Book preview

The Tragicomedy of Indian Universities

Faculty Flourish,

Students Perish

Scientists Flourish

Science Perishes

CBSR SHARMA

Notion Press

Old No. 38, New No. 6

McNichols Road, Chetpet

Chennai - 600 031

First Published by Notion Press 2015

Copyright © CBSR Sharma 2015

All Rights Reserved.

ISBN 978-93-5206-526-4

This book has been published in good faith that the work of the author is original. All efforts have been taken to make the material error-free. However, the author and the publisher disclaim the responsibility.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the permission, in writing, from the publisher.

To contact the author, write to [e-mail]

To

Cyril Antony and C S Kalra

From Pondicherry & New Delhi

Who believe

in Citizen’s duty

towards Society

Contents

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Eagleton on Evil

Declaration

Acknowledgments

Prologue

1. Cradle is the Grave

2. Shift Focus to Misdeeds and Misuses

3. University Bachao Andolan

4. States and National Knowledge Commission

5. Arjun Singh Sabotages NKC

6. Brinda Refuses Doctorate

7. Padma Awards for Academics

8. UGC Reviewing Committees

9. Zooniversities Need Whistle Blowers

10. Looniversities of Andh[E]Ra Pradesh

11. Doomiversities

12. Emergency Experiences

13. The First 1825 Days of A University

14. One Decade Young or Ten Years Old

15. Universities Subvert Reforms

16. And if for Ever, Fare Thee Well

17. Cafeteriasis in Education

18. A Decade of Choice Based Credit System

19. Offences Under the Ideal System

20. CBI Pulled the Strings

21. Statutes and Systems Versus Ethics

22. Appointments & Promotions

23. Subsystems and the Ultimate Victims

24. Professionals Fail the Right to Information Act

25. Doctoral Degrees and Student Futures

26. Marks and Grades Crimes Against Students

27. Bizarre Psyches and Moral Turpitudes

28. Open Secret Corruption Trade

29. Psyches of Vice Chancellors

30. Higher Education in Ecology

31. Vice Chancellors’ Conference on Education

32. Darwin and Indian Intellectuals

33. Science Perishes, Scientists Flourish

34. Marx, Gandhi, Ecology and Politics

35. Environment, Activism and Man Mohan Rao Dunkel

36. Karanjia’s Legacy to Journalism and Polity

37. Indian Obama Heralds Freedom Struggle

38. Ecology Education in Natural Sciences

39. Environmental Education in Social Sciences and History

40. Value-Based Education

41. Munikhanda, A Deserted Cradle

Epilogue

Appendix-1: Early Articles By The Author 1966 to 1975

Appendix-2: The First Whistle Blown In India 1990

What Happened To Collapse?

About The Author

EAGLETON ON EVIL

In his witty, accessible study, the prominent Marxist thinker Terry Eagleton launches a surprising defense of the reality of evil, drawing on literary, theological, and psychoanalytic sources to suggest that evil, no mere medieval artifact, is a real phenomenon with palpable force in our contemporary world.

In a book that ranges from St. Augustine to alcoholism, Thomas Aquinas to Thomas Mann, Shakespeare to the Holocaust, Eagleton investigates the frightful plight of those doomed souls who apparently destroy for no reason. In the process, he poses a set of intriguing questions.

Is evil really a kind of nothingness? Why should it appear so glamorous and seductive? Why does goodness seem so boring? Is it really possible for human beings to delight in destruction for no reason at all?

Institutions are filled by evils. They compete for dominance and sometimes compromise with each other for common profits. They lead the capitalistic chariots converting an unfashionable European surplus value into entrepreneurial American opulent affluence.

Indian Express, 2002, Ahmedabad       Shareef, Pondichery University

When Evil Dominates, Goodness has to take a Stand

The world is a dangerous place,

not because of those who do evil,

but because of those

who look on and do nothing.

- Albert Einstein

Surendran, The Hindu

India has been paying the highest price ever paid by any country for democracy. This is the inevitable result of our total neglect to give value-based education to our people and to teach them the priceless ethics embodied in our ancient culture. The greatest crime of our government against our people has been the failure to impart proper education. Politicians have a vested interest in preserving and maintaining unthinking vote banks. According to a report of the World Bank, by the turn of the century India will have more illiterates than the rest of the world put together.

- Nani Palkiwala

DECLARATION

This book contains 41 articles, Prologue,

Epilogue, Appendix-1 and Appendix-2,

4 Figures and 4 Quotable statements.

It is a product of my perusal of documents, reports, charge sheets,

enquiry submissions, listening to and conversing with a

variety of people, both dead and alive, besides observations.

I announce

that only a small fraction of the above information is used.

Many were published to elicit responses in relevant periodicals.

No Half Truths or Concoctions or Stories

or Plagiarism or Cut & Pastes or Student Assignments.

Objective

As in the case of Justice

Gajendragadkar Commission

To induce actions and reforms

Not to hurt any one.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many people shared with me data, information and documents–Superiors, Colleagues, Bureaucracy and Students. Unexpected quarters revealed great informations. Once at Anna University. I was mistakenly accused of "murdering their Professor. He was deputed as a Director to an Institute in Kerala, but died of a heart attack engineered by an evil genius. Within weeks of shifting here, Cassius distributed a nasty hybrid letter against me. Camoflaging from this sin, he stood" by me, blaming others! What a Theatre?

A Guruji amassed 4 houses, several plots, huge jewelry and jobs to his wards, within a single tenure. He now works for a Padma Award, say his Chennai friends at Delhi.

Charles Shobhraj and Dawood Ibrahim are here. They guide in all varieties of crimes, friendly lying, kindred murders, cultured rapes, amassing wealth. And Cover-up Technology comes as a bonus.

Some chapters were typed by Tejoprakash and Elangovan, Research Scholars in Ecology. Dorairaj and Vadivelu from Economics, also assisted me. Prabhu Chawla condensed my larger write up, rechristened and published in Indian Express, 21 years ago. The CEO threatened me of legal action, but preferred a personal persecution, so as to train me along with his friends, in karmic poignancies!

I am grateful to all people above–good, bad and ugly!

PROLOGUE

Education develops people and builds better tomorrows. Since the times of McCauley attempts to improve education never ceased. However the higher education attracted less attention, as it was an elite pursuit. The scenario changed greatly between the great wars. Colleges and Universities increased catering not only to the elite but also to other aspirants leading many initiatives. Thus the value of universities continuously increased with human endeavours.

BRAIN DRAINS-1, 2, 3, 4

Indian society heard of brain drain decades ago when it was realized that 50% of the IIT graduates leave for the western countries mostly USA. There were cries and clamour to prevent this exodus affecting our development.

This is Brain Drain-1. This regret now became welcome in the form of NRIs, sought after for development, back at home through their wealth and expertise!

A question arises. What about those who cannot attend schools either due to their absence or inaccessibility.

This is the Brain Drain-2.

In some societies families need their children for earning a livelihood. Either they are not allowed to go to schools or they are taken out after wards–the great Dropping Out. Has not Industrial Revolution in Europe buttressed by child labour? That they are good labour means they are talented, but unable to enter school due to economic reasons.

This is the greatest of brain drains–Brain Drain-3.

The original Brain Drain is quantitatively insignificant. Yet its ranks never cease to swell by the year. The dream of youth is a pilgrimage to the west. For this they need adequate education and training in India. Indian Education has got to be good.

There are more schools, colleges and Universities. Most schools and colleges are good. But the Universities, once good, are decaying competitively. Liberty given turned them libertines. Their bad actions were showing up from mid-1980s. People are yet to comprehend the consequences. The liberties made Indian youth value-less and criminal. This drain baptises young minds from late teenage, year after year in corruptions and crimes. And they pass their neo-values to posterity, filling the entire society. The trainers are permanently perched in security, privilege and comfort. They are the so-called teachers, non-teachers and authorities, students joining lately, in our universities.

This is BRAIN DRAIN-4.

These brain drains may be defined simply:

Brain Drain-1: Exodus of trained youth to developed societies, Today’s NRIs

Brain Drain-2: Illiterate Rural Poor due to lack of schools or their accessibility

Brain Drain-3: Absconders from Schools or Dropping out for Earning livelihoods

Brain Drain-4: Untaught, untrained, valueless and corruption-savvy youth from Colleges and Universities

Brain Drain-5: Useful Talents obstructed from logical progression by evil forces Stolen Futures

Brain Drain-4 is our present concern now. Their mis-deeds are the arteries of the following pages. As the old habits die hard, the last pages carry hopes, efforts and methods to deal with these privileged piranhas controlling the higher-education.

EFFORTS TO UPGRADE SOCIETY

A country is managed by the products of their knowledge systems-Universities, Colleges and Schools-the former feeding the latter two. India therefore looks forward to its universities for the welfare of its people. Therefore the systems were reviewed periodically. It is this ethos that prompted Nehru to say "If Universities are discharging their duties well, all will be well with the country and society" Many commissions-Mudaliar, Radhakrishna, Kothari, Mehrotra, Ramamurthy, Punnayya, Yashpal and Pitroda-gave inputs to improve the then existing systems.

As a result, there are Lecturers, Senior Lecturers, Readers, Professors and even Senior Professors. Research Associates. National Associates, Career Awards, National Lectureships, National Fellowships, ABC Scientists, FIPs, ASCs, CDCs, NSSs, DE and women programmes. Central Universities, State Universities. Veterinary, Technology, Agriculture, Medical, Law, Culture, Language, Women, Open universities, besides the general one and the deemed ‘Varsities. Senates, Syndicates, Courts, Executive Councils, Chancellors, Visitors, Pro-chancellors, Chief Rectors, Deans, Directors.

And all these are modified from time to time so as to improve. But each time things worsened. Blind expansion and appointment of third raters, pushed education and there from, the society to rock-bottom standards

PLACEBO CULTURE

Did improvement take place? NO. Why? Vice Chancellor is the Chief Executive. He recruits his faculty and runs the Outfit on a day-to-day basis, combining Executive, Legislature and Judiciary–the sole arbiter. The professor and such seniors are expected to be natural leaders of their own disciplines. All teachers come in contact with students on every day. These cooks do not enjoy the confidence of the students nor enjoy credibility in society.

Universities became aloof from society and unaccountable, and irresponsible. 30 universities in 1947 became 800 now. Many of these turned sub-local, local and municipal. Strangle hold of mafias, based on vested interests, became a norm. They practice Placebo Culture–a term familiar in medical circles–appearing to do, but working not to do. There is less education and more corruption in Universities from top to bottom. Only degrees vary. In some we can buy a degree. In others we can influence marks. In another we can corrupt the grades. Honest objectors, if any, have to be silent or will be violated. Every work has a price. The fat salaries are bonuses.

INHUMAN WRONGS, GNANAM PRINCIPLE AND BRAIN DRAIN-5

I followed the principle laid down by our Vice Chancellor during the VC’s Conference at New Delhi during December 1993. It simply states that criticisms should involve or be attributed to only one’s own Institutions, lest others in other universities may be offended, but he himself indulged in half truths. But all narratives here from 1994 are relevant to almost all the 800 universities in India.

A final hope and optimism are evinced in the last 7 articles dealing with Marxism, Capitalism, Journalism, Public Affairs, Education and values–all bulwarks against the libertines roaming freely. The last one is an epilogue tracing the history of decline and suggesting practical measures to stem the fall. It does not tell about BRAIN DRAIN 5–the name given to promising talents victimised and persecuted. I have tried to follow Naipaul, Nirad Chaudhari and Nani Palkiwala in many respects than Beverly Nichols and Catherine Mayo of pre-independent times.

MAN MOHAN RAO DUNKEL

Reforms introduced as a last resort to work freely and increase prosperity, did not work. Scandals, Scams, Briberies, and Crimes are more. Cheating commoners became routine. The reforms reduced the hopes of common man turning him towards dishonesty and cunning. Psyches became abnormal, unlikely to recover in the foreseeable future.

Goodness fears Badness, for, it frightens and harms. If these are controlled goods can keep the flags flying. The first step is to whistle out facts and expose the evils because the latter masquerade as good and pious

When crime wears the apparel of innocence,

it is the victim who has to justify.

The above was said by Camus in 1944 in French Algeria, it is truer in India today, 70 years later. This is the greatness of philosophical generalizations.

SOUL SEARCHING

The last chapter deals with Munikhanda, now Munganda, my adopted village. The dilapidated state in which it is now, reminded me its glorious past. There must be thousands of such villages. A time for some soul searching.

A philosophy for an individual, a family, a community and a society is necessary. Otherwise wild people guide towards anarchy. Crime crossed new frontiers that the forensic science cannot cope. Demonology has set in where might alone is right. Selfishness is the sole philosophy. Evil men and women are capturing power in Universities and other educational institutions. The future of youth in India, psychologically disturbed, is shaky. Things have become intolerance.

Apologies: The chapters in this book were originally independent articles/assays. Therefore repetitions are unavoidable

1

CRADLE IS THE GRAVE

They should be the foundation from which science and its progress draw their sustenance. They are cesspools of all that is wrong with India-corruption, nepotism, power-brokering, petty politicking, unaccountability. They are the Universities, whose alumni determine what happens to India.

Where is Indian science headed? The Jaipur Science Congress late last year reopened that never-ending debate and the chapter wasn’t closed till it ate up reels of newsprint. To be sure, such introspection is not only vital for the system, it introduces a much-needed sense of realism into our intellectual discourse. However, these debates ignored the foundation on which it derives its sustenance-the Universities. Hence, this critique is directed specifically at the ‘dark forces’ who dominate the universities.

It was pointed out, for instance, that if evaluation was limited to counting nuts and bolts, India would seem to have achieved self-sufficiency. But this leaves unanswered basic questions. All the success stories doled out related to target-oriented systems-richly endowed with funds, foreign training and collaborations. Again, the canvas was limited to CSIR and the Government labs. To reiterate the point, left out was the major player in the Indian science scene-the 200 Universities.

Unlike the labs, the universities churn out thousands of students who are supposed to work for the improvement of science and Indian society as a whole. If anything can be held responsible for the current state affairs, these universities should be. This conviction arose considering the atmosphere of ‘non-science’ (or is it anti-science!) prevailing in our campuses and the incalculable damage they cause to our society individually and cumulatively.

The gene pool of our scientists and teachers is less than five per cent of our population, a residue from a variety of drop-outs. There’s part of the population which has no access to education, there’s the other part who are dropouts for economic reasons, eliminated in competition. Even after such a depressingly massive scale of dropouts, what remains is-sadly-not known to behave with accountability towards the society.

The acts of the upper classes-whether urban or feudal-are determined, either way, by their consciousness of or proximity to power, affluence and domination. This is true in all cases unless burdens of morality or idealism of some kind play spoilsport. As a self-sustaining mechanism, they form coteries to weave up a spoils systems which graduates into a mafia culture.

Unaccountability and intolerance of dissent by these forces are buttressed by a social milieu that tolerates and promotes hedonistic pursuits. Ethics, equity and empathy do not come from such vacuums unless one is rooted in Gandhian or Marxist philosophical traditions either at the familial level or through a rare company of righteous people, such a political economy of the knowledge systems will naturally have great bearing on the social responsibility they evince and, subsequently, on their professional output.

The human resources of the entire country is derived from the stock of teachers and scientists. They pass through the 200 institutions of higher education-deemed universities, State and Central universities and autonomous institutions. The leaders of these systems Vice chancellors, directors, deans, professors and faculty members-are accountable for the destruction of science and scientific temper in India.

Some big-wigs have tried to wriggle out from the onus on them by arguing that universities are mere sub-systems which reflect the rest of society. From a historical perspective, this cannot be accepted. When all else fails in society, universities and intellectuals alone remain custodians of virtue to initiate Renaissance. In fact, the onus is all the more on them. If not, why should society then invest in knowledge and gaining of wisdom?

The general atmosphere of a campus now is one of scandals on faculty recruitment and performance, student training and evaluation, research projects and degrees, fund attraction and spending, composition and performance of university bodies, styles of life of executives and academics, and self-propelling politics.

The absence of accountability in India is a culture that begins from universities. Many vice-chancellors are legislature, judiciary and executive all rolled into one! They are also parents or parents in-law for the favourites and prosecutor, judge and jailer, all-in-one-for the marked few. Royal lifestyles, a phony business and suave manners characterise them. The accomplishments they fit into their tenure are, on an average, things like buying a Contessa, refurbishing their quarters and office, building a house, recruiting sons and sons-in-laws, acquiring land and jewelry or conducting marriages of their kids.

Sometimes, they introduce new departments, courses, systems and strengthen their fort for another term, a third and even a fourth elsewhere. One such feudal lord once advised that funds are more important than institutions and truth! Another was found debunking a department of his own university in the media (as if the boot is not on his own legs), a prelude to some ulterior action unfolding in future. Such are the political mechanisms abounding in academic institutions!

Despite having left teaching and research ages ago, some bosses continue to be a dollar currency-in State capitals or at Delhi for UGC, CSIR, ICAR, DST, DBT’s work and not spending over two or three days per week at their headquarters. They ignore UGC committee reports, including those on curricula and question, banks of AIU. They complain of funds while squandering money in myriad ways, including lifting up from one head in the budget to another at will.

Some rarely taught, always managed-funds, labs, equipment, guests, students etc. Recently I saw a vice chancellor co-authoring papers with his faculty, when there were other burdens of responsibility all around. Careers are carried on to absurd lengths, age no bar. All that is condemnable and lamentable in India pales into insignificance before the performers of our universities.

Research of repetitive, irrelevant, unnecessary, plagiaristic and fraudulent types dominates the university scene. But these assure slavish students, funds and a name-an empire in short. They publish and prosper-teaching, training and student welfare are secondary issues perpetually shoved backward. On the other hand, what we have are the sordid tales that go hand in hand with registration for research degrees, guides and supervisors, work ethics, outputs, evaluation and awarding degrees.

The Indian carpet has an unsurpassable ability to hold dirt under it. Vice-chancellors partronise them for obvious reasons. Some of them even lobby at Delhi for the projects of their favourites and scuttle the plans and progress of others. The mafia culture pervades our body academic.

Finances are much misused. Most mega-projects are white elephants helping the awardee get rich quick and build a self-perpetuating empire. From here one enters the national or regional coterie. Getting your hands on a projects will be the first benefit from such an entry! If research funds are cut drastically, no great harm will be done. Financial operations in the universities reveal a wizardry unheard of even in the scams. The new industry-academic consultancies-are fast becoming mutual help complexes. Political, bureaucratic, academic and industrial nexus will soon entrench itself in society. Corruption will be taught in the cradle itself.

Most bosses do not try to consolidate existing good practices; rather, they try to meddle with them. Coteries of seniors groom successors among the juniors to fill up future vacancies. Conscientious members are in the system: even if there were, they do not remain so. They gravitate towards one or the other lobby for they know their bread, like that of the others, ultimately would have neither the convictions nor the courage to express dissent.

It is over such a system and over such subjects that most professors, directors, deans and vice chancellors like to rule. They create hells to serve in heavens abroad. The same ethos is inherited by the juniors.

Nehru used to say "if the universities discharge their duties well, all will be well with India." In retrospect, this is proving true in converse! In such a situation, what chance does science or its admittedly noble goals have?

Education has for its object the formation of character

– Spencer

Excerpted from a paper titled ‘Science Perishes and Scientists Flourish’-by the author, a Senior Professor at Salim Ali School of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Pondicherry University Indian Express. 20 March 1994

2

SHIFT FOCUS TO MISDEEDS AND MISUSES

A. CURRENT SCENARIO

Realities in all varieties of universities are depressing and sometimes outrageous. And the central universities are only competing when not leading. Mr. Arjun Singh played havoc for 5 years with his formidable coteries of feudal, capitalist and creamy forces. He ignored Yash Pal and Pitroda Commissions and the Prime Minister became a mere a spectator. Down the lane VCs became intolerant of dissents, unleash vendetta and misuse media for cover-up exercises. Others do see truth, but tolerate, admire and support these autocracies for benefits. Society and values are sent to hell, which is empty with all the devils adorning Higher Education!

This is the special season of money in a special year of money. It is exchanged for high marks; for admissions, for contracts–roads, buildings, repairs, etc. for expansions in universities Everywhere one way traffic from society to the Money Changers in Higher Education.

This is intolerable Mr. SIBAL. Goodness demands a sea change in our Universities

B. IMMEDIATE IMPERATIVE

1. Call back all files in the pipeline especially dealing with Appointments and Grants for a Review. They should not be allowed to become fait accompli. A lot is heard from the grapevines about your predecessor’s precipitous actions.

2. Shift TWO PARADIGMS from the existing policy frame works FIRSTLY, Declare Students as consumers. Elicit their Experiences and an Evaluation of Teachers. There will be a massive information on the anti-student conducts of some faculty in all Universities. A mechanism already exists in Pondichery University, but in cold storage.

From these focus on the negatives and correct them; from Central Universities first. A mechanism needs to be worked out such as Academic Tribunals or Ombudsmen.

Secondly, review the Institutions of Chancellor and Vice Chancellor as the former became irresponsible and the latter untenable, with the Dons functioning like Corporate Executives and not Leaders of Education. They

1. Behave like ministers with pomp & power, perks & pleasure for profit & popularity, practicing only nerlicofism, the worst type of communalism operating only in higher institutions

2. Function in exclusiveness, focusing on expansion and ignoring quality

3. Became as corrupt as Politicians and using agents to fix honesty and dissent, yet they enjoy immunity from Vigilance and Income Tax. Exceptions only prove the rule.

C. A TEACHER’S THESIS: BRUSH UP MEMORY LEADERS OF H. E.

Knowledge is the root as well as the route of prosperity in society. This needs to be gained and the gainers need to transmit to the seekers. In this ever continuous process the product is the social progress. However we need to monitor [1] whether the trainers, the teachers have knowledge and imparting it and [2] whether the trainees, the students are gaining knowledge? It is to ensure these TWO guarantors of futures all systems & infrastructures, policies &, regulations, curricula & training, in all educational institutions are meant. When all these function properly, we say that knowledge is cultivated. Then only wisdom dominates and the country’s future is safe and promising. But both present and future appear hopeless, except to money bags. Why?

1. Reforms subverted, Incentives Grabbed, Criminals turn Leaders:

All reforms, Innovations, MOUs et al have come to grief, by and large. Only numbers increased; Employability decreased; HRD Index is low; Frauds multiplied, but salaries increased! Promotions snatched through a fraudulent Career Advancement Scheme and Criminals became Professors & Deans, Selectors & Policy Makers, and even Chief Executives! Mother India is weeping publicly as Nani Palkiwala had to once on Sony TV Channel. Mr. Sibal do you see or hear?

2. Entrenched Poison Mutates Nectar Input, CLEAN UP FIRST:

The paradigm of periodic reforms, of adding nectar into a cauldron of poison, hoping for the latter’s reformation, has ended up only in converting the nectar into poison. What is to be done? Change this paradigm! Clean up the poison pot before adding the nectar. Good things can take care of themselves. Correcting universities should have been therefore done first Instead fat salaries were doled out!

D. AREAS NEEDING SERIOUS CONCERN AND CORRECTION

1. The bug of expansion bites all VCs, for obvious reasons, to boast about building Excellence and World Class ignoring their pre-requisites, quality and consolidation ending up at the end with CELL WALLS WITHOUT PROTOPLASM.

2. Mind sets of VCs that they are the best and need to be obeyed, which is mostly untrue, breeds an ambience of autocracy full of egos and arrogance in the campuses.

3. The appointments of VCs, faculty and constitution of University Councils and bodies have been increasingly bad.

4. Researches and degrees are unabashedly scandalous! Syllabi in most subjects in most institutions are inadequate, reflecting the quality of the faculty. Naturally, faculty is always after administrative positions.

5. Student Evaluations of students are partisan and teacher evaluations by students non-existing.

6. UGC and MHRD behave irresponsibly in two respects, among others:

a) They give money but have no control in the appointments of either the chief executive or the teachers.

b) They keep an unmanageably absurd variety of institutions under their jurisdiction. They are not driving horses but mere beasts of burden.

7. There is a great danger looming as UGC wants to implement CBC System all over India promoted by dishonest Vice Chancellors, south of Vindhyas. In practice this system empowered the faculty, but enslaved the students.

In short, bads dominate the good and convert them to their folds of vested interests or render them ineffective and frustrated. The neutrals join them voluntarily! This must be your focus, Mr. Sibal.

E. REFORMS FOILED

Why are you Hiding Mayo, Nichols, Baldwin, Burdick, Lederer?

All Educational Commissions ultimately failed because they did not document the misdeeds and demand correctives. Now the country has reached a stage when we have to inspire people like Catherine Mayo to expose the sewage and sludge for a clean up with the spirit of Bhagirath! What else when the academic world becomes as criminal as the political one, and more intelligent at that?

F. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICY

Further, the Affirmative Action Policy did not succeed as much as hoped due to the collusion of upper classes and creamy layers of the minorities in booty sharing. But when caught in crime, they indulge in breast-beating feigning innocence accusing even Marxists of communalism. Profits are personal; but escaping is through communal routes. Such black-mailing tactics, using an array of cards is practiced by most sections of Indian Society. God only can stop, whose existence a few like me question. But the Affirmative Action Policy can be reframed by deleting creamy layers, a perennial contributor to most Crimes and Inequalities in Universities and Society.

Animals kill other animals for food.

They also kill them for protection.

Man also kills animals.

But wilder is that man

Who kills the spirit of man in others?

- Nehru

University Today 647:8. 16 June 2009

3

UNIVERSITY BACHAO ANDOLAN

A. PREAMBLE

During 1993–94, there had been debates on science, scientists, universities, etc in the print media. The recent Indian Science Congress made accountability in higher education its focal theme. This is followed by the assertion that these cradles are becoming graves indeed [Indian Express, March, 20]. Attention is therefore invited to the 200+ universities, their 500+ living Vice chancellors of past and present, 50,000+ faculty and their innumerable annual products who determine the destinies of our country, the shape of which is here for every one to see. My perceptions on the principles of higher education, realities on the ground and their consequences and finally the imperatives and agendas of action are offered here for reflection and debate. The agenda suggested here is a kind of check list to be engaged with locally, provincially and nationally for any renaissance to be hoped and work for. This is nothing short of a revolution and cultural one at that. And this is very difficult as we deal with intelligent people. Therefore I have deliberately dwelt on the dark forces preventing some of which constitutes a great leap forward towards renaissance.

B. PREMISES

Nations raise and fall, decay and emerge due to their political forces, agents of change and the intelligentsia-the writers, scientists, academicians, artists, professionals and other educated classes. In other words a country is managed by the products of their knowledge systems-Universities, Colleges and Schools-the former feeding the latter two. India therefore looks forward to its 200 universities and 10,000 colleges and their products for the welfare of its 900 million people. It is this ethos that prompted Nehru to say If Universities are discharging their duties well, all will be well with the country and society. As nothing seem to be well with the country, the inference that nothing was going on well with our Universities, is obvious. Can these be corrected? If not the 900 million people may have to choose diverse destinies.

C. THE EFFORTS

A question arises-Have any efforts been made to improve them during the last 5 decades? Many commissions on higher education Mudaliar, Radhakrishnan, Kothari, Mehrotra, Ramamurthy, Punnayya and a New Education Policy in between are efforts to diagnose the maladies and tried to cure them. Each time things worsened. We had Research Associates. National Associates, Career Awards, National Lectureships, National Fellowships, ABC Scientists FIPs, ASCs, CDCs, NSSs, AE and women programmes and above all Futurology outfits. Central Universities, State Universities. Veterinary, Technology, Agriculture, Medical, Law, culture, language, Women, open universities, besides the general one and the deemed ‘Versities. Senates, Syndicates, Courts, Executive Councils, Chancellors, Visitors, Pro-chancellors, Chief Rectors, Deans, Directors, Lecturers, Senior Lecturers, Readers, Professors and even Senior Professors. And all these are modified from time to time, with an express motive for improvement. Did improvement take place. NO. Why? Vice Chancellor is the Chief Executive. He recruits his faculty and runs the outfit on a day-to-day basis, combining Executive, Legislature and Judiciary–as a role model as well as the sole arbiter. The professor and such seniors are expected to be natural leaders of their own disciplines-this is sometimes either not permitted or not provided. All teachers come in contact with students on every day. The proof of their cooking is in the quality of higher education. These cooks do not enjoy the confidence of the students nor enjoy credibility of society.

D. HUMAN GOODNESS & BADNESS vs SYSTEMS

Systems do not improve matters, man does. Bad men destroy all good systems and good ones improve anything bad. The crux of the problem is the recruitment and behavior of Vice Chancellors and Faculty. If these two are perfect, no matter how the rest are, Universities will always contribute to a country’s growth by releasing competent, confident and honest youngsters to shoulder nation’s responsibilities in all fields. Unfortunately however they want to rule in hell, i.e. India or serve in heavens-America/Europe. In India systems and regulations have been changing continuously while individuals gradually deteriorate. Even the better ones run keep aloof or lighting lonely candles of hope, which any way will be last in the hurricanes of others’ disvalues. They do not resist the dark forces, nor expose them. Good men do not unite, they fear, Badmen make Mafias.

E. INSTITUTION AND TRUTH GREATER THAN INDIVIDUAL

In India Individuals became more important than Institutions. Individuals are ephemeral and dispensable. Yet they assume institutional statuses and powers. Such individuals organise into mafias killing the Institutions which gave them the identity. On the other hand healthy institutions serve the interests of all individuals through justice consciousness, and work culture. Whether their works are applied, basic, theoretical etc will not matter. Culture is all that matters. Truth is that one cannot dictate a fertile brain what it should perform or not. It has to be devoid of fetters, injustices and tensions. Therefore these people are often punished, persecuted, humiliated for truthfulness, and dissent. Dissent must be respected and promoted. It is endangered. Truth is robbed. It is becoming extinct. Let us call upon all conscientious idealists to come out with statements of truth in their institutions and what shall be done to raise hopes. Righteousness must assert and come to the fore to clean up the Aegean stables. There is no alternative to this heroism, if India is to survive. Banda Singh Bahadurs are necessary in our University systems-Universities, UGC, MHRD, and AIU. Print media occasionally do good works, but inadequate to the task at hand.

F. FUNDS CRUNCH AND THE RESPONSE

University funds were not enhanced. The imperative was to stop squandering or reduce wastage. Raising funds come later. But we started with the latter first-begging NRIs, Philanthropists, industrialists et al all demanding a price. There is no free lunch anywhere and all are interconnected-This is what ecology tells us.

A Vice Chancellor introduced the Cafeteria Education system with much fanfare and raised fees by a few times. Today the system is a farce and a fraud training students in immorality in the first semester itself. But the exchequer is enjoying surplus funds! And the authorities continue in their excuses. All these are amply covered up by good public relations with MHRD, UGC, AIU, DST all at the same time, playing different cards. It is like the Europeans and Americans asking the other countries to reduce hopes and increase hard work while maintaining their consuming levels at the same heights. In a group of thirteen powerfuls in the Higher Education in India, it is difficult to recognise any one who is not a Judas! Is this the response expected from the leaders of higher education in critical times?

G. BOSNIATION OR RECOVERY OF FAITH

Man Mohan Rao Dunkel removed regulations, but regulators remain. Every state of India sought to get the NRI inputs-from their own linguistic groups into their own states. If India remained together for millennia despite all political changes it is because of cultural unity. But now it is clear that cultural unity is fragmented. Can political unity then remain? Will not Nerlicofism [Nepotism + Regionalism + Linguism + Communalism as faces of Favouritism] mutate sub nationalism into a full blown divisive Nationalism of the Bosnian type in a decade’s time? If we cannot crusade for idealistic campuses, India crumbles under the weight of disvalues perpetuated in higher education