Assault on souls of Universities
Nurturing the false pride of ‘we had this long ago’ is India developing a mindset to destroy everything that we got today? India was on the forefront of technology in the past and had achieved great feats in the field of education through the pages of history, are the ‘neo cultural’ pundits of India turning into a roadblock for India to grow into the future? Education policy is the best example to show how India is on downhill journey with its scientific and rational approach to the future.
The believers of Hindutva are posing a massive challenge to growth of intellectualism, by tampering with the educational policy. The so called upholders of culture, often shed crocodile tears about how the invaders destroyed the Nalanda University way back in 1193. This often finds its way into public speeches that Prime Minister Modi delivers at frequent intervals. His government is working stealthily on destroying the post-independence universities of India.
On one hand this government is working on uprooting the modern universities at the cost of glorifying the historical legacy of the country. All the steps initiated to change the UGC that existed since 1956 into HECU, need to be noted. Immediately after, the yet-to-be set up Jio University sponsored by Mukesh Ambani was given Institute of Excellence, along with six other institutes. These are the biggest mistakes that can turn detrimental for India’s educational future. We need to also know HECU would operate.
The government will have all rights to withdraw the power of any university that disobeys the government diktats. The VCs and management heads of the educational institutions can be subjected to disciplinary action or three years of punishment if they fail to pay heed to the government. UGC had the powers to control the allocation of funds, but in the new body that is being constituted can only keep an eye on quality control, of course, with the prior permission of the government.
HRD ministry will have direct control over the funds that flow to institutes. As per the 1956 Act when the UGC came into existence, at least 50% of the members had to be from outside the government, from fields such as agriculture, forests, medicine or law and so on. But HECI will only have members that are nominated by the government.
It is not as though UGC was without faults, since the Commission had at times allowed practices to be taken up by the Universities that were against the interest of the students on several occasions. For instance, the ever changing syllabus and exam practices of Delhi University had subjected the students to a lot of problems. The university has switched from annual exam to semester system and then back again to annual exam pattern when students retaliated against this.
The UGC had also directed the Delhi University to engage 20 teaching hours over the existing 12 hour teaching time. Do the students have the bandwidth to listen to over 18 hour classes? Have the members or policy makers or politicians even understood how much time it takes to prepare for one hour class?
With all this, the anticipated changes that HECI would bring in, are already mired in problems. This would only help the rich universities that aspire to become top universities, one of those dreams the government is chasing right now. Even the students and teachers will choose such institutes over the others and public money will be given in large parts, including pumping of private funds only to these universities. In this ordeal, colleges and universities with lack of facilities would be sidelined.
As of now, India has 760 universities and 38,498 colleges. Among the 1.56 million students, over 80% are going to degree level classes the ones who opt for higher level of education are just about 0.67% of them. Even when the government is speaking about privatization of education, at least 78% are private institutes. What plans does the government have for these institutes and their students? By creating ‘renowned’ and ‘non-autonomous’ categories, the government is pushing most of them into second grade categories. The government assumes the students have to be controlled, and not be let off to have a liberal mindset.
This is much against the thought of ‘Where the mind is without fear and head is held high; and the knowledge is free…’ The government is trying to put a massive control mechanism over young minds, by attacking the souls of universities. This is worse than whatever was unleashed on the Nalanda university in the annals of history.
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RSS man's defamation case against Rahul: Key witness unavailable, hearing adjourned to Dec 20
Thane (PTI): A court in Bhiwandi in Thane district on Saturday adjourned the hearing in the criminal defamation case filed against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi by a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker to December 20 due to non-availability of a crucial prosecution witness.
Advocate Narayan Iyer, counsel for Rahul Gandhi, confirmed the adjournment, stating that the witness, Ashok Saykar, currently Deputy Superintendent of Police in Barshi in Solapur, could not remain present due to personal reasons.
Saykar's evidence is now likely to be recorded on December 29.
His testimony is considered key because he, as police sub inspector in 2014, conducted the preliminary inquiry into the private defamation matter under Section 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
It was on the basis of Saykar's submitted report that the court subsequently issued process (summons) against Rahul Gandhi under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The criminal defamation case was filed by local RSS worker Rajesh Kunte following a speech given by Rahul Gandhi at an election rally near Bhiwandi on March 6, 2014.
The case stems from the Congress leader's alleged statement that "the RSS people killed (Mahatma) Gandhi."
The matter is being heard by Bhiwandi Joint Civil Judge, Junior Division, P M Kolse.
The hearing had previously been adjourned on November 15 after the complainant's counsel, Advocate Prabodh Jaywant, moved an application seeking permission to examine Saykar, who had submitted the probe report to the court.
The matter was originally scheduled for November 29 but was deferred to December 6 after Rahul Gandhi's legal team sought an adjournment citing their non-availability. The proceedings will now resume on December 20.
