Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
Was I surprised by the apex court order asking the Governor of a State to reconsider the list of names selected by him for appointment to head the universities functioning in the State? Probably not, since I was aware of one such Governor’s dilemma when it was his turn to name Vice-Chancellors of the varsities in the same State.
The Governor being the ex-officio chancellor has the privilege to name the Vice-Chancellors, operational heads of these institutions of high learning. Normally a Governor is expected to take into account the academic and administrative credentials of the men and women he selects to head a university.
In this case what had happened is that the court had asked the Governor to reconsider the names, and before he could do it he retired. Knowing that the list was drawn up in consultation with the political bosses of the State, the successor Governor forwarded the earlier list once again! One does expect, though, that in deference to the court directions changes would have been effected subsequently. I can’t vouch for that.
But what I can and do vouch for is the poor quality of men and women usually named to Vice-Chancellorships in States like Bihar, for instance. The court order, incidentally, once again pertains to that State.
And what I am going to tell you presently is entirely based on a chat I had with the Bihar Governor, over 25 years ago. This Governor told me how he one day decided to call a meeting of all the Vice-Chancellors in the State, the thought having come to him when he was told that the State government wanted him to name some Vice-Chancellors.
So, to acquaint himself with the kind of people who had already made the grade he called all Vice-Chancellors over for an informal reception. Given his affable style he went round the motley group, meeting his guests individually.
“I tell you it was a most horrendous experience,” he had confided. Not one of his guests had a worthwhile academic record even though each one had introduced him or herself as ” Dr.” so and so. He did ask one of his guests what was his speciality and weather he was a PhD, a medical doctor or a researcher. The first one, it turned out, was a graduate in homoeopathy and therefore eminent enough to use the honorific Dr.; another had added the prefix Dr. to his name after one of the private universities he had been associated with accorded him a D.Litt (honoris causa); there was just one genuine doctorate holder and his speciality was agriculture, There, indeed, was a genuine “educationist” among them, the problem, though, was that his interest in education was limited to the “seven or eight” teaching shops (tuition colleges, the Governor called these).
It was a disgusting feeling he added, adding with a cruel smile, “I tell you, each one of them thought he was a Madan Mohan Malaviya, a Radhakrishnan , a Sir Syed Ahmed Khan”. Of course, the governor added, his guests had much deeper and fuller pockets than any of the three eminent men named in the preceding sentence.
The problem as he learnt a short while later, was that setting up teaching shops and naming these as colleges, even universities, came naturally to most politicians in almost every State. They had indeed mastered the art of making a quick buck so very simple: they would set up a “college” and, given the lay Biharis’ craving for education, regardless of prevalent poverty, some ten or fifteen boys would usually line up for admission. That done, the college would appoint a faculty with a strength of, say, 40 to 50, working out at five or six teachers for every single students which must be a world record. They were, for the record, appointed as professors, associate professors, readers, lecturers etc. with their salaries in accord with the University Grants Commission. The salaries paid to the faculty are usually one-fourth of the UGC grade and which in any case the college receives in full from the Commission.
The secret lay in that the teachers got a nominal fraction of their salaries,with the rest going to the owner. And it makes for a whopping sum since the UGC finances upto over 90 percentof the salaries paid to college teachers. It worked to the advantage of the teachers who would otherwise be unemployed though the biggest beneficiaries are the owner, politicians or legislators and even ministers. Each college is named after, some randomly picked hero, patriot, soldier, and flaunted as part of the name of a college or a group of colleges.
Thus the teaching shops ensure the owners prosperity and his access even to ministerial berths, from deep south to up north,from Gujarat and Maharashtra in the West to the North East the private teaching shops ,such colleges and private universities, have become a common place, generating millions for the more adventurous.
My Governor friend of thirty years ago would have been gasping for breath had he witnessed the nationwide growth of teaching shops-turned-colleges-turned universities. No doubt there are some private universities which are doing a splendid job but the problem arises when dubious institutions, with strong political linkages enter the field where there normally should be no room for them.
You ask for it and you will have at your door step thick wads of finely printed brochures you to entrust your wards to this institute or that , from holding out promises that even the best of B schools or the very best of universities would hesitate to mention. They will even promise to chart out your ward’s future, from plumbing to flying into space and whatever falls along the way, corporates included.
I remember asking the Governor then how exactly did he expect the education system to get out of the clutches of the rapacious, unscrupulous politicians. Having been one himself- he was a Minister at the Centre many a time- his answer was “no end to greed; it will cease only when the man or woman drops dead. It includes me as well,” he added.
I do tend to go with him even today. How can you trust petty politicians when highly professional bodies like the Medical Council of India are accused of indulging in malpractices, when it is accused of bribe-taking by many for sanctioning opening of new medical colleges. How would you trust a body like a Central Bureau of Investigation when its very senior personnel find their names besmirched in the muddy waters of corruption and favouritism. Of course, you cannot expect any better from the men and women in our Government, many of them facing accusations of corruption and nepotism. Let me avoid the mention of some of the biggest scams we have seen unraveling for two years now.
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