“If a university is depoliticised, there is no difference between it and a factory. And that is a sign of danger for the democracy,” said Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) secretary Sudhir Suthar at the Convention on Public Higher Education held at the Constitution Club here on Friday.
Members of Parliament Rajeev Gowda, Sugata Bose, Udit Raj, D. Raja and Mohammed Salim, and senior political leaders Yashwant Sinha and Nilotpal Basu spoke at the event. They criticised various recent moves like the draft proposal for the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) and proposed policy of graded autonomy.
Referring to the HECI Bill, Mr. Gowda said he expects the government to refer it to the Standing Committee where it will be reviewed.
“The Bill gives tremendous power to Human Resource Department officials... entrusting grant giving powers to Ministers is a sure way of ensuring corruption and ideological towing,” he said.
Scholarship fund
Giving the example of St. Stephen’s College and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, he said, “If the government is unable to provide high quality institutions, it has to allow others to come up. But they should not be exploitative. Parallel means of ensuring affirmative action such as a national scholarship fund needs to be brought about.”
Commenting on this, Mr. Basu, a senior CPI(M) leader, said, “The question is not merely private funding but whether that funding will be on non-profit basis as it is in many Western countries. That distinction between profit and non-profit is very important.”
Mr. Sinha, a former BJP leader, said, “JNU is being singled out with bad publicity because there were waves of various kinds of freedoms which came from it and spread in the country. But today we live in an age where dissent is unaccepted. And therefore you are in trouble. We have to save the space for dissent otherwise our democracy will be non-existent.”
Mr. Salim, a CPI(M) member, assured the JNUTA that their demands will be taken to Parliament.
“We will use whatever tactics available to not allow this Bill to be introduced. And we will make sure it goes to the Standing Committee,” he said.
Prof. Bose hoped the teachers will take inspiration from scholars of colonial times who resisted efforts of Lord Curzon to undermine university autonomy. “In some ways, what is happening today is worse than what Curzon did in 1904,” he said.
On the other hand, Mr. Raj said, “Intellectuals have become obsessed with their knowledge. There is need for introspection. Why can’t you mobilise popular support? As Marx said, philosophers have interpreted the world but the question is how to change.”
“There is a conscious attack on public-funded universities,” said Mr. Raja.
He added, “Our party opposes graded autonomy and the dismantling of the UGC. We will continue to make representations to Ministers and fight this, and we will win this battle.”
The JNUTA has been protesting against the “breakdown in consultative process” in the university and has called for a referendum on August 7, where the faculty will vote on whether the Vice-Chancellor should be removed and on cancellation of a controversial loan proposal by the university.
Published - August 04, 2018 01:42 am IST
