Nagpur: After only Shikshan Manch members were nominated to Nagpur University’s statutory bodies, academics have called for amending the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016. They want more elected members on the bodies to ensure political affiliation is not the sole criteria for appointment to bodies like Management and Academic councils and Senate.
The academics said the purpose of increasing nominations in the new legislation was to prevent politics from entering academic circles. However, this end was getting defeated. They called for the return to the old system of having more elected members on statutory bodies to keep a tab on such activities.
In a series of articles, TOI had reported how the nomination system was used by the Manch members, along with their political clout at the Centre and state. This allowed them to nominate members from their cadre or those related to its parent organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to all key NU posts.
“The democratization of university affairs has to be ultimately brought back. Read the preamble of the university act. It stresses on learning of democratic values by the students as enshrined in the Constitution. NU’s current dispensation is itself bereft of those values. University is a public body and democratization is the hallmark of such bodies. All those provisions which are leading to autocracy must be removed. Else, there will be no accountability,” senior academic Dr Vedprakash Mishra said.
Manch coordinator Kalpana Pande didn’t pick up TOI’s calls for her comments.
After many complaints over nominations, the Maharashtra government constituted a panel under former UGC chairman Sukhdeo Thorat to amend the new Act.
“Efforts should be made to bring back the election system as per old universities’ Act, from where genuine candidates would be selected. The old system used to give proper representation to all stakeholders, unlike the new law,” former management council member Abhijit Wanjari said.
Flaying the Manch members for appointing “ineligible” and “inexperienced” candidates to top NU posts, including as deans, senior academic Baban Taywade said such moves made NU laughing stock in academic circles. “The government needs to think seriously on the aspect of how nomination has been grossly misused by an outfit using their clout in the government,” he said.
Rajesh Bhoyar stressed that the 1994 Act was a “model” legislation for which stalwarts like former MLC BT Deshmukh had worked hard.
“The government has ended democratic system in universities by making vice chancellors more powerful by increasing nominations and reducing elected representatives. It’s completely undemocratic. It wants to have puppets as VCs, who would listen to their diktats blindly and act accordingly. The new Act needs urgent amendment to increase the number of elected representatives,” he said.