The editorial of this blog has dealt in some detail on the major problems afflicting our institution, vis-à-vis corruption, politics of apolitics and the phenomenon of academic capitalism. Corruption is the visible component above the surface and metaphorically speaking, it is just the tip of the iceberg, a mere manifestation of the deep-lying rot and apolitics is just a tool to neutralise hindrances in the path of the smooth progress of this rot to every fibre of the institution. It has seeped to every tier of the administration, has succeeded in stifling protests from among the faculty and is now beginning to corrupt the students – slowly but steadily. This poisoning of young, bright but impressionable minds is a crime of gravest magnitude, the fight against which brooks no further delay. The spread of this decay to the student-body should be stalled if not completely stopped. We think it our solemn duty to call the urgent attention of every person who has a conscience to this serious matter. First and foremost, every student should be made aware of what is happening to him/her in the name of education because there is no single-stroke remedy to the present state of affairs. There are only two options before the aware students; either you submit to and enjoy the fruits of the rot or you struggle against and endeavour to swim against the flow. The first route is well trodden and easy but the second one is less travelled and difficult. The latter path calls for careful preparation and constant vigil.
The first and the most important step in this preparation for awareness and struggle is Education. It was Mark Twain who said, ‘do not let your schooling interfere with your education.’ As rightly pointed out in the editorial, academic institutions have now degraded to the level of being places of indoctrination and training rather than being places of real education. NITC is no different; it has long since deviated drastically from its stated mission and vision statements. No education is being imparted here; in the name of education, human beings are being reduced to mere fodder for industry (mainly software coolies). If one is to resist this easy downward slide, he/she should endeavour to educate himself/herself to a level of high awareness and be ideologically armed. Without awareness, which includes political awareness as well, and the correct ideological backup the slide becomes inevitable.
Another necessary quality to stay up in the struggle is vigilance – vigilance against the agents and apologists of the corrupt system. Let it be noted that in the context of NITC, one has to guard against the corrupting influences of three types of agents:
1. People of the Nazeer (Architecture) kind are most direct in their approach to quelling rebellion among students. The vast majority of the faculty of NITC belong to this variety. They would have you believe that the powers that be are sacred and that it is sinful to even think of questioning them. They tell you that the power centres are always right and that they should be respected under all conditions. They threaten you with dire consequences – reduction of marks and grades, restriction of placement opportunities etc. – if you so much as thought of protesting. Be warned that the coming UG-Dean is an exponent of these crude techniques of quelling dissent.
2. People of the Paul Joseph kind who pose and strut about as genuine protestors against the system. They behave as if they have appropriated for themselves alone all the rights to protest inside NITC. They lull you into believing that if your protests against the system need to be effective, it need to be channelled through them; thereby smothering it in the cradle itself. It would be too late by the time you realise what has happened. For instance, before he became the Dean-Students, Dr. Paul Joseph used to make a lot of noise ostensibly on behalf of the students but once the system silenced him with the post of dean, he started speaking the language of the system.
3. People of the Saseendran kind. This phenomenon calls for some detailed analysis and writing. First and foremost, these people present themselves as being almost like god – impartial, above all petty politics, squeaky clean with regard to corruption, pious, upright, dependable, affectionate, lovable and what not. They profess to possess great statesmanship, diplomatic skills and fearlessness. In short, they claim to be the ‘holy altars’ at which a student has to merely kneel down and pray (let alone utter a whimper of protest) to have his grievances redressed and wishes granted. This third kind is the most cunning of all the three.
Let us examine the case of the incumbent students-advisor cum students-dean. The first impression that one gains about him upon joining the Institute is that he is the champion all students’ issues in NITC. This self-proclaimed crusader for the rights of students was appointed way back in 2007, when student dissent in NITC had reached an unprecedented level, as staff-advisor to students with specific instructions and powers to smother and contain all kinds of student restlessness. In NITC, he is uniquely suitable for this dirty work owing to the fact that he has limited teaching and administrative assignments in his department. He is part and parcel of all that is ill with the Institute and perpetuates the same by very cunningly masquerading as crusader when in fact he is an inquisitor working on behalf of the system.
The most effective strategy that he has been employing during the past four years is the technique of divide-and-rule. In spite of his loud posturing regarding his supposedly impartial and neutral approach towards students, what he has been doing all along has been to divide the student community through favouritism and partiality. In every batch he carefully grooms a bunch of students to aid him in this process and to propagate his politics of apoliticism. These favoured batches of students knowingly or unknowingly work as his agents to identify and keep him informed about ‘undesirable’ elements among the students so that he could move quickly and decisively to ‘neutralise’ them without delay and warn the student body about the presence of such and such elements regarding whom they should be wary of. Power is sacred to him and he enjoys the power he wields over the students. It is learnt that very recently this exponent of apolitics authorised a communal head-count of the first-year students through his bunch of pets. The coming SAC election is a case in point. It has been made to coincide with a time when a particular section of the students have to be at their homes on religious grounds. Despite many requests from them, he has not shown any willingness to so much as even consider the shifting the election to another date which shall be convenient to all. Is this person really just and worthy of the post that he is holding? One cannot help but wonder at this.
Another quality that makes him unfit for his position is his lack of transparency. The raging ragging issue became so ugly due to this individual’s underhand and manipulative dealings. It is evident from the present state of affairs of this issue that he conducted himself with the hidden agenda of propping himself up and burnishing his image as a relentless fighter for students’ issues. He has made it his hobby to manufacture issues out of insignificant matters so as to present himself with opportunities to show-off his supposedly unrivalled diplomatic skills and statesmanship. You may remember the recent student-protest in front of his room. It would be informative to know that it was a stage-managed farce. It was he who orchestrated the protest through his coterie of students and made mileage out of the event at the expense of the students. In spite of his 'stellar' efforts, the issue of the suspension of the four innocent students is yet to be sorted out to any degree of satisfaction. What was he trying to achieve? Was he trying to make himself indispensable to those in power and to the student community at the same time?
Next point is corruption. This man is blatantly complicit in monetary corruption. It is common knowledge that proper audits have never been done on the Tathva and Ragam funds, especially so in the last four years. The fact that these funds are regularly being misappropriated is known to all and sundry. During 2007-08 when students’ protests were at its peak, students had requested this gentleman to institute a proper auditing of the Tathva and Ragam funds. Not surprisingly, all such requests were turned down with disdain to white-wash the financial mismanagement of his chosen bunch. In short, this person has never been transparent in any of his dealings. Favouritism and partiality are his hallmarks. The politics of apolitics is his religion and power is his god. Such a person as this is not fit to function as the link between the power structures and the students. He should be removed forthwith without delay. Unfortunately, NITC will be hard-put to find a proper substitute who is capable of seeing issues from the students’ perspective and can sympathise with them.
To sum-up, please do not have any confusion between true education and indoctrination/training. The sole purpose of education is to set men free. It does not turn coolies out of men; on the contrary education produces men out of coolies. To modify the quote often seen on T-shirts; you are born intelligent and indoctrination has ruined many an individual; education has never harmed anyone. So, let the process of your education start and let it flourish alongside your schooling. To survive in the system which we all are trapped in at present, we may need all the schooling but only education can take you and the society forward in the right direction. The path enlightened by education is the only right one for the progress of humanity. All the other ‘progress’ that is being talked of at present are schemes camouflaged cleverly to promote private gains and private profits. And, beware of the proponents of this variety of progress; they are just agents and apologists of this corrupt system out to prepare (pollute) you for its perpetuation.
The first and the most important step in this preparation for awareness and struggle is Education. It was Mark Twain who said, ‘do not let your schooling interfere with your education.’ As rightly pointed out in the editorial, academic institutions have now degraded to the level of being places of indoctrination and training rather than being places of real education. NITC is no different; it has long since deviated drastically from its stated mission and vision statements. No education is being imparted here; in the name of education, human beings are being reduced to mere fodder for industry (mainly software coolies). If one is to resist this easy downward slide, he/she should endeavour to educate himself/herself to a level of high awareness and be ideologically armed. Without awareness, which includes political awareness as well, and the correct ideological backup the slide becomes inevitable.
Another necessary quality to stay up in the struggle is vigilance – vigilance against the agents and apologists of the corrupt system. Let it be noted that in the context of NITC, one has to guard against the corrupting influences of three types of agents:
1. People of the Nazeer (Architecture) kind are most direct in their approach to quelling rebellion among students. The vast majority of the faculty of NITC belong to this variety. They would have you believe that the powers that be are sacred and that it is sinful to even think of questioning them. They tell you that the power centres are always right and that they should be respected under all conditions. They threaten you with dire consequences – reduction of marks and grades, restriction of placement opportunities etc. – if you so much as thought of protesting. Be warned that the coming UG-Dean is an exponent of these crude techniques of quelling dissent.
2. People of the Paul Joseph kind who pose and strut about as genuine protestors against the system. They behave as if they have appropriated for themselves alone all the rights to protest inside NITC. They lull you into believing that if your protests against the system need to be effective, it need to be channelled through them; thereby smothering it in the cradle itself. It would be too late by the time you realise what has happened. For instance, before he became the Dean-Students, Dr. Paul Joseph used to make a lot of noise ostensibly on behalf of the students but once the system silenced him with the post of dean, he started speaking the language of the system.
3. People of the Saseendran kind. This phenomenon calls for some detailed analysis and writing. First and foremost, these people present themselves as being almost like god – impartial, above all petty politics, squeaky clean with regard to corruption, pious, upright, dependable, affectionate, lovable and what not. They profess to possess great statesmanship, diplomatic skills and fearlessness. In short, they claim to be the ‘holy altars’ at which a student has to merely kneel down and pray (let alone utter a whimper of protest) to have his grievances redressed and wishes granted. This third kind is the most cunning of all the three.
Let us examine the case of the incumbent students-advisor cum students-dean. The first impression that one gains about him upon joining the Institute is that he is the champion all students’ issues in NITC. This self-proclaimed crusader for the rights of students was appointed way back in 2007, when student dissent in NITC had reached an unprecedented level, as staff-advisor to students with specific instructions and powers to smother and contain all kinds of student restlessness. In NITC, he is uniquely suitable for this dirty work owing to the fact that he has limited teaching and administrative assignments in his department. He is part and parcel of all that is ill with the Institute and perpetuates the same by very cunningly masquerading as crusader when in fact he is an inquisitor working on behalf of the system.
The most effective strategy that he has been employing during the past four years is the technique of divide-and-rule. In spite of his loud posturing regarding his supposedly impartial and neutral approach towards students, what he has been doing all along has been to divide the student community through favouritism and partiality. In every batch he carefully grooms a bunch of students to aid him in this process and to propagate his politics of apoliticism. These favoured batches of students knowingly or unknowingly work as his agents to identify and keep him informed about ‘undesirable’ elements among the students so that he could move quickly and decisively to ‘neutralise’ them without delay and warn the student body about the presence of such and such elements regarding whom they should be wary of. Power is sacred to him and he enjoys the power he wields over the students. It is learnt that very recently this exponent of apolitics authorised a communal head-count of the first-year students through his bunch of pets. The coming SAC election is a case in point. It has been made to coincide with a time when a particular section of the students have to be at their homes on religious grounds. Despite many requests from them, he has not shown any willingness to so much as even consider the shifting the election to another date which shall be convenient to all. Is this person really just and worthy of the post that he is holding? One cannot help but wonder at this.
Another quality that makes him unfit for his position is his lack of transparency. The raging ragging issue became so ugly due to this individual’s underhand and manipulative dealings. It is evident from the present state of affairs of this issue that he conducted himself with the hidden agenda of propping himself up and burnishing his image as a relentless fighter for students’ issues. He has made it his hobby to manufacture issues out of insignificant matters so as to present himself with opportunities to show-off his supposedly unrivalled diplomatic skills and statesmanship. You may remember the recent student-protest in front of his room. It would be informative to know that it was a stage-managed farce. It was he who orchestrated the protest through his coterie of students and made mileage out of the event at the expense of the students. In spite of his 'stellar' efforts, the issue of the suspension of the four innocent students is yet to be sorted out to any degree of satisfaction. What was he trying to achieve? Was he trying to make himself indispensable to those in power and to the student community at the same time?
Next point is corruption. This man is blatantly complicit in monetary corruption. It is common knowledge that proper audits have never been done on the Tathva and Ragam funds, especially so in the last four years. The fact that these funds are regularly being misappropriated is known to all and sundry. During 2007-08 when students’ protests were at its peak, students had requested this gentleman to institute a proper auditing of the Tathva and Ragam funds. Not surprisingly, all such requests were turned down with disdain to white-wash the financial mismanagement of his chosen bunch. In short, this person has never been transparent in any of his dealings. Favouritism and partiality are his hallmarks. The politics of apolitics is his religion and power is his god. Such a person as this is not fit to function as the link between the power structures and the students. He should be removed forthwith without delay. Unfortunately, NITC will be hard-put to find a proper substitute who is capable of seeing issues from the students’ perspective and can sympathise with them.
To sum-up, please do not have any confusion between true education and indoctrination/training. The sole purpose of education is to set men free. It does not turn coolies out of men; on the contrary education produces men out of coolies. To modify the quote often seen on T-shirts; you are born intelligent and indoctrination has ruined many an individual; education has never harmed anyone. So, let the process of your education start and let it flourish alongside your schooling. To survive in the system which we all are trapped in at present, we may need all the schooling but only education can take you and the society forward in the right direction. The path enlightened by education is the only right one for the progress of humanity. All the other ‘progress’ that is being talked of at present are schemes camouflaged cleverly to promote private gains and private profits. And, beware of the proponents of this variety of progress; they are just agents and apologists of this corrupt system out to prepare (pollute) you for its perpetuation.
"The whole object of education is...to develop the mind. The mind should be a thing that works."
ReplyDeleteSherwood Anderson (1876–1941) American novelist and short story writer.
For a fact i know that i have not gathered knowledge on engineering in the 4 years i studied at NITC, yet, i continue to be in the "industry" solely for what i am and not because of what i learned.
Let me tell you a fact about the real world....its a bitch,for, "money" becomes everything and you succumb to it. But we as students of science(till higher secondary atleast) fail to understand that research in their fields is their biggest asset and money.
Researches leads to innovations and hence patents. Most patents in technology(the current age to be precise)come from US and many from Indian Nationals solely because there is funding in such institutions be it from public or private. Imagine the extent to which India will be rich if these patents were to come from here. This is were i defer from your opinion on education where i say it doesn't matter funding be public or private. I say it because if Indian companies were to privatize research then these companies are the ones that recruit our blessed minds from colleges like ours. In other terms if these companies get richer,so will we with your context of research. Hence 1. Corporate funding will help the country grow solely because our current state of national affairs suggest that we are poor and poor as hell inspite of our country being the worlds fourth largest exporter of goods right before pre independence era. This brings my first point to my conclusion- Keep your friends close,keep your "corporates" closer.
Our country is a democracy-implication-majority wins. If this blog can get a dominant majority in bringing out change so be it, for good causes need support and thats what you need right now.Our college in the last 4 years has seen a deep rise in groups, providing themselves names to say the least, to stay united is by far the biggest joke of the century.For a rebellion against the system be against the system as a whole. India did not win her freedom because of mere lakh, it was because of crores of people,Stans As One,for before one comes zero and thats what our college students are right now. First punish those who give the faculty a hand,this hand bunch of students, things will fall in place.As to faculty-guilt,shame,honesty,selflessness are mere signs of being humane,which by your acts, have proven that you aren't.We should be thankful to you for re-writing a proud statement-for which you became teachers to- Teaching WAS the noblest profession.Its just business.
In this country laws are made to govern, when the government becomes a joke so do the laws.As such has become this RTI(Right to Information). When news of this country can be fabricated why cant information in a petty NIT.This brings to my second point
2. Show them you mean BUSINESS too!
Which brings me to my third point. As students we don't need money, either to party or be going for a trip, or anything else that required it. Once you get a job, you get money, with which one can do whatever the hell they wanted to do. As a student, a friend and an individual i know that with whatever money i received from my parents, i could eat, drink, go for trips every single fucking month. So why the greed for money? If one has to enjoy college life, it is with friends, and friends/friendship is priceless. Every student, through college phase enjoys the same we do in NITC. Those who get 1000 or 5000 a month enjoy the same. Materialistic demands have increased. The acquirement of bikes using college-in turn publics money-in a college where vehicles are banned is worthwhile to say.
3. Enjoy college life-not at the cost of your college.
Ohhhhhh dont mess with faculies.... they can fail u......... "smoke sasindran and his puppets"...
ReplyDeletedont think that it is all over with the tenure of reddy...big snakes are still inside ...beware
ReplyDeleteGRCR was not at all interested in anything other than his 'infrastructure (building)' development which fetches him and his coterie at New Delhi and here a neat sum. He was neither an academician nor an administrator. He had no exposure to any place other Warrangal which he quotes often.He was clever enough to put some one in charge who had helped him as Dean (P&D) and BoG Member for the last three years as In charge before he left.It is a fact that he has made enormous manipulation of funds in the last few days for ratifying which he sent the now Dir I/C with DR(F)I/C to Delhi on SOS. The Finance committee has not approved this as no meeting was held. Let us wait and see. But one thing is certain. The damage GRCR and his coterie have done to the NITC academics is far too much that can be corrected in a short time. He is now safe and out of it. Well, he has his own Godfathers (Godmothers) for some time.
ReplyDeleteAcademic dictatorship (or high handedness) is evident in the way in which the recent students trouble was handled. During or after the election no one in the administration bothered to smother the sparks growing out of both the money making posts (Academic Secretary - Thatwa and Cultural secretary -Ragam) going to one group and the other group licking their wounds as nothing worthwhile they could get from the posts to which they were elected. When suddenly things started flaring up, the admin team (Deans & Chief warden along with GRCR) decided to close down the hostel with orders to clear out before 9PM. Was there any situation that demanded that ? Can a few hooligans 20-25 hold the group of students to ransom without the tacit approval of the administration? How many of us had to sleep in the bus stand and railway station on that doomed night? Having done that, giving the students a forced mid semester break, most of the students thought that the lost time will be made up by cutting the inter semester break. But it was not to be. In spite of unanimous request from faculty from some departments and some senators, the academic muscle power (Hods and Deans) said, "let the students suffer for what they did". Will some one answer how many students were involved in the scuffle? May be 20-30? How many students and teachers had to suffer because of this squeezing of the semester? What did the Academic Admin earn? Is it the way to deal with students ? Are these people who are running the show deserve to be called teachers. It is said " To ERR IS HUMANE , BUT TO FORGIVE IS DIVINE". Probably these words are not applicable to the so called Admin in NITC and they had never been and never will be good teachers.
ReplyDeleteEven God cannot save the academics in NITC!!!!
At last, the Chairman BoG is acting as he should. The In charge and YES men of GRCR went to Delhi to pass all that GRCR could not get ratified in NITC Guest house. It seems the Chairman was so angry that he said the present Board is not legally constituted and cannot make any policy decision.( Realization comes after the shock treatment in NITC!!!). Let the Board be constituted as per NIT Act and then we will decide on policy matters. So, "mooshika sthreekal pinneyum mooshika sthreekal aayi thanne thurunnu". God save the In charge, now that he will be found responsible for what GRCR has done before he left.
ReplyDeleteu know whats funny.....one political group...the one which was supported by the 3rd years....made a major point about the financial coruption done by the opposing party....however when these 3rd years did it during tathva none of these spineless final years said anything....
ReplyDeleteSeniority GRCR style
ReplyDeleteGRCR has a style of fixing the seniority as he pleases and his coterie will interpret rules to suit his whims and fancies. It seems the latest in this is the partial seniority list prepared on the order of MHRD for nomination of Director I/C. For more than three and a half years of his regime , the senior most professor was KPM when suddenly he fell out of reckoning and a new man , just returned from Saudi , became Dean and Dir I/C. As per GRCR, there was no seniority list for any category of posts!!!!. The reason probably is that the professors promoted under career advancement scheme (CAS) will not be in the list. It is natural that he himself being a CAS professor, he wanted to protect his lieutenants. So there was no list available when MHRD sent a fax to send the seniority list of professors. He promptly asked his YES men to prepare a list with one of his trusted permanent BoG member to be the senior most. Poor KPM who became Professor 10 months ahead of EG kept quiet for reasons known only to him. It is a shame that in an institution which boasts of national (or notional!!!) importance things are done like this. In any institution, it is mandatory that the seniority list is prepared and published and the employees listed are given a chance to point out mistakes, if any, within a definite period. Here is the case of preparation of list overnight and communicated to MHRD. Circulated after two weeks on somebody filing a petition under RTI act.Great , aything can happen in NITC. No one in the administration including DR (hoping to be R) and Registrar(I/C)cum HOD can wash their hands off this filth or blood.!!!!
Hijacking Projects - GRCR atrocity
ReplyDeleteIt seems an R&D project that was almost finalized for NITC was moved to NIT Warangal in the last minute on the request of GRCR. What were the so called Dean (C&SR) doing keeping his mouths gagged or spines elastic all these days.Or was he also acting yours foolishly. At least people should know what ones self is worth!!!!
So,finally, 'mooshika sthree pinneyum mooshika sthree aay vannu. Reg I/C decided not to hold on to the posts of HoD and Reg I/C together !!! It took several months for him to realize that it is too much for an ordinary mortal to hold both these posts ( if he wants to do something. Or is it because the appointment of Registrar (to be ratified by three year old BoG)is not going to be? But who is going to be the beneficiary, Dept or Institution or neither. Wait and see.
ReplyDeleteSenate Chairman wants two votes !!!! (Representation in BoG)
ReplyDeleteAt last MHRD has decided to constitute the BoG for NITs as per NIT act. BoG now has two nominees of the Senate. NITC Senate met to nominate the representative. Members wanted an election by secret ballot for the nominees. One external member, old friend of GRCR, made a lecture on who should be representing the Senate in his style, but the members insisted that it should be by election. Under pressure, the In charge chairman had to accept it, but then he wanted a vote, not a casting vote, as normally done in all such bodies. Again it was accepted. But then In charge Chairman wanted a casting vote as well in the event of a tie!!! What kind of democracy is this, two votes for one member ? Members objected to it. Then his coterie wanted a vote on this, poor in charge, he was denied by the division and has to be satisfied by a single secret vote.Now, the election has to take place, when, no one knows.