By Patricia Mukhim
India claims to be a federal republic but Delhi has a vice-like grip in all affairs of the states. This is evident from the manner in which the Union ministry for human resources development has been running the show vis-à-vis the central universities of the region. While the oft quoted adage, “He who pays the piper calls the tune”, can be appreciated up to a point and Delhi indeed is the appointing authority of all vice-chancellors whose salaries it pays, there is merit in showing respect to the sentiments of the people where such universities are located. Not always are people wrong in their views; nor is Delhi, which is physically distant and emotionally estranged from this region, infallible.
Over the years, we have witnessed how vice-chancellors are appointed not on merit but on the clout they enjoy in Delhi. Hence vice-chancellors pay regular darshans in the corridors of the ministry of human resources, currying favour with all levels of bureaucrats there. It is caste system at its worst. When the MHRD babus come visiting to the North Eastern Hill University (Nehu) they are treated like royalty and given five-star treatment at the cost of the university, in return for favours they do to keep VCs in their chairs. The quid pro quo is so outrageously visible that it can only enrage the onlookers.
Vice-chancellors appointed to Nagaland University seem to come from a junkyard. Instead of being pillars of academic excellence and carrying themselves with the dignity befitting their positions, they indulge in some of the most rotten politics possible.
One reason, of course, is that they also handle huge amount of construction funds; and money indeed is a great temptation. That the MHRD is unable to find a person of academic and personal integrity to head the sanctum sanctorum of higher learning from an academic pool that this country has much to boast of, shows the limited ambit and the muddy pool from which the so-called search committee is fishing from. When you fish from a cesspool you can only get rotten fish!
Despite evidence of malfeasance against the present vice-chancellor of Nagaland University and after having sent the CBI to investigate the allegations of corruption (mind you without even temporarily removing him from the post and therefore allowing him free rein to continue his cover-up exercise), the MHRD continues to patronise the VC and allow him to function although he has lost the last vestige of respect from the students, faculty and civil society of that state. That’s how obtuse and supremely arrogant the MHRD is!
Let me now come closer home to Nehu where the VC has been locked in on two occasions, once last year and very recently when he refused to step down after his tenure ended on September 12 last. The Nehu VC Pramod Tandon is alleged to have misutilised money meant for different construction projects — the most prominent one being the caving in of the Mcdonald Road connecting Nehu campus to National Highway 44 near Mawiong. This road would have cut short the travel time to Nehu by about an hour as it would not be bogged down by heavy traffic on the national highway. But this Rs 8-crore project collapsed like a pack of cards because it lacked the engineering design for hill roads. And no one was held accountable.
The normal practice for every VC whose term ends is to step down and allow the seniormost professor to take over. But Tandon stuck on by pulling his MHRD strings. He got a joint secretary of the ministry to send a fax message directing the registrar to allow Tandon to function until a new VC takes over. This, by citing some obscure clause in the Nehu Ordinance. Needless to say, the Nehu fraternity stood up in arms against the arbitrary directive and refused to acknowledge Tandon as VC. He was not allowed to function as his office was under lock and key. Such a crisis does not bode well for academia. But does Delhi care?
On October 4, Delhi announced that A.N. Rai, the serving VC of Mizoram University, would take over the reins of Nehu. This appointment has come as a fresh assault on the students and faculty of Nehu as Rai had evidently been hounded out of Mizoram University for violating an agreement he had signed with the Mizo Students’ Union. Further this appointment is galling because there have been several representations to the MHRD and the President of India who is the Visitor, asking for a local indigenous person as the VC. Nehu is 37 years old and has within its fold some of the best academics from the indigenous community with a track record of being good administrators as well.
The civil society of Meghalaya argues that while the Centre trumpets its benevolence towards the people of the Northeast, its actions are contrary to its avowal.
They also argue that the demand for a VC from the indigenous community cannot be labelled as ethnocentrism as the demands are based purely on merit. The students’ body of Nehu, under the banner of the Meghalaya Tribal Students’ Coordination Committee, a conglomerate of Khasi, Garo and other student organisations of the university, rejected Rai’s appointment as the new VC and demanded a VC from the indigenous community by October 8. Indeed, the MHRD’s actions can only be termed as “rubbing salt into gaping wounds”. But here the credibility and wisdom of the Search Committee has to be seriously questioned. Why are VCs being recycled from one university to another? The search committee, comprising former CEC J.M. Lyngdoh, nuclear scientist R.R. Chidambaram and former diplomat Abid Hussian, submitted a list of three names to the MHRD. Ironically, Tandon’s name again featured on the list alongside the names of two other serving VCs. How could a search committee be so limited in its breadth and understanding of the situation and the region? Is there no academician of worth who would wishto take up responsibilities in the Northeast? Does the voice of people from this region merit no consideration at all? Rai, who is now set to take charge of Nehu, is a biochemist. He was given a “rousing” farewell from Mizoram University Would it not have been less tumultuous for the universities of this region if someone who is not holding a VC’s post is appointed?
These indeed are thorny questions that need to be raised at relevant platforms. Nehu has been in a state of flux for the last one year. At the height of the controversy is none other than the outgoing VC himself. Now the student community is bracing for another long struggle to oppose the appointment of a new VC. Where this protracted agitation will take the university is anybody’s guess. But the fault is squarely that of the MHRD and its insensitive bureaucracy and perhaps a minister who is so bogged down by the idea of bringing in foreign universities that he has no time to invest in the welfare of the desi ones. It is time to think of a new search committee that is more representative. Merely having one from the indigenous community with a Brahmin mindset on the committee is adding insult to injury. Period.
(The writer can be contacted at patricia17@rediffmail.com)
2 comments:
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