Saner Voice

Dear Friends,
I am reproducing the article published in The Indian Express dated July 8th.2006.The writer Shri Bhanu Pratap Mehta is the same person who had resigned from the Knowledge Commission in protest against the Arjun Singh’s attempt to introduce OBC reservation in the Institutes of higher learning.
This article is very enlightening and in the interest of my guests, I take the liberty to share this article with you all in case you missed it.
Regards,
Anil Joshi

Shri. Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes…
The treatment of Dr Venugopal and the response to it not only expose the government yet again, it also displays the moral bankruptcy of our academic culture Even by the dismally low standards of institutional propriety that we practice, the manner in which the AIIMS Board has treated its Director Dr Venugopal was nothing short of scandalous. To have a board summarily recommend the dismissal of a Director without properly filing charges, without giving him an opportunity to reply and largely on the pretext that he was openly critical of the government—does not bode well for the future of AIIMS.
The High Court’s stay order in the matter is an acknowledgment of serious prima facie impropriety. The violation of any principle of natural justice in this matter is so evident, that you wonder what the Board could have been thinking in acting in the manner it did.
One suspects the issue was not simply getting rid of Dr Venugopal. It was to send a message to all heads of institutions: fall in line or else. The aftereffect will far outlive any protection Dr Venugopal receives from the courts. The political battle for restoring the integrity of academic institutions has to begin, not end, with this order.
This episode reflects badly on the Prime Minister and the consistent failure of his leadership to set the right moral tone in institutional matters. Doubtless, the Prime Minister’s Office will distance him, saying this was the Board’s decision. But the Office of the Prime Minister is considerably diminished by this episode. After all, it was the very same PMO, which had appointed a committee headed by Dr Valiyathan to examine what ails AIIMS a few days ago. Even that committee, to which the PM had directly given his blessings, was a breach of propriety because it had one of the interested parties in this conflict—the Health Secretary—as a member. But for a minister to initiate a precipitous action, without even waiting for this committee to make its report public, shows nothing but open contempt for the Prime Minister’s authority
It gives credence to the charge that this government is getting out of control. Various members of the cabinet are charting their own course, intoxicated by their own power and driven by their own agendas—while the Prime Minister watches helplessly. There is one thing Mr Ramdoss and Mr Arjun Singh are right about: power flows to those who exercise it. And it is up to the PM to restore his lost credibility. Integrity should have more connotations than just honesty.
But this episode reflects badly on the government in another way.
The bottom line is this: there is now a systematic attempt by this government to convert institutions of higher learning into mere appendages of the state. The disease that had killed off state-level institutions is now haunting Central institutions as well.
Various directives from the government are making it clear that this government wants more control over institutions of higher education. It operates with a bizarre conception of accountability — where accountability has been reduced to accountability of institutions to government nominees, not accountability through choice, competition and transparency.
Even the Moily Committee, while it may do some good in terms of recommending expansion, nevertheless, is a breach of propriety, for it makes the cardinal mistake of assuming that a Central Committee should be empowered to recommend the nature and extent of expansion, rather than universities themselves. In many ways, we are now back on the verge of the worst days of the ‘70s, where a Left-Congress combine conspired to ruin Indian Higher Education. That strategy was based on a triple cocktail that is poisoning the Indian system: populism, state control and exercise of arbitrary discretion, and buying out teacher support with perverse incentives like automatic promotion schemes.
The current government strategy is similar: foist your agenda on institutions and then buy out the support of teachers by dangling carrots like increased retirement ages and new pay packets. Some of these measures are necessary, but they are designed not to improve academic incentives but as palliative to defuse protest. Admittedly, many politicians, including some on the Left, have expressed their consternation in the AIIMS case, but few will acknowledge that its cause lies deep in the penchant for statism and political control that should be disavowed.
It was to the great credit of Prof Pental and Prof S K Agrawal to have recorded their notes of dissent. It is difficult for outsiders to imagine the kinds of pressures government is bringing to bear upon those who dare criticize it. But the exceptionalism of their dissent only raises the larger question: Why is the academic community not standing up for academic values? All professional tribes have their disagreements. But whether we are for or against quotas should be immaterial in this instance. What is at stake is nothing less than the integrity of academic life.
Perhaps it is a sign of how denuded of spirit our academic culture has become, that we are the first to abdicate our own responsibilities and powers to government. It is time we, as a profession, stop giving aid and succor to a wholesale government takeover of our institutions. This episode does not augur well for tolerance.
The fact that we have stopped thinking in terms of institutional proprieties is a sign of a deep and pervasive intolerance and instrumentalism creeping in the system. In this scheme of things, the ends justify the means. If people oppose you, you have the right to shut them out using whatever means appropriate. It takes an inordinate amount of self-denial and dedication to enter academia these days, especially for those who are accomplished. The courts have provided a reprieve but the institution remains bruised.
This has been a crushing and demoralizing week for so many youngsters: more than ninety per cent marks and no hope for admission. And then we go and destroy the few good institutions that remain. While power is intoxicating ministers in this government to the point where ordinary academic proprieties are beyond them, society has to face up to a larger challenge. For fundamentally, a nation which denies its institutions of Higher Learning certain privileges, shows signs of cultural, institutional and social decay.

The writer is president, Center for Policy Research, New Delhi.

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