Author: Anuradha Raman
Publication: Outlook
Date: February 8, 2010
URL: http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?264002
Introduction: The questioners of quotas in higher faculty now become the questioned
in their community
It wasn't just liberals who were shocked at
the fact that 30 professors of the Jawaharlal Nehru University put on paper
their dissension on implementing caste quota in faculty appointments. The
government too has now sought a clarification on the institution's stand on
the issue. Confirming this, vice-chancellor Prof B.B. Bhattacharya said the
university was in the process of furnishing its response to the query. "We
have to first get a clarification on whether reservations in the academic
faculty is a law; if so, we won't go against it," he told Outlook.
In fact, after the story was put out on these
pages a fortnight ago, some of the professors who had earlier affixed their
signature on a letter to the V-C opposing reservations have now backtracked.
They distanced themselves from the list of anti-reservations signatories after
a "brainstorming" on the issue. Among them is Kamal Mitra Chenoy,
in charge, Group of Comparative Politics and Political Theory, and part of
the 20-member executive council. He communicated his decision to the V-C,
saying that his signature was based on incomplete information and wrong assumptions.
Chenoy said that he withdrew as soon as it was clarified to him that the Union
HRD ministry had in fact mandated reservations through a series of orders
in 2007.
Prof Rohan D'Souza of the Centre for Studies
in Science Policy and another member of the executive council said he too
was withdrawing his signature. "I was informed that the reservations
are legally binding," he said. "I believed that the letter that
I had signed was essentially making two points. First, I was told that the
UGC's mandate on reservations for professor and assistant professor positions
was not legally binding, and there could therefore be a broader debate in
the academic council and the centres." In effect, he interpreted the
letter as merely pressing for a wider discussion, not automatically rubbishing
either the idea of reservation or an outright call to reject the structure
of reservations proposed by the UGC.
Prof Shivaprakash, dean, School of Biotechnology,
whose name also figures in the original list of anti-quota academics, says
he hasn't signed the letter. "As I was abroad, I had communicated that
I would take a decision after I returned. I think this was construed as an
affirmation. Even an autonomous university cannot be in conflict with the
directives of the Constitution. We cannot hold the banner of excellence at
the cost of social justice," he says.
In fact, following the call to re-examine
the issue, 50 professors on the other side of the quota debate have written
a letter to the V-C making a strong case for social justice. "To state
that the reservation policy may have serious implications for long-term academic
development of the university raised by some of the faculty is absolutely
biased and without any factual data and substantial evidences to scuttle the
policy of social justice in their own interest," the academics have stated.
This group says the reservation policy emanates
from the Constitution and is implemented by an executive order of the Government
of India. The university being an autonomous institution, all executive orders
and government regulations are adopted for implementation through the executive
council.
The V-C too finds himself cornered for the
comments he made in the last academic council meeting held in November, where
he apparently stated that the executive council's decision to reserve posts
in the category of associate professor and professor was an error of judgement.
Now, however, he says there was some confusion on whether reservations for
sc and sts were based on guidelines from the government. "I've also asked
the academic council to examine the issue and am seeking the opinion of experts
on the legality of the matter," he said.
It is pertinent to note amid all this that
nowhere have the qualifications for teachers been lowered to make room for
the reserved category-a bogey the anti-reservations academics often raise
to underline their fear that quality is the first casualty of reservations.
The minimum requirements of a doctorate and five years of teaching experience
with research publications are sought from all candidates, regardless of caste.
Also, despite the constitutional obligation, reservations in faculty appointments
started only in 1993! And a majority of the professors from SC/ST categories
currently on the faculty rolls have come on their own merit, without the benefit
of reservation. So, what is the fuss all about? And where is the erosion of
quality? In other cases, like that of Prof Y.S. Alone of the School of Arts
and Aesthetics, reservations have been a blessing. "Had it not been for
reservations," he says, "I would never have been considered for
assistant professor."
In a letter to the V-C, which Outlook has
accessed, executive council member P. Sainath was scathing in his criticism
of the anti-quota professors. He called it a "peculiar marriage of class
arrogance and caste animosity". "Is this an academic trickle-down
theory?" he went on to ask. "That the better-off be strengthened
so the crumbs trickled down to the weaker sections?"
The enlightened members of the faculty also
feel the misguided lot in its midst has forgotten that the university itself
had assured the Supreme Court in 2007 that it was obligatory on its part to
implement the guidelines of the government's reservation policy and that it
had no alternative but to implement the direction of the central government.
Besides, the letter's signatories seem to
have missed another crucial point: the number of universities (in the central
list) currently following reservations in their faculty appointments; 23 out
of a total of 27 universities have accepted reservations in the name of social
inclusion. Given its premier status, JNU should perhaps have led the way rather
than strayed from the path of social justice.
