This time what I am doing is different from anything that I did before. I am putting on my blog two letters that I sincerely wrote to Sri K.T. Rama Rao, who is the Minister for IT and Panchayat Raj. Ideally this should have gone to the Minister for Higher Education Sri Sri Hari, but given the talk that I hear that Sri K T Rama Rao is sincere in his attempts to develop the State of Telangana and since he is a young man with wider and better exposure to the world (I hear he was educated in the USA and lived there for sometime) I thought perhaps it would be more apposite to write to him. Another factor is that the Chief Minister of the State is his father.
The context in which these letters were written must clearly be established before I make my letters open on the blogger platform. The State government had advertised for candidates to apply for posts of Vice Chancellors of all the Telangana Universities all of which have not had regular Vice Chancellors for different periods of time. The advertisement had lowered the experience necessary of the prospective candidates from 10 years as Professors to 5 years. This has meant that a greater number of people became eligible for application and though I am not aware of who all applied, past experience clearly demonstrates that it is people who are willing to pay obeisance to their respective political masters who actually apply and begin the process of canvassing for the respective selves through those who have access to corridors of power. This tried and tested model has probably been the single most important reason for wherever the education system has ended up today. The days when sincerely constituted search committees were formed and they in turn sincerely identified the names of three eligible candidates all of whom were eminent scholars and made meaningful contribution to the cause of education have been long gone. But the search system meant that at least people with some academic credentials, however little they maybe, became Vice Chancellors.
The new idea of advertising for the post of the Vice Chancellors was mooted by the Honourable Governor of the then undivided Andhra Pradesh Sri E S L Narasimhan in order to draw applications from good candidates who maybe deliberately or accidentally left out by the search committees. The one thing that he did not think about was that he cleared the road for the worst among the academicians to apply for the post of Vice Chancellor. To aid confusion and corruption to this whole process was the UGC's conception and implementation of the Academic Point Index (API) which would be responsible for 80% of the marks that a candidate gets in order to become an Associate Professor from Assistant Professor and from Associate Professor to Professor. Unfortunately this meaningless system has become applicable even for entry into a University. A candidate gets a certain number of marks for MPhil, PhD and published articles in peer reviewed journals. In India all journals are peer reviewed and therefore every candidate gets his/her articles published through plagiarism. Plagiarism is also used extensively by candidates for completing MPhil and PhD theses. The Indian Government runs an anti-plagiarism software called "Shodh Ganga". I think this is an amazing name. Now somebody needs to tell the government or the HRD Minister or the Prime Minister that "Modiji/Irani Ji aapki Shodh Ganga mailee ho gayee". This software is like the various methods that are suggested to clean the Ganga river. Anyway all the universities in Telangana have decided that they don't want the polluted Ganga river so simply have avoided become part of the river and plagiarists have been breathing easy.
But this post is about people who are applying for positions of Vice Chancellors. The Chief Minister Sri K. Chandrashekar Rao said that for Osmania University and Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTU-H) only "Merit" will be taken into consideration but for the other smaller and newer universities considerations of caste, creed, religion will be taken into consideration. I have been aghast at this, since it is the newer universities that need Vice Chancellors with a vision and will therefore be able to build up these universities into credible educational institutions. To me it seems that all universities in India require Vice Chancellors who have the vision to create newer centres of learning which in turn will create newer and credible forms of knowledge. The country in general and the new State of Telangana in particular require Vice Chancellors who can stand up to all kinds of pressure and implement a vision that would be the hallmark of each of the universities.
So this is the long context in which I decided to write to Sri K.T. Rama Rao.
What you will see below are the two letters that I had written to the honourable minister with some hope, (I called it a flickering flame in one of the letters) and I did not even receive even on liner like "Thank you for your letter, will see what can be done".
Honourable Minister Sir,
Let me introduce myself to you first. I am, A V Satish Chandra,PhD, a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Osmania University. It has long been my idea to get across the realities of higher education in Telangana to someone in power who would understand my angst but till today I could not get your email ID. I am told that this is your official email ID, which means someone else will check it before you do. but I am still writing this letter to you with a hope that you will actually get to see it. Otherwise I just have to think, I at least tried.
What prompted me to write this letter to you now (apart from the fact that I have only just obtained your email ID) is the fact that the Government of Telangana State has advertised for the posts of Vice Chancellors to the various universities of Telangana.
My mail maybe a little long, owing to the subject matter, but I seek your indulgence because the matter is such that it cannot be stated in two or three sentences. Osmania University is now the breeding ground of corruption, lack of ethics among teachers, a complete failure in the provision of education, but students get marks in the 80-90% range. It has been often been said that the reason for this is that the students are bad. I would like to correct this misnomer. Osmania University has been ruined by teachers. I can tell you that except for two or three teachers in the whole university, nobody would get a job in another university. People cannot teach. I have known teachers personally who put in about 30 years of service without going to a single class. Various strategies have been evolved by the teachers in connivance with innocent students who seem to think marks are all that count.
Osmania University is a cesspool of dirty academics. Every year PhDs are produced by using a simple technique. There will be one thesis called "Assessment of Janmabhoomi programme in Nalgonda district". This will be taken up by another student who will change the title to "Assessment of drought relief programmes in Mahbubnagar District". All that the student does is change the name of Nalgonda to Mahbubnagar where it figures and Janmabhoomi to Drought relief programme. In this way thesis after thesis is being created and students who cannot speak in English or teach in Telugu have been given jobs.
The senior teachers do not want to engage classes, and so a falsified workload is sent to the university (the university administration is aware of this but plays along) and Academic Consultants and Part timers are taken on to do the job that is to be done by teachers. The sad thing is that these Academic Consultants have been designated Assistant Professor (c) where the C stands for Contract employee. Today these people are demanding regularisation of services. What you need to know is that both Assistant Professors (C) and the Part timers have not faced any interview boards. Service rules strictly say that for a selection to be considered as proper an interview committee consisting of the Vice Chancellor of the University, the Dean of the Faculty and the Head of the Department (for which the interview is being conducted) two subject experts from outside the university (one of whom is a UGC nominee) women and dalit representatives as observers so that no wrong is being committed to them. None of the Assistant Professors (C) or Part timers have faced such a board.
Then there is a question of constituent colleges which are actually off campus colleges of the Osmania University and these are the Nizam College, University College for Women, Koti, Saifabad Science College near Masab Tank and the PG College at Secunderabad. Along with the main campus even these colleges claim that they do not have enough staff. Of these Nizam College and University College for Women enjoy the status of autonomous colleges, which means that they get an autonomy found and both have been Colleges with Potential for Excellence which means additional grants for research. In the case of the Women's College the status of CPE has been withdrawn by the UGC due to no research activity. That is the fate that might befall Nizam College in the beginning of 2017, when it is due for review.
Apart from this the University itself has the Status of University with potential for Excellence (UPE) and two and half years have passed and none of the Centres (about 4) have started any work. The University is due for NAAC accreditation and at this rate it will get a B grade or even C grade which automatically means that the status of UPE will be lost and along with that a large quantum of funds. The UGC is no longer giving out doles. It expects the departments and the universities to pursue research and it is on the basis of that, that it will release funds. The UGC has granted two independent centres; Centre for Gandhian Studies and Centre for Indira Gandhi studies. Research in this centres means that more and more money will come in, but unfortunately they are simply sitting there with no premises even and no work being done.
Sir, Osmania University says that it has a severe shortage of staff. Nizam College and University College for Women also complain of this. Just before bifurcation of the State, Nizam College was picked up by RUSA (Rashtriya Ucchatar Siksha Abhiyaan) for becoming a University. Now the University College for Women is also eligible for it. If these two colleges are spun off into universities, then most of the staff will have to go back to Osmania University, which means that there will be no shortage of staff and no need for Assistant Professors (Contract) and Part timers. If Nizam College and University College for Women become universities (the latter can be the first Women's University in Telangana) and if rules of employment are strictly followed they will emerge as good universities. A bulk of Osmania Universities' staff is due for retirement from service in the next three years. Those posts can also be filled up with worthy candidates again with merit being the basis and following the rules to the T.
As far as the new universities are concerned I have some ideas about those too. Instead of being just universities they can be converted to Centres of Advanced research in specific areas. Already my letter is rather long, if you can give me an audience for 15 minutes I can explain and substantiate further all the things that I have written. Please do not take me for an eccentric person or as a person with some hidden agenda. I am concerned for my State and Country.
I wrote this letter to you because you are someone young (much younger than I am) and when I hear you or listen to you, I get the feeling that you mean what you say. It is that hope that has made me write this letter to you. I ask for your forgiveness if you believe what I have done is wrong. But I live in the hope that somethings would change and the education system is better. In fact, I have been working to raise funds to improve the quality of school education through use of information technology and there are a lot of people who tell me that I suffer from a Mahatma Gandhi complex because I want to do these things.
I apologise to you for this long letter and somewhere in my heart there is a flickering flame which wants to believe that things will improve. Thank you Sir, Jai Hind
Yours Sincerely
A V Satish Chandra, PhD
Professor of Political Science (Nizam College*)
Osmania University
Hyderabad - 500007
Telangana State
*Off campus constituent college of the Osmania University
Honourable Minister Sir,
I had sent you a letter in the afternoon of 30/12/2015 and thus far I have not heard back from you. I think somebody in your peshi who accesses your public mail, probably did not report of its existence to you. Maybe you are still thinking about it (if you have received and read that mail) I do not know. In the meanwhile four prospective candidates have approached me to prepare their CVs for them in such a manner that they look good. I have been very ill for sometime now and I have been using that as an excuse to tell them that I cannot do it now. Some of the more persistent ones are waiting for me to recover so that I can manufacture impressive looking CVs for them. My heart and mind both tell me that this is wrong, so I will not do it. I have lived my life on the principle that when something bad is happening, for that bad to grow all it needs is a few good men to remain silent and not do anything. I have taken salary from OU for 22 years thus far and it is this salary that kept me and family reasonably comfortable without any crisis. I am aware that the money comes from the people of the country and the state. It hurts me to see that a public institution created with the explicit purpose of educating students, so that they can use the opportunities and come up in life, is blatantly being used for everything other than education.
When I applied for the Girton Fellowship which could take me to England, to Cambridge University and another to the Oxford University I received a letter each from both universities which clearly stated that in order to be considered eligible for Girton fellowship (there are only three worldwide) and other fellowships for teachers I should be from any of the Central Universities or well known Universities such as Osmania University, Calcutta University etc.From that level of prestige the university has now acquired a notorious reputation of a non-academic institution. I feel sorry for all those people who built the university to the level that it had become known worldwide as a good institution of higher, because what is left of the people who built this university,s reputation as an institution of excellence is a legacy that today is zero. I saw the search committees constituted for the identification of appropriate candidates and much to my sadness I see names of people who actively contributed to the fall of the university. These people cannot identify brilliant persons because what that person says will be incomprehensible to them. They will select another notorious person and the university will fade away into oblivion. If you do not get to read this letter and the one above or if you see it as a rant of a madman then the flickering flame of hope that is still there in me will be put extinguished forever. I hope it does not come to that. Thank you .
Yours Sincerely
A V Satish Chandra, PhD
Professor of Political Science (*Nizam College)
Osmania University
Hyderabad - 500007
Telangana State
*Off campus constituent college of the Osmania University.
I know that this post is a bit too long even for the most patient or readers. I ask you to give me a little more latitude and finish my story with what Prof. M. Kodanda Ram Reddy had to say recently about politics in Telangana. He said he was sad that the new state was following the same old practices in terms of the TRS wooing elected representatives from other parties to its own ranks. I have no idea what is going on in Prof. M. Kodanda Ram Reddy's head now and during the agitation, but I am surprised that he thinks it is somehow very bad that the old political practices are still be continued. Why would they change? Telangana is not a new country nor is it a state that said it will change politics. After all the politicians of Telangana are good old and well seasoned people who were there in politics for a very long time. In fact, I probably won't be too much away from the mark if I say the TRS is the problem child of the TDP and still has various members of that party, starting with the Chief of the party and the Chief Minister of the State (and his son Sri K.T. Rama Rao got his name from N.T. Rama Rao the one time supremo of the Telugu Desam Party) and many more members whose names I do not remember to well and that exercise does not have a place in this post. At the height of the agitation when students were saying that the new state would provide them with jobs due to their participation in the agitations for separation of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh, I clearly told them once the new state is formed wait for 5 years and tell me what changes they saw for the better.
The context in which these letters were written must clearly be established before I make my letters open on the blogger platform. The State government had advertised for candidates to apply for posts of Vice Chancellors of all the Telangana Universities all of which have not had regular Vice Chancellors for different periods of time. The advertisement had lowered the experience necessary of the prospective candidates from 10 years as Professors to 5 years. This has meant that a greater number of people became eligible for application and though I am not aware of who all applied, past experience clearly demonstrates that it is people who are willing to pay obeisance to their respective political masters who actually apply and begin the process of canvassing for the respective selves through those who have access to corridors of power. This tried and tested model has probably been the single most important reason for wherever the education system has ended up today. The days when sincerely constituted search committees were formed and they in turn sincerely identified the names of three eligible candidates all of whom were eminent scholars and made meaningful contribution to the cause of education have been long gone. But the search system meant that at least people with some academic credentials, however little they maybe, became Vice Chancellors.
The new idea of advertising for the post of the Vice Chancellors was mooted by the Honourable Governor of the then undivided Andhra Pradesh Sri E S L Narasimhan in order to draw applications from good candidates who maybe deliberately or accidentally left out by the search committees. The one thing that he did not think about was that he cleared the road for the worst among the academicians to apply for the post of Vice Chancellor. To aid confusion and corruption to this whole process was the UGC's conception and implementation of the Academic Point Index (API) which would be responsible for 80% of the marks that a candidate gets in order to become an Associate Professor from Assistant Professor and from Associate Professor to Professor. Unfortunately this meaningless system has become applicable even for entry into a University. A candidate gets a certain number of marks for MPhil, PhD and published articles in peer reviewed journals. In India all journals are peer reviewed and therefore every candidate gets his/her articles published through plagiarism. Plagiarism is also used extensively by candidates for completing MPhil and PhD theses. The Indian Government runs an anti-plagiarism software called "Shodh Ganga". I think this is an amazing name. Now somebody needs to tell the government or the HRD Minister or the Prime Minister that "Modiji/Irani Ji aapki Shodh Ganga mailee ho gayee". This software is like the various methods that are suggested to clean the Ganga river. Anyway all the universities in Telangana have decided that they don't want the polluted Ganga river so simply have avoided become part of the river and plagiarists have been breathing easy.
But this post is about people who are applying for positions of Vice Chancellors. The Chief Minister Sri K. Chandrashekar Rao said that for Osmania University and Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTU-H) only "Merit" will be taken into consideration but for the other smaller and newer universities considerations of caste, creed, religion will be taken into consideration. I have been aghast at this, since it is the newer universities that need Vice Chancellors with a vision and will therefore be able to build up these universities into credible educational institutions. To me it seems that all universities in India require Vice Chancellors who have the vision to create newer centres of learning which in turn will create newer and credible forms of knowledge. The country in general and the new State of Telangana in particular require Vice Chancellors who can stand up to all kinds of pressure and implement a vision that would be the hallmark of each of the universities.
So this is the long context in which I decided to write to Sri K.T. Rama Rao.
What you will see below are the two letters that I had written to the honourable minister with some hope, (I called it a flickering flame in one of the letters) and I did not even receive even on liner like "Thank you for your letter, will see what can be done".
Honourable Minister Sir,
Let me introduce myself to you first. I am, A V Satish Chandra,PhD, a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Osmania University. It has long been my idea to get across the realities of higher education in Telangana to someone in power who would understand my angst but till today I could not get your email ID. I am told that this is your official email ID, which means someone else will check it before you do. but I am still writing this letter to you with a hope that you will actually get to see it. Otherwise I just have to think, I at least tried.
What prompted me to write this letter to you now (apart from the fact that I have only just obtained your email ID) is the fact that the Government of Telangana State has advertised for the posts of Vice Chancellors to the various universities of Telangana.
My mail maybe a little long, owing to the subject matter, but I seek your indulgence because the matter is such that it cannot be stated in two or three sentences. Osmania University is now the breeding ground of corruption, lack of ethics among teachers, a complete failure in the provision of education, but students get marks in the 80-90% range. It has been often been said that the reason for this is that the students are bad. I would like to correct this misnomer. Osmania University has been ruined by teachers. I can tell you that except for two or three teachers in the whole university, nobody would get a job in another university. People cannot teach. I have known teachers personally who put in about 30 years of service without going to a single class. Various strategies have been evolved by the teachers in connivance with innocent students who seem to think marks are all that count.
Osmania University is a cesspool of dirty academics. Every year PhDs are produced by using a simple technique. There will be one thesis called "Assessment of Janmabhoomi programme in Nalgonda district". This will be taken up by another student who will change the title to "Assessment of drought relief programmes in Mahbubnagar District". All that the student does is change the name of Nalgonda to Mahbubnagar where it figures and Janmabhoomi to Drought relief programme. In this way thesis after thesis is being created and students who cannot speak in English or teach in Telugu have been given jobs.
The senior teachers do not want to engage classes, and so a falsified workload is sent to the university (the university administration is aware of this but plays along) and Academic Consultants and Part timers are taken on to do the job that is to be done by teachers. The sad thing is that these Academic Consultants have been designated Assistant Professor (c) where the C stands for Contract employee. Today these people are demanding regularisation of services. What you need to know is that both Assistant Professors (C) and the Part timers have not faced any interview boards. Service rules strictly say that for a selection to be considered as proper an interview committee consisting of the Vice Chancellor of the University, the Dean of the Faculty and the Head of the Department (for which the interview is being conducted) two subject experts from outside the university (one of whom is a UGC nominee) women and dalit representatives as observers so that no wrong is being committed to them. None of the Assistant Professors (C) or Part timers have faced such a board.
Then there is a question of constituent colleges which are actually off campus colleges of the Osmania University and these are the Nizam College, University College for Women, Koti, Saifabad Science College near Masab Tank and the PG College at Secunderabad. Along with the main campus even these colleges claim that they do not have enough staff. Of these Nizam College and University College for Women enjoy the status of autonomous colleges, which means that they get an autonomy found and both have been Colleges with Potential for Excellence which means additional grants for research. In the case of the Women's College the status of CPE has been withdrawn by the UGC due to no research activity. That is the fate that might befall Nizam College in the beginning of 2017, when it is due for review.
Apart from this the University itself has the Status of University with potential for Excellence (UPE) and two and half years have passed and none of the Centres (about 4) have started any work. The University is due for NAAC accreditation and at this rate it will get a B grade or even C grade which automatically means that the status of UPE will be lost and along with that a large quantum of funds. The UGC is no longer giving out doles. It expects the departments and the universities to pursue research and it is on the basis of that, that it will release funds. The UGC has granted two independent centres; Centre for Gandhian Studies and Centre for Indira Gandhi studies. Research in this centres means that more and more money will come in, but unfortunately they are simply sitting there with no premises even and no work being done.
Sir, Osmania University says that it has a severe shortage of staff. Nizam College and University College for Women also complain of this. Just before bifurcation of the State, Nizam College was picked up by RUSA (Rashtriya Ucchatar Siksha Abhiyaan) for becoming a University. Now the University College for Women is also eligible for it. If these two colleges are spun off into universities, then most of the staff will have to go back to Osmania University, which means that there will be no shortage of staff and no need for Assistant Professors (Contract) and Part timers. If Nizam College and University College for Women become universities (the latter can be the first Women's University in Telangana) and if rules of employment are strictly followed they will emerge as good universities. A bulk of Osmania Universities' staff is due for retirement from service in the next three years. Those posts can also be filled up with worthy candidates again with merit being the basis and following the rules to the T.
As far as the new universities are concerned I have some ideas about those too. Instead of being just universities they can be converted to Centres of Advanced research in specific areas. Already my letter is rather long, if you can give me an audience for 15 minutes I can explain and substantiate further all the things that I have written. Please do not take me for an eccentric person or as a person with some hidden agenda. I am concerned for my State and Country.
I wrote this letter to you because you are someone young (much younger than I am) and when I hear you or listen to you, I get the feeling that you mean what you say. It is that hope that has made me write this letter to you. I ask for your forgiveness if you believe what I have done is wrong. But I live in the hope that somethings would change and the education system is better. In fact, I have been working to raise funds to improve the quality of school education through use of information technology and there are a lot of people who tell me that I suffer from a Mahatma Gandhi complex because I want to do these things.
I apologise to you for this long letter and somewhere in my heart there is a flickering flame which wants to believe that things will improve. Thank you Sir, Jai Hind
Yours Sincerely
A V Satish Chandra, PhD
Professor of Political Science (Nizam College*)
Osmania University
Hyderabad - 500007
Telangana State
*Off campus constituent college of the Osmania University
Honourable Minister Sir,
I had sent you a letter in the afternoon of 30/12/2015 and thus far I have not heard back from you. I think somebody in your peshi who accesses your public mail, probably did not report of its existence to you. Maybe you are still thinking about it (if you have received and read that mail) I do not know. In the meanwhile four prospective candidates have approached me to prepare their CVs for them in such a manner that they look good. I have been very ill for sometime now and I have been using that as an excuse to tell them that I cannot do it now. Some of the more persistent ones are waiting for me to recover so that I can manufacture impressive looking CVs for them. My heart and mind both tell me that this is wrong, so I will not do it. I have lived my life on the principle that when something bad is happening, for that bad to grow all it needs is a few good men to remain silent and not do anything. I have taken salary from OU for 22 years thus far and it is this salary that kept me and family reasonably comfortable without any crisis. I am aware that the money comes from the people of the country and the state. It hurts me to see that a public institution created with the explicit purpose of educating students, so that they can use the opportunities and come up in life, is blatantly being used for everything other than education.
When I applied for the Girton Fellowship which could take me to England, to Cambridge University and another to the Oxford University I received a letter each from both universities which clearly stated that in order to be considered eligible for Girton fellowship (there are only three worldwide) and other fellowships for teachers I should be from any of the Central Universities or well known Universities such as Osmania University, Calcutta University etc.From that level of prestige the university has now acquired a notorious reputation of a non-academic institution. I feel sorry for all those people who built the university to the level that it had become known worldwide as a good institution of higher, because what is left of the people who built this university,s reputation as an institution of excellence is a legacy that today is zero. I saw the search committees constituted for the identification of appropriate candidates and much to my sadness I see names of people who actively contributed to the fall of the university. These people cannot identify brilliant persons because what that person says will be incomprehensible to them. They will select another notorious person and the university will fade away into oblivion. If you do not get to read this letter and the one above or if you see it as a rant of a madman then the flickering flame of hope that is still there in me will be put extinguished forever. I hope it does not come to that. Thank you .
Yours Sincerely
A V Satish Chandra, PhD
Professor of Political Science (*Nizam College)
Osmania University
Hyderabad - 500007
Telangana State
*Off campus constituent college of the Osmania University.
I know that this post is a bit too long even for the most patient or readers. I ask you to give me a little more latitude and finish my story with what Prof. M. Kodanda Ram Reddy had to say recently about politics in Telangana. He said he was sad that the new state was following the same old practices in terms of the TRS wooing elected representatives from other parties to its own ranks. I have no idea what is going on in Prof. M. Kodanda Ram Reddy's head now and during the agitation, but I am surprised that he thinks it is somehow very bad that the old political practices are still be continued. Why would they change? Telangana is not a new country nor is it a state that said it will change politics. After all the politicians of Telangana are good old and well seasoned people who were there in politics for a very long time. In fact, I probably won't be too much away from the mark if I say the TRS is the problem child of the TDP and still has various members of that party, starting with the Chief of the party and the Chief Minister of the State (and his son Sri K.T. Rama Rao got his name from N.T. Rama Rao the one time supremo of the Telugu Desam Party) and many more members whose names I do not remember to well and that exercise does not have a place in this post. At the height of the agitation when students were saying that the new state would provide them with jobs due to their participation in the agitations for separation of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh, I clearly told them once the new state is formed wait for 5 years and tell me what changes they saw for the better.
well written sir, i hope you get the required audience..
ReplyDeleteI see what I always believed: "At least I made an attempt". It gives immense satisfaction.
ReplyDeleteBut the best way to get a reply or at least get such officials notice your mail is resend the same mail every day. Try it out. It has worked for me.
When rest of the states are busy improving the state of their higher education and transforming their universities into more effective and efficient innovation centers, Telangana should also make efforts to deliver the same level of quality to its people. Education is indeed the panacea for all the ethical problems. Whilst the socio-economic survey might indicate some numbers against each indicator it is the teachers who can actually tell the state of education in their state. I hope that this letter turns out to be one of the initial steps in bridging the gap between the bureaucracy and the academicians.
ReplyDeleteThank you Prudhvi and Jyotsna Joshi for appreciating what I am trying to do. Annapurna, I do not believe that repeatedly sending the mail is a good strategy, for it could mean that I will be seen a nuisance by the State and that itself can have unfortunate consequences. I have done what I thought is the right thing and if this does not evoke any interest in the person to whom I have written, there is nothing I can do about it. It only reiterates my view that the game or the rules won't change since the rule makers and the players of the game are still the same people. They have only managed to push some fat cats off the ground so that they can have the ground for themselves.
ReplyDeleteI had heard things were bad but not just how bad they were. I can understand just how frustrated you must be at the state of affairs in a university we are all proud of - thank you for the mention, by the way!
ReplyDeleteIs there any channel through which he can reach this to him - anything that you can think of? Let's figure out how to do it. Who has his ear? Is there a corporate connection?
I have been away from AP for thirty years now and I can assure you that universities in TN are as riddled with problems as this one.
Anuradha whenever something like a lousy VC was appointed or whenever some lousy people were appointed as teachers, I thought we had reached the bottom and things could not get worse. But then each time I have been wrong. So now I feel that things can get really worse and that there is no bottom. Other than Lahoti you try to remember the masters of philosophy who taught you; they now look like towering intellectuals. I almost died of shock when an English teacher told me that he teaches English in Telugu and I still do not what that means. I was once made to sit on a selection panel of a part timer to teach political science. The system being used was that the candidate has to teach something of his choice. This man chose Plato. Then he goes on to say Plato wrote the Republic in which he said ruling people is an art. Not everyone can do it. See today's political system, if is full of people who cannot rule properly because they do not have that art in them. After some more such rubbish I stopped him and asked "What did Rousseau mean when he said man is born free but in chains later". His answer to this was what Rousseau said was that man is free till he gets married and after that his wife will demand she wants different chains (as in jewellery) and if he has daughters they too will want the same. So man is under severe pressure!! And with the exception me everybody said let us select him. I was stunned. I said how can we even select someone like this, so various reasons as to how we have to be compassionate to people who do not have jobs should be given jobs etc. As for my having contacts to getting to the politicians who matter, I do not have any, but if I were to try I probably would find someone who will ask for his pound of flesh even before I meet the necessary person. And since I have reached him through such a source, he will not expect me to be a person of sincerity and integrity. So no point really. I do know that TN universities are in a worse shape. Nobody can stop this process of rotting because nobody even knows what is rotten and what is not.
ReplyDelete