Grapevine

Time of reckoningWhile making politically correct noises about constitutional proprieties and avoiding witch-hunts, newly appointed Union human resource development minister Arjun Singh is setting about his campaign to ‚Ëœdetoxify‚ academic institutions falling under the supervisory jurisdiction of the HRD ministry with rare determination. In pursuit of his scarcely-disguised hindutva agenda, his predecessor the unlamented Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, had infiltrated a substantial number of ill-qualified sangh parivar sympathisers, if not activists, into advisory academic institutions such as the National Council of Education Research & Training (NCERT) and the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) among others where they recklessly tampered with syllabuses and structural hierarchies. Now it‚s a time of reckoning.The first to get the chop is J.S. Rajput, director of NCERT ‚ one of the largest publishers of textbooks for government and CBSE schools ‚ who merrily commissioned doctored history and social science textbooks propagating unsubstantiated hindutva myths as historical facts. Rajput, whose term as director ends this month has been refused an extension. On June 21, Anil Kapoor secretary of the council was replaced by Vivek Bharadwaj. Moreover the entire membership of the council is likely to be replaced shortly.Likewise in ICHR even as a new committee of historians has been appointed to advise on amending and/ or rewriting doctored history textbooks, Prof. Kapil Kumar, member-secretary has been given his marching orders. And right now Singh reportedly has Ashok Ganguly, chairman of CBSE in his cross hairs. According to reliable sources, Ganguly was more royalist than the king in doing the bidding of Rajput and Joshi while they tampered with CBSE textbooks via a coterie of handpicked shallow academics.Faculty appointment UP styleIn India‚s most populous and wild west state of Uttar Pradesh ruled over by wrestler turned lawyer turned chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav (declared assets Rs.1.1 crore), mob rule is as prevalent in the groves of academia as in the streets of Lucknow, the state‚s run-down capital. Recently the services of 50 part-time teachers of Lucknow University were ‚Ëœregularised‚ i.e. transformed into permanency, even though some of them averaged less than 50 percent in their postgrad qualifying exams. Regularisation was conceded by an emergency meeting of LU‚s executive committee forced by an ugly demonstration by part-time teachers who shouted slogans and hurled abuses at the pro-vice chancellor and even manhandled a professor to drive home the seriousness of their agitation. Their demand was made under the recently amended s.31 of the State Universities Act which allows substantive appointment of part-time teachers working on or before December 1997 to lecturer grade, provided posts are vacant in the department and candidates fulfil the university‚s eligibility criteria. Among the appointments regularised were of 26 part-time teachers who couldn‚t manage even a first division degree. Of the new lecturers, 31 scored less than 60 percent in their high school and intermediate exams while two science teachers were second divisioners in their undergrad and postgrad exams. The University Grants Commission‚s definition of “good academic record” for general candidates who can be appointed…