In Search of a New Tamil Identity

                                          Photos: Courtesy, On Manorama, Thiruvanthapuram

If the conviction of Jaya is taken as a victory for rule of law, then the reactions that followed seem to viciously demand a different definition of democracy. Though it looks apparently comical, it does not fail to sadly indicate the level of decadence the polity and culture in Tamilnadu have undergone. There is not a single political party who could raise its voice in a credible manner.

 DMK is too worried about the writings on the wall; PMK with its higher decibel is not effectively heard beyond its constituency; DMDK is too muffled or muddled about what it says; MDMK is high pitched but hollow; Congrees has gone on vacation; other parties if any do not matter. Jaya episode has proved one thing- no party in Tamilnadu is strong enough to provide any direction during the hour of the crisis. Apart from this, there is no independent voice coming from the so called civil society or independent public intellectuals of stature.

 In the virtual absence of opposition, AIADMK is happily continuing with its jingoism saying “Innocent Amma is victimized by the Karnataka judge and she must be released soon.” What started as a psychopathic denial of reality (people carrying and displaying boxes of laddus in front of the Parapana Agrahara court anticipating victory for venerable Amma) was then followed by shock, melodrama, mass hysteria and suicides. The mass hysteria and unreason is again and again whipped up to go in fresh spirals. The hope is that a new truth can be established in the public conscience and pressure brought on the courts to view the case leniently. It also aims to intimidate and silence everyone. The official machinery particularly the police, is brought into serve the interest of the party. If left uncontested, Tamilnadu is bound to institutionalize a new meaning for democracy.

Corruption is everywhere.  Perhaps Om Prakash Chauthala and Lallu Prasad Yadav might have already played John the Baptist to Amma. Yet, they all belong to the Aryan North. What inspired them could not have inspired our Dravidian leaders with Tamil pattru and maanam (Tamil patriotism and honor). Neither are our adulation of leaders and ready servitude quite comparable to Haryanites and Biharis.

The Dravidian politics after all went into liberating the Tamil Makkal (Tamil People) from Aryan linguistic and cultural hegemony and secure them urimai (freedom) thanmaanam (self respect) and munnettam (progress). In realizing this mission, they agreed to democratically work through the Indian constitutional process after initial secessionist posturing through the call for thani Dravidanadu (separate Dravidanadu) till mid1960s.

If we claim today (which we involuntarily do in all awaken moments) that thanmaana thamizhan (self respecting Tamil) has already arrived recovering his long suppressed cultural identity intact and with all its adornment and intellectual vigor, one question still begs. Has the newly acquired politico-cultural identity as tamizhan or tamizhachi equipped one to live in a modern democracy as a poruppulla kudimahan/mahazh (responsible citizen)?

 If the answer is no, then it is not enough we criticize what is happening before us and stop. We have come to a point where we are asked to review and re-define our Tamil identity to incorporate a democratic world view- not to fight the Arya Mayaii (Aryan Illussion) alone but the Dravida Mayaii (Dravidan Illussion) too. Have we not gone round the full circle?

Chinnaraj Joseph/04.10.2014

JUDICIAL CONSCIENCE VERSUS PUBLIC CONSCIENCE

It is something unprecedented in the history of ‘democratic India’ that a sitting Chief Minister  has been jailed for a substantial period of four years on charges of corruption and fined an astronomical sum of one billion rupees. The case has other dimensions too. It dragged on for about 18 years before it painfully delivered itself. “Justice delayed is not justice denied” say the old fashioned believers in ‘rule of law’ with a sigh of relief.

Those who have lost faith in ethical conscience (an essential ingredient for good democracy)  say that this is of no consequence and it is a matter of time before J emerges victorious.  “Might is right” they believe. But the party men, fervent devotees and camp followers are angry that a great injustice has been inflicted on J by the judiciary playing ball with ‘venomous Karuna and treacherous Swami’.

Disappointingly many political pandits who are brought into analyze ‘the hour of crisis’ look too intimidated and overawed. In order to avoid controversy, taking different roots, they tacitly arrive at the same point of the cynics and say “J would ultimately prevail.”  More sympathetic among them even go to the extent of saying that with a proxy CM in OPS, she will continue to do the good work which she has been credited with for the time being. Perhaps they did not say ‘good governance’.

The main opposition namely DMK who is one of the complainants in the case looks feeble and meditative as it has to avoid ‘the pot calling the kettle black’ irony. For some DMK scamsters and members of the first family awaiting trial, it turned out to be a trigger that started the churning of their viscera.

But one person who would have really enjoyed watching the TV is none other than J herself. But she refused to have one installed in her cell.

Now let me turn towards the judicial conscience that came into play in the action of Judge John Michael D. Cunha. His conduct notwithstanding the merits of the judgment, calls for attention especially in the context of eroding faith in the judiciary.

Prior to the delivery of the judgment, two strong streams of thought-manifestly bragged about as well latently subscribed to- that dominated the public conscience. First, it was the expression of the feeling “all is not well with the judiciary these days.” And you were told that it was too very idealistic and unrealistic to believe that courts are unfailing arbiters of justice. Secondly, you were also unabashedly told by many quarters that before the ‘invisible power of so and so’ judiciary would after all buckle in and give a favorable judgment.

 But at the end, everything seemed to be alright with Cunha as a judge and judiciary as the last resort of hope in a corrupt democracy. Apparently the judge seems to have acted with certain independence, courage and devotion to duty. Of course his judgment needs to stand the scrutiny of the higher courts and about which I do not need to comment here. Suffice it is to say that justice is seen to have been done.

But my bewilderment comes from the way the case has now been dragged before the ‘people’s court’ which of course works not according to ‘rule of law’ but the ‘rule of demagoguery’ where emotion is replaced by reason, deliberation by imprudence, dialogue by stonewalling, consensus by altercation, persuasion by intimidation and conscience by depravity.

 Watching any TV channel we get at least one judgment passed every ten minutes. What a political vibrancy we witness in Tamilnadu!

I can’t help but only offer my consolation to ‘rule of law’ votaries of democracy. Given the political trend, they may have to wait for another 36 years before they have another sigh of relief witnessing ‘public conscience’ coming of age. No democracy can survive long without a robust ‘public conscience’ which readily tells you what is right and wrong in public life.

Being an optimist myself, I counsel only patience and perseverance. There is no democracy in history which failed to throw ugly mutations as they evolved.



30.09.2014              Chinnaraj Joseph

A VC’S CONDUCT AND A LAWYER’S VERDICT

Mr.Isaac Mohanlal 

                                                                    VC Dr. Kalyani Mathivanan

                                                                                Being Received (Indian Express)

THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS/08.07.2014

MADURAI: It was a kind of reception no Vice Chancellor of a State University has received in recent public memory nor is anyone likely to get such an ‘honour’ in the near future.

Three days after the Supreme Court stayed an order of the Madras High Court bench here ousting Kalyani Mathivanan as Vice Chancellor of the Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU), she arrived in grand style from New Delhi to get back to work on Monday.

Earlier, on June 27 she became the first Vice Chancellor in Tamil Nadu to be removed by the High Court on the grounds that she did not satisfy the eligibility criteria prescribed by the University Grants Commission to hold the post.

On Monday, as she landed at the Madurai airport armed with the Supreme Court order, accompanied by her daughter, a section of the university staff including teachers and non-teaching staff and supporters welcomed her with bouquets and shawls.

The reception accorded to her befitted that of a VIP politician as she drove down to the university with her supporters following her en route in over two dozen vehicles.

A video cameraman who was on a car ahead of the convoy did his best to capture the ‘glorious’ moments. When the convoy reached the entrance of the university, a section of jubilant staff members who have been supporting her, set off fire crackers and raised slogans hailing her.

Kalyani stepped out of her SUV to greet them and accepted a garland offered by a priest and cut a huge cake to celebrate her interim legal victory.

School children who were lined up on either sides of the road inside the campus showered flower petals as she steadily walked into the campus. Inside the university premises, numerous banners were placed on the pavements hailing the Vice Chancellor including one showing her in an NCC outfit.

A visibly pleased Kalyani, who appeared overwhelmed by the unprecedented reception, garlanded a portrait of her father D K Kuthalingam, who had served as Vice Chancellor in the same university. Teachers and other staff greeted her with shawls.

Her supporters had also put up posters in many parts of the city hailing the apex court’s stay order.

The Hindu/09.07.2014

MKU counsel withdraws himself from representing it in court

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

President of Madurai Bench of Madras High Court Bar Association (MMBA) Isaac Mohanlal on Tuesday withdrew himself from representing Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) in court cases as a mark of protest against the reception accorded to Kalyani Mathivanan when she returned to the Vice-Chancellor’s office on Monday.

In a letter addressed to her, he said: “I was rather upset to see the morning newspapers carrying disgusting scenes on the university campus yesterday at the event of the so-called re-entry of the Vice-Chancellor.

“The University with Potential for Excellence has been deplorably reduced into a political podium where the Vice-Chancellor entered with a convoy of cars following her from the airport to see the hoards of hoardings erected on either side and posters pasted all over the walls and deafening crackers breaking the silence and serenity of the campus, and agonisingly, a band of school children arrayed along the road under the scorching sun, during their class hours, with their tender hands showering flower petals knowing not what they were doing. “Amidst this show, it is reported, the Vice-Chancellor walked her way up to the office, after cutting the coloured cake, of course, armed with the interim order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court staying for a limited period the order of the Hon’ble High Court removing her from office. This, in my view, is nothing but a mean manifestation of the arrogance of power and the insolence of office.

“At this juncture, I am afraid that I would be offending my conscience if I still continued as the counsel for the university. You would pardon me for I wish to withdraw myself from all cases on the side of the university. I request you to make alternative arrangements at the earliest.”

“I would be offending my conscience if I still continued as counsel for the university”

A VC’S CONDUCT AND A LAWER’S VERDICT

 By CHINNARAJ JOSEPH   

First it was the Division Bench verdict on Dr. Kalyani Mathivanan unseating her as the Vice Chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University. I called it as a relief and reassurance for those who fight in the name of academic freedom, accountability and excellence. I consciously made this public statement not only because of the serious legal impairment caused by the Search Committee and the Chancellor in making the appointment of the Vice Chancellor, but also because of the ethically questionable conduct of Dr. Mathivanan before and after she assumed office.

Then there came the anticlimax, as the Supreme Court of India stayed the Division Bench order after it allowed her Special Leave Petition (SLP). But anyone could easily realize that admitting of SLP is purely a discretionary action of the SC under Art.136 as long as the case provides a special circumstance and involves substantial question of law and the Constitution. In common parlance, the SC has just opened its front door to let in Mathivanan so that she can present her appeal in about four weeks.

But these are matters too subtle and intellectually too sophisticated for poor Mathivanan to understand. She thought that it is a simple stunt she banged-up in the Supreme Court. For the members of her croneydom in the university, it looked like a Himalayan victory over her enemies. (Here irony plays. Who are her enemies? First, it is her conscience. Second are those petitioners of PIL who wanted to hold the mirror of law and invoke judicial conscience in a democracy. Third are the judges who play the role of umpires who call foul or allow a point or temporarily halt the game before it resumes).

Anyway, in Madurai, celebration of anything from ‘a young girl attaining puberty’ to ‘an old soul attaining vaikundam’ is a matter of noisy and ocular celebration. Thousands easily congregate. When venerable VC amma arrived at the airport with her daughter there was a sizable crowd to receive her, garland her, lead her in a cavalcade of cars (carrying some Principals and professors too) and then burst crackers as soon as she entered the University Campus and further shower flowers and slogans. The buffoonery entered a melodramatic turn as the victoria walked the red carpet to the office as the waiting school children waved their hands with flowers. This was the final minute of solemnity before ‘university’s potential for excellence’ exploded like a cosmic pod throwing splendorous colours. This has become news.

This is the point where the third verdict, namely the verdict of her counsel Mr. Isaac Mohanlal came to be pronounced as he not only did withdraw himself from all the cases relating to the university in protest but also did make a very incisive and meaningful public statement condemning her uncouth and arrogant muscle flexing. When I read that in the morning newspaper, I was delighted because such a turn of event very rarely happens in our cynical milieu. I want to congratulate Mr. Isaac Mohanlal for two reasons: first, as a seasoned lawyer and leader in the High Court Bar, he has stood up to uphold the sanctity and the civility demanded by the Supreme Court order that permitted the VC to resume office temporarily; secondly, Mr. Mohanlal by making a categorical public statement condemning the behavior of the VC, has risen much above the role of an ordinary lawyer thereby becoming a public intellectual. The latter is certainly a bigger honour. This deserves a lengthy discussion in the public interest.

The first question people who have known Mohanlal as a lawyer of eminence and public figure raise is “Should he in the first place have argued Mathvanan’s case at all?”

The question itself is misplaced and stems from the anger people hold against Mathivanan for the kind appointment she secured. She has also angered a great many by her style of managing the university and by her public conduct as a VC.

One ought to know that a lawyer need not normally look into the moral or political conduct of his or her client but mainly into the legal right he or she can secure for the client through the court. That is what his professional code would advocate. This does not mean however that the advocate needs to be morally insensitive or politically naïve.

In an adversarial system of dispensing justice the knowledge, wit, ability and the ‘influence’ (or ‘presence’) of an advocate arguing the case are important. What we as lay public would call something illegal in a cavalier fashion can become legal in a court of law with the help of a good lawyer and in the same way, what we presume legal can be rendered irrelevant if not illegal. This is why we make our choice of a ‘good’ lawyer. Also this is why we as clients often lament that what comes through the law courts are ‘judicial orders’ and ‘not always justice’.

 Lawyers and clients often provide the worst irony of social situations. Clients culpable of crime, illegality and immorality can always go to a good lawyer and avail his or her professional services and manage to even escape law. This injures the moral conscience of the common man and they accuse lawyers as siding with bad elements of the society. We will return to this irony later.

Though Mathivanan’s position as VC was morally, politically and even legally vitiated and such knowledge was within the public domain, Mathivanan in choosing Mohanlal only exercised her right and of course wisdom. Mohanlal accepted just another brief.

 In the public domain, Mathivanan’s case is perceived to be a bad case. Mathivanan for heaven’s sake knew the difference between what it means to hold the position of a Professor and that of an Associate Professor in a college. It is a common knowledge that before every UGC salary revision, every teacher in a college signs an undertaking as to what position she or he is entitled to hold and what designation she is permitted to use. For Mathivanan to have used the designation ‘Professor’ that too before a selection committee prima facie is seen as an illegality of first order. How this was overcome by the biased selection committee has in fact become the central plot of the case. Any further observation would be sub judice.

Dr. Mathivanan being a political breed, after assuming office showed her real colour. There were allegations of corruption in appointments, regular witch hunting of those who questioned her, victimization of research scholars for demanding better facilities, promotion of sycophancy bordering insanity, cronyism supported by thuggery and finally unleashing of violence.

 People of mediocre ability first desacralize and ‘deliberately violate the system’ in order to make it look ordinary so that they can comfortably manage it as their mediocre intelligence and attendant skills permit. Merit becomes the victim and the meritorious exit. Dr. Mathivanan is an artist par excellent in this trade of undoing. In two years, MKU, a university with potential for excellence has emptied itself into dead sand of politics.

Her public demonstration in response to Supreme Court stay is another facet of ‘undoing’ of a noble institution. ‘Desacralizing’ and ‘undoing’ are the strategies of the mediocre to manage the unmanageable.

Now let me address the lawyer’s dilemma. Any good lawyer will be constantly aware of the conflict between his professional demands and the larger public good his actions come to affect with negative tradeoffs. Only a very few rise beyond the narrow professional interest and address the public cause at a personal cost. They are the ones who qualify to be Emersonian public intellectuals who say profession is for mere living, and public cause is for realizing the total being. They are the ones who unshackle the discursive barriers of the profession to speak in a common man’s voice, act in public interest and constantly strive to answer a deeper personal quest.

Well done Mr. Isaac Mohanlal!

                                                                               14.O7.2014

THE CASE AND THE CAKE

Today is an important day. By 10.30 AM I was promptly present in 12^th Court of the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court where the judgement on American College case was to be pronounced. After the mentioning time, the Hon’ble Judge took just less than three minutes to pronounce the operational portion of the order. Very little could be understood by any one at that point. Later, the advocate read the entire text in the Registry.

 Till this moment I write this (6.10 PM), the Registry has not released any copy to anybody. Before this, already there are many rumors about the judgement. Even some of the press men looked misinformed. Nothing could be done without a copy. However, some damage control was done.

Anyway, my friend tells me that I must tell everybody what I got to know from the court and the advocate who read the report, about the main points of the judgement and then cut a BIG CAKE in the Town Hall or in some Banquet Hall in a hotel. I asked “Why cake?” He says that every good or favourable judgement should be announced only with CAKE EATING. My tongue is already wet with the mentioning of the cake. I will tell you now briefly the operational portion:

1.      Mr. Davamani’s petition asking for ‘the notice to be issued’ before the withdrawal of the degree was allowed by the judge as this has affected his civil right of being heard. Earlier Alagappa University had contended that when there was an apparent error on record there was no need to issue any notice before withdrawing the degree. Now Alagappa University will issue notice and decide. No one should think that the court has allowed “an interdisciplinary degree to Mr. Davamani.” The court has given just four weeks time to AU to complete this process.

2.       Madurai Kamaraj University after receiving the verdict from AU, should now ask in writing (not over phone) to UGC whether the said PhD degree (Education!) is relevant to American College. This, UGC ought to do, forwarding a written explanation.

3.       Mr. Davamani’s continuation in office is subject to these processes and final approval once again by MKU.(That is four weeks plus).

4.        Dr. Amirtharajan’s Writ Petition is treated closed meaning that he was given the liberty to once again raise all those issues including the issue of fictitious API Score (427) before the court, at any point and in the event of miscarriage of justice. (No one should think that “closing of a writ petition is “dismissal of a writ petition.” The judge closes the petition after proposing a remedy still ensuring the right of the petitioner to agitate his plea if at all it becomes necessary later). This means Dr. Amir will be still alive and kicking carefully watching what AU and MKU would do in terms of the court directions.

Now, I think you will understand why my friend proposed CAKE CUTTING. But, now I tell him that I will buy only half a kilogram of Thirunelveli Halwa and distribute. I will tell a detailed story tomorrow when I get the certified copy of the judgement.

MADURAI BENCH OF MADRAS HIGH COURT

Add caption

THE PRONOUNCEMENT OF HONORABLE JUSTICE RAMASUBRAMANIAN IN THE VC’S CASE AND THE WAKE UP CALL: I

        Though belated the Divisional Bench Order pronounced by Honourable Mr.Justice V. Ramasubramanian in Madurai Kamaraj University Vice-Chancellor’s case is a great relief and reassurance for those who fight in the name of academic freedom, accountability and excellence. The judgement has set aside the appointment of Dr. Kalyani Mathivanan as Vice-Chancellor for want of minimum eligibility as prescribed by UGC Regulation 2010. The 59 page judgement is a very straight forward and interesting piece of reading. No one interested in upholding the integrity of higher education, can afford to miss.

            Apart from the legal implications involved in the interpretations of laws, rules and regulations, the judgement also holds the mirror to the hollowness and total lack of commitment of the executive (the Governor, the Selection Committee, the Education Minister and of course the Chief Minister) in upholding the integrity of the state universities.

The salient points of the Judgement are as follows:

1.         The general but overarching principle in the first place the judgement establishes is that the UGC Regulation 2000 is mandatory and not recommendatory as the respondents (MKU and the VC) tried to establish. This means that when it comes to the appointment of Vice-Chancellor (for that matter Professors, Principals, Associate Professors) one ought to follow the regulations, especially in specifying educational qualifications and applying minimum eligibility conditions.

            [The court ruled that Dr. Kalyani Mathivanan did not meet the minimum eligibility conditions as per UGC Regulation 2010 as she did not possess the minimum 10 years experience as Professor.  Her claim that her position as ‘Associate Professor and Head of the Department’ in an affiliated College (Ethiraj College, Chennai), the court said cannot be equated with ‘Professorship’ in the system as provided by UGC Regulation 2010. Therefore her appointment was set aside]

2.   In arriving at the above conclusion the Hon’ble Judge resolved several issues that have been obfuscating educational administration for quite some time. First, is the issue of the conflict between the University Acts or acts passed by the State Governments and Regulations promulgated by the UGC Act.  Here, in this case, Madurai Kamaraj University Act 1965 was brought into question to defend the appointment of the VC saying that the said act did not specifically prescribe any educational qualification or minimum eligibility condition for the appointment of the VC. Therefore the selection committee had the freedom to choose anyone as VC as its wisdom permitted.

            (i) In fact the Madurai Kamaraj University Act 1965 spoke in detail about the office of the Vice Chancellor, procedure for appointment of the Vice Chancellor, powers vested with the Vice Chancellor, salary and emoluments for the Vice Chancellor etc. However, neither the act nor the statute passed by MKU from time to time, did not at any point speak about the ‘minimum eligibility in terms of qualification’ for the appointment of the Vice Chancellor. The court said that in this regard ‘there is a vast territory left unoccupied’ by the 1965 Act. This vacuum cannot be an excuse for the VC Selection Committee to exercise its powers arbitrarily. And such exercise of power the court held would defeat the very purpose of upholding merit and integrity of the higher educational system as has happened in the appointment of Dr. Kalyani Mathivanan. In the event of a vacuum, the only option available is to follow the UGC Regulations 2010, and it is mandatory.

     [The committee, although it discovered that Dr. Mathivanan did have experience only as Associate Professor, instead of disqualifying her at the face of it from the selection, ironically took a conscious decision “to overrule the requirement of paragraph 7.3.0 of the Annexure to the UGC Regulations (2010) and fall back on the State enactment”.  This was found untenable by the Division Bench which came down heavily saying that there cannot be test of excellence arbitrarily exercised].

      (ii)The present case according to the ruling is not a case of             repugnancy between the state act and the central act. This means that the State act (Madurai Kamaraj University Act 1965) and the UGC Regulation 2010 (backed by the central act namely UGC Act 1956) do not find any ground to come into conflict in the first place as it comes to minimum eligibility conditions for the appointment of the VC, as the MKU Act has fallen silent on the issue. To quote the Hon’ble Judge “Repugnancy in terms of Article 254 of the Constitution would arise only when there is inconsistency between the laws made by the Parliament and the laws made by the Legislatures of the States.  If it seeks to fill up a vacuum or when it covers an unoccupied field, the question of repugnancy does not arise”. Here the vacuum created by MKU Act/rules can only be filled up by UGC Regulation 2010 (central legislation). On this count also it becomes mandatory.

           (v)  The Hon’ble judge also took the stand that even if there is a real conflict as to the prescription of qualifications between the State and the Centre, “the court is bound to uphold a prescription which sets higher standards and which seeks to promote excellence in higher education”.  The bench in saying this has relied on the position already established by the Supreme Court of India.

      [The action of the Governor (Chancellor) in appointing Dr.Mathivanan has in fact lowered the eligibility condition which is untenable].

3.   The Bench also placed another reason why there could not be arbitrary exercise of power as to the selection of VCs. The Bench has held that over a period of more than 70 years in India, enactment of laws have come to regulate academic standards, eligibility and merit through objective criteria and not through subjective judgement of eminence as it did happen in the past. Then of course ‘tall men’ were appointed. No more it is possible. It needs to be noted here that Academic Performance Indicator (API) score and Performance Based Assessment System (PBAS) gains tremendous legal significance.

      This is where the Honourable Judge observed, “If University Grants Commission Regulation, 2010 will have to be given effect to … the Vice Chancellor should actually be a distinguished academician.  Today, Albert Einsterin cannot be appointed as Vice Chancellor of any university (at least in India) unless he fulfills the qualifications prescribed by University Grants Commission, the reason being that after legislative enactment lays down the objective criteria, there is no place for subjective satisfaction”.

4.   On the issue of invoking the Division Bench Judgement of Bombay High Court by the defendant is concerned, the Hon’ble Judge ruled that there was no substantial issue of conflict between Maharashtra University Act 1994 and the prescription of UGC Regulations 2010 as to the educational qualifications or minimum eligibility conditions for appointment.  The matter was related to procedure for short-listing of candidates.  The Hon’ble Judge ruled “…. And the method of short-listing of candidates are all procedural in nature and it may not really matter whether the state enactment prevails over the Central enactment or vice versa, the same logic may not hold good in so far as the educational qualifications and eligibility criteria are concerned.  The University Grants Commission is actually an expert body to determine the qualifications for the appointment not only of teaching staff but also all other officers and authorities”. He turned down the Bombay High Court order as not being relevant to the present case.

6.   The merit of the judgement also lies in the Hon’ble judge’s ruling that the ‘Vice-Chancellor is the academic head’ of the University.  Madurai Kamaraj Unviersity and the Vice Chancellor took the defense that the Vice Chancellor being an Administrative Head that he/she cannot be considered as a member of teaching staff and therefore the rigors of ‘academic qualification’ need not apply.  But, the Hon’ble Judge after making an elaborate analysis of Madurai Kamaraj University Act 1965 came to the categorical conclusion that though it is not explicitly stated there in the act, proper understanding of Section 4 of Madurai Kamaraj University Act would hold the Vice-Chancellor to be an academic head.  “It is in the light of the objects and powers of the University prescribed under Section 4 that the presumption in Section 12 (1) that the Vice Chancellor shall be the Academic Head of the University, has to be understood”.  In this regard also the Bench turned down the ruling of the Bombay High Court in Suresh Patilkhade case where it was held that the VC was an ‘academic head’ but does not belong to the stream of ‘academic staff.’

      The court has refused to recognize the hair splitting difference between ‘being academic head’ and ‘being part of academic staff’.  Both mean the same.  This underlines the inevitability of the Vice Chancellor meeting the minimum eligibility conditions and educational qualifications as demanded by UGC Regulations 2010, which is mandatory.  

7.  The Hon’ble Judge also exposed the dubiousness of claims by Madurai Kamaraj University as well the Vice Chancellor. The excuse that Madurai Kamaraj University Act did not prescribe any qualification for the Vice Chancellor gave the committee the freedom to lower the qualification and chose Dr. Kalyani Mathivanan. The Hon’ble judge raised the question, while Madurai Kamaraj University refused to follow UGC Regulation 2010 in matters of educational qualifications and minimum eligibility conditions, it allowed the salary and allowances to the Vice Chancellor as per UGC Regulations 2010. It implies that  as they followed Madurai Kamaraj Unviersity Act in the appointment, they should have allowed only Rs. 3000/- as monthly salary, Rs. 1000/- as monthly allowance and Rs. 250/- as car allowance and of course free accommodations as provided in the MKU Act..  Eligibility and service conditions cannot be separated and one cannot pick and choose as one’s convenience permits.

       The judgement has far reaching consequences and many heads are bound to roll. Let us wait and watch!

CHINNARAJ JOSEPH                                  01-07-2014                            

MAFIA IN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

           I never thought my satirical note ‘Facebook Vacation’ will, in this pachydermic academic world, sting someone. I come to understand that it did. Though it is a story of a single mosquito biting an elephant, it has some lessons to teach. After the bite, the metaphorical elephant seems to have expressed its anger furiously trumpeting that in another ten days it will do away with the mosquito.

         If I must use plain speech, a Principal of a college after reading my quip, swore in front of his cronies that he will do away with me in 10 days. He is furious at me for exposing his fraud under RTI. Three days are already gone. Just seven more days to live! Isn’t this fatwa issuing Principal, an interesting joke?

   Then, what is the lesson we learn from this mosquito-elephant story? Why a professed academician must in the first place commit a fraud? Why then when his critic uses his pen, he thinks of using his gun as a response? He can jolly well use the social media or tell the Information Commission/Court the plain truth and establish that he has not committed any fraud.

        Dishonesty, corruption and violence associated with education, have a long history in India. Today, however these felonious elements have joined in different permutations and combinations to completely undo the system. They have indeed crossed certain threshold level. The present stage of decay I would call as mafiaization of education. Before I explain my concept, let us take a look at how the decay happens at different levels.

LEVEL-1: ACADEMIC DISHONESTY

       This is an ever present malice in the system. This ranges from classroom plagiarism and copying in assignments to producing cut and paste PhD theses. Internet has now created tremendous facility for this. Indian universities and colleges till date have been quite insensitive to this issue. India ranks highest in plagiarism. No university has effective code to contain this.

LEVEL-2 ACADEMIC CHEATING

       This is about several forms of examination malpractices which involves both teachers and students which range from copying in exams to award of marks/degrees by teachers and administrators for pecuniary consideration. Many universities turn a blind eye to this as many of its own faculty and administrators are part of the racket. Today, PhD guides in several universities run ‘cut-and-sell’ PhD shops where a thesis sells anything between Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 100,000/-. They are prepared to give any kind of certificate on payment.

LEVEL-3: COMMERCIALIZATION AND PROFITEERING (Systemic)

       When India did not manage to put up an honest, clean, accountable system of education in its first 50 years of independence, the neoliberal policies opened the floodgates for private operators to develop education as they did with Highways, coalmines and failed public sector industries. All kinds of black money flowed in as capital. Black money earned by corrupt politicians, real estate sharks, apkari contractors, even corporate houses entered education with motives which were totally inimical to educational objectives.

       Compare this with the nationalist minded philanthropists, private operators, caste/religious associations who started private institutions before and after independence.  If this yester year private operators were committed to some social/political cause, the present private operators are committed to only one cause: MAKE SUPER PROFIT AT SUPER SPEED BREAKING THE VERY ETHICAL FOUNDATION OF THE NOBLE SYSTEM. Unlike in the past, where even when philanthropists made huge personal investments in education, they treated education sacrosanct and left its management in the hands of educationists. They never seriously interfered with the work of Vice-chancellors, Principals and Headmasters they came to appoint.

       Now, every joker who puts in money wants to be a Pro-chancellor or Director or in the broad sense, wants to be a kalvithanhai. Big capitation fee, corruption in placement, appointment of sub standard staff in order to make profit and absence of academic ambience have come to rule many campuses. We also shamelessly tell ourselves that less than 20% of our graduates are employable.

       We are happy as long as we can buy and sell education and stakes related to education. We, without any qualms tell that a college lecturer’s job is available for 30 lakhs and Vice-chancellor’s job for 1 or 2 crores. So, education has become an easy source of money making. Corruption in education is the order.

LEVEL IV: MAFIAIZATION OF EDUCATION

       Many of us did not think seriously about commercialization and wholesale corruption in education. We simply gave a broad brush treatment that corruption in education would promote only mediocrity. Neither did we try to understand the meaning of mediocrity nor the systemic damage it would bring.

        Corruption in the first place brings unqualified/ undeserving/fraudulent/ average and below average people into the system. As long as mediocre persons are less in number, they try to hide themselves and find their existence in the margins of the system. When the magnitude of corruption increases, the number of mediocre persons increases in terms of every rank and position. Then they capture the system forming a network or syndicate.

        Since mediocre persons develop a strong sense of intellectual inadequacy and inferiority, their first attack is on the order of merit in the system and therefore, anyone standing for merit. As a logical corollary, they de-sanctify the system and dismantle its institutional fabric. Freedom, democracy and individual dignity become serious casualties. They increasingly use extra constitutional means, the logical extreme of which is violence. A college or university becomes a system of servitude and evinces only the silence of the grave on real issues.

        Use of violence is possible only when these men and women in power form an unholy alliance with corrupt politicians, policemen, and underworld goons. They silence their opponents within the academia by not only using vindictive administrative measures like denial of promotions, suspensions, dismissals, foisting of false cases etc. but also by employing criminal intimidation and violence. Anyone who gives public support from outside is also handled violently. Madurai has good number of examples.

        A system that works on the mafia logic is established within the academia. Another tragedy is that a section of students and faculty are drawn into the fold of this criminal syndicate of the academia to be used as agents and informers on the basis of petty benefits. No wonder, Vice-chancellors and institutional heads are implicated with charges of cheating, fraud, attempt murder or murder these days. Corruption charges and CBI inquiries are mere mosquito bites for them.

        But the question remains; can an elephant kill a mosquito? Will my friend in town learn the lesson? Seven more days!

                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                                                                   25.06.2014

CHINNARAJ JOSEPH

NARCISSUS GAZING AT HIS OWN

 After the Vacation...

I am back from facebook vacation. Like all other vacations, facebook vacations are important. First you stop showing your face, and then you stop seeing other faces. Seeing too much of your own face makes you a narcissist, that at one point, even you enjoy looking at your own image reflected from the wet bathroom floor or cesspool on the road.

 If you look at other faces too much, you become a ‘virtual- space crony’ (V-crony) or a compulsive voyeur and an ‘intellectual shallow’ ready to press ‘Like’ buttons even when you are not too very sure, and press ‘breast buttons’ when you are too sure that you dislike or differ from friends and foes. Unlike ‘Like’ buttons ‘breast buttons’ send dislikes, jealousies and hatred straight into your heart and make pickles inside. That is why heart attack rates are higher in facebook users than nonusers. My humble advice for both friends and foes is to tell your dislikes openly and often take holidays…

Now let me come to business… my facebook/blog idea is basically political.  Then what is the message? As I searched for a theme, what came handy is the reopening of colleges allover Tamilnadu today June18, 2014. I thought I can say something about vacation and reopening of colleges. The idea of vacation to colleges and universities once upon a time was to allow hard working students and untiring knowledge workers called teachers, some rest from their unceasing intellectual scraping of the brain. The vacation allowed physical and mental recouping of these strange men and women. When they returned to work, they were fresh to further scrape.

Is vacation relevant today? ‘Yes’ I will say, but the reason is different. As in the case of facebook, continuous exposure in majority of today’s colleges and universities, are intellectually, psychologically and morally damaging for both students and for well meaning (not all) teachers.

Colleges and universities can be easily compared to facebok. Say if you have a PC with net, you can start a facebook account. It is a matter of another PC to start a college or become a Princpal or Vice chancellor. That is, if you have the Personal Capital (PC) you can become another father or mother of education (Kalvi Thanthai or Kalvithai) after people like Rajaram Mohan Roy, Rabindranath Tagore, Radakrishnan and Kothari. Personal Capital can mean anything from money earned through bootlegging, real estate, large scale loot by politicians, religious business (what bogus swamis, corrupt bishops, TV preachers do) to right family connections to people in position. Madurai’s educational scene today suffers because of two noteworthy father-in-law connections. One was a wonderful Bisop who is no more  and another an Hon’ble former minister who is also no more.

Starting a college is not enough but as in facebook, showing is much more important. Kalvithanthais and Thais show everything - from baldheads to rose- powdered faces and from old fashioned suits to photos posed with VIP visitors and from advertisements of campuses during convocation thiruvilas to academic exhibitions. (one such overerexploited public face is poor Dr. Abdul Kalam). Now, you have to exhibit everything and how much you need to strip is your own choice. More you exhibit, more you reap as benefit. The only difference you make from the facebook is that there, you cause more people to ‘Like’ you and ‘Follow’ you, but here, you make solid business.

The consumer world has made life a show business whether it is your personal existence or selling cars, refrigerators or education. Facebook has taken care of personal showing (you can call it showing of your life style or what you consume in order to maintain that style). Colleges have taken care of public showing of consumption these days, by pompous branding of courses, building Hi-Fi class rooms with POWER points, making MBA students wear oversized jackets and make them look like circus jockeys and finally mouth loudly the magic word of success in education namely ‘placement’. Education is not only made highly visible but made seriously suffer a visual effect but no cerebral effect, today. Everything made visual gives too little a space for brain to reflect and you become shallow. 

 That is how our teachers, Principals, Vice-Chancellors have shamelessly perceive education to be and ae fond of even in wall posters. They think they need not even equip themselves for the job. Worse still, they might even lie as to the nature of their qualification and degrees and commit fraud on the system. If your Principal or Vice-chancellor is accused of fraud, what to expect from the students? Madurai, the cultural head quarters of Thamizhagam in this regard, has one Kalvithanthai and one Kalvithai who have shamelessly misstated their qualification to obtain coveted positions. Both Thanthai and Thai by some strange coincidence are now arrayed before the High Court. One at least I know has committed a big fraud in terms of his qualification.

So much of my facebook holiday was spent by me playing Sherlock Holms to catch frauds and taking them to the court.

For those secret Christians of our Great Campus who suffer under Thanthai, there is good news. Get ready for the farewell of the beloved. It is prophesied that God would arrive like a thief. But my dear friends, you don’t run away in fear and confusion like thieves! Unlike Bishops and policemen, God if at all He comes, HE catches only thieves. But the problem is HE is always on vacation! Because there have been too many faccebook 'friends request' for HIM. HE is scared! But He told me yesterday that HE is joining duty tomorrow June 19, 2014.

CHINNARAJ JOSEPH                                                                                               18.06.2014