Stop Bureaucrat-VC, say Jamia teachers

It is unthinkable that DU or JNU would ever be burdened with a bureaucrat as a vice chancellor. Then why humiliate Jamia?

Hardnews Bureau Delhi

Taking strong objection to the list of names proposed by the selection committee for the post of Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia, 14 teachers of the university on Tuesday have appealed to President Pratibha Patil seriously objecting against the move to nominate bureaucrats as possible vice chancellor of an academic institution and central university. They have argued that universities and academic centres must be headed by academicians, and not bureaucrats, and are demanding a more "transparent" and "apolitical" system of appointments for the apex positions in universities.

The post of Jamia's VC fell vacant after the current vice chancellor Mushirul Hasan's term ended on June 9, 2009. The contenders in the race for Jamia's top job include three bureaucrats -- Bihar's home secretary Afzal Amanullah, retired IAS officer Najeeb Jung and Bihar's state information commissioner, Mohd. Shakeel Ahmed. The inclusion of bureaucrats in the list of proposed names by the selection committee has made not only teachers cry foul, the academic community in JNU and Delhi University, and elsewhere, have also questioned the modus operandi of pushing non-academic names for the top job in an academic institution. "How can bureaucrats understand the functioning of educational institutions, its teaching and research processes," is the question being asked in campus corridors. Questions over the composition of the three-member selection committee -- which comprises just one academic, former UGC chairman Yashpal --- have also been raised by the teachers.

Indeed, students and teachers argue, the idea of putting up names of intellectual visionaries, eminent educationists and distinguished scholars with an agenda of high ideas and ideals for the top job in an university has all but disappeared in the higher education scenario. Most often the VC is considered a political appointee backed by certain entrenched lobbies with little interest in higher studies or research, even while genuinely distinguished academics with a reputation of excellence or brilliance or a vast body of work in their chosen fields, are either ignored or sidelined, or they themselves choose to remain far away from this ugly cesspool of dirty politics, vested interests and lobbying, which finally ends up in promoting many more mediocre and sycophantic loyalists. This further vitiates the university atmosphere and drags its academic standards to abysmal levels - a case widespread in the ailing university system in India.

It is in this context that the Jamia VC appointment case has become fiercely controversial even while historian Mushirul Hasan is again in the race. Several academics are arguing that the current selection committee proposal before the president should be declared null and void and a new committee of eminent and impartial educationists should be appointed to short-list a new panel of names to avoid the allegations of lobbying and pushing personal agendas with political patronage.