Goodbye Reddy (and to all the filth he represented)

Political Kerala was exorcised from the campus of REC Calicut in 2002 when the college was turned into NIT Calicut. It was the year in which a vibrant campus suddenly became lifeless. A palpable fear, a fear of something imperceptible caught hold of both the staff and the students. Consequently, the staff lost interest in the students and in turn the students lost trust in the faculty and the non-teaching staff withdrew into themselves. Thus, three distinct groups: students, non-teaching staff and faculty which interacted with each other merely for necessary official purposes emerged. These settings were ideal for the establishment of what can be called the Dictatorship of the Director, in whom it was speciously and conveniently assumed that all powers were vested. It was in fact a fine display of dictatorship that we witnessed at NITC during the past five years under the directorship of Dr. GRCR.

No dictatorship has ever flourished in vacuum. From history, we know that no dictator has performed effectively without the loyal support of a powerful bunch of boot-lickers. So was the case with NITC too. Within months of his arrival, GRCR crystallised a fine caucus of the spineless around himself. This group of opportunists had a balanced representation from both the teaching fraternity as well as from the non-teaching section of the staff. Over the five years of his reign, this influential fraction has remained more of less the same. However, occasionally, disgusted elements have walked out and disloyal ones have been ousted but the vacancies that thus opened up were eagerly filled by other hungry opportunists. The members of this privileged group gained enormously and in turn facilitated enormous gains for GRCR during his tenure. Rewards and awards (best faculty, all rounder etc.) were showered on thoroughly undeserving individuals as appreciation for favours received. Over the years the ruling caucus grew bolder and less restrained in their acts of manipulation and corruption.

For long, the majority of the staff outside the elite group and the majority of the students were plainly indifferent to the state of affairs that prevailed in the campus. Promotions and annual increments became the sole concern of the staff and the students’ attention got limited to Orkut, SMS, Tathva, Ragam and Placements. Ignorance is bliss, but it is so merely for the foolish. This is not to suggest that intelligence had gone extinct on the NITC campus. On the contrary, the oppressive conditions triggered the intelligent to restlessness and prompted them to realise that the situation in NITC has grown so bad that though difficult, it is impossible to continue to do nothing about it. Unfortunately, this fringe-group could do little but offer resistance in their individual capacities. They were powerless to effect any real change and all their attempts were constantly being thwarted by the coterie of the powerful at the top. This sense of impotency added to their simmering frustration with the system. However, a potent volcano cannot go on simmering and growling beneath the surface for long; it cannot but erupt at some point of time.

This eruption is what we witnessed at the NITC Guest House in the morning of 16-10-2010. The lid blew off and the pent up frustration and resentment spilled out. The sixteenth of October 2010 became a significant day in the brief history of NITC. It shall forever be remembered as the day on which the teaching-staff, the non-teaching staff and the students boldly took an open and united stand against the might of officialdom and thwarted a naked act of attempted official malfeasance. This coup d’etat was successfully mounted running the grave risks of causing serious disturbances to the convocation ceremony that was to be held later in the day and consequently incurring the wrath of the graduates and their parents. Thanks to the surprise element of the unprecedented act of resistance, the officialdom relented and the rest of the official and convocation ceremonies went-off smoothly. This blog sincerely congratulates each and every individual who took part in the events that unfolded at the Guest House in the morning of 16/10 and takes this opportunity to place on record its unrestrained appreciation of the same. Neruda was right when he said: "You can cut all the flowers but you cannot stop spring from coming". For all those who love this institute, this brave act of rebellion shall give a ray of hope that the longed for spring is atlast arriving.

As reported by our sources inside NITC, prior to Convocation-2010, a meeting of the Board of Governors (BoG) was to be held at the campus. For the incumbent director and his faithful bunch, this BoG meeting was the last opportunity before GRCR left NITC to get their final and grand list of manipulations, corruptions and misappropriations recommended and passed by the BoG. The associations of the teaching and the non-teaching staff who wanted to prevent the passing of such and ill-prepared list of recommendations clearly aimed at benefiting and rewarding solely the director and his supporting crew had asked for a meeting with the Chairman of the BoG in the evening of 15-10-2010. As expected, this request was turned down on dubious grounds. The Chairman refused or rather, he was prevented from meeting the representatives. The next morning to everybody’s surprise, it emerged that the available (not the full quorum) members of the BoG have signed and approved the minutes of a BoG meeting that was never held. It was as clear as daylight that the said minutes was drawn-up and concocted by the director and his cronies according to their own fanciful imaginations. This was indeed an ingenious piece of invention but unfortunately it failed to impress all but the inventors. The most unfortunate thing about the whole situation was that two professors of NITC who are members of the BoG actively participated in this treachery. What can you call two individuals who, in the dark and without any regard for their peers, lend their signatures for causes as vile as this? One thing is certain; they can never be called teachers let alone professors and no student can be forced to call them so.

The stage was set; it was either do or perish situation. There was no room for any negotiations but this gross act of official misconduct had to be thwarted from taking another step forward and without further delay. The infuriated associations hastily organised a blockade of the BoG members inside the NITC Guest House, physically preventing them from going to the Convocation venue. They swore not to withdraw their agitation till the toilet-paper on which the imaginary minutes were set down was torn to pieces and chucked down Reddy’s greedy throat. The officialdom, though thrown on the back foot, did not sit quiet for the crisis to pass over; it hastily deployed a couple of its experienced and senior-most boot-lickers to appease the agitators. The police was called in to disperse the students who had collected at the scene of the blockade. But the determined agitators were not deterred; they stood ground. Finally, to resolve the impasse, the BoG agreed to meet the demands of the agitators. For the first time ever, the haughty officialdom of NITC was humbled by a group of determined individuals. They climbed down from their lofty stands and agreed to cancel all the filthy points and stinking recommendations in the bogus minutes without conditions. The blockade was withdrawn only after the Chairman issued a written statement to this effect. A significant victory was won through a united and determined stand. Congratulations once again to all the staff (non-teaching and teaching) and students who strove for the success of the sudden stir.

Nevertheless, comments have emanated from certain quarters to the effect that what was on show on 16/10 was just a flash in the frying pan. Some have opined that this show of strength was demonstrated only after making sure that a GRCR on his way out has lost all his biting power and that such a show of bravado would not have materialised so much as even a week ago. However, this blog does not wish to view the happenings from such a negative point of view. It is hoped that what was witnessed on 16/10 shall prove to be the birth pangs bringing forth a socially conscious movement inside NITC; that the events of that day shall be recorded as harbingers of the better times to come in future at our Institute. Without doubt, we are witnessing the emergence of a socially conscious and politically aware movement inside NITC. We take this opportunity to urge all upright individuals to shed their indifference and to nurture this nascent movement so as to ensure the growth of our institute in the correct direction.

The tenure of the dictator has ended and even if late, he has received the real taste of Kerala before his departure. Political Kerala has made a comeback to the campus and hopefully, it is here to stay for good. The exorcists may already be at work to oust this demon from the body of NITC. Let them try all their tricks; meanwhile, the campus should imbibe the real spirit of Political Kerala and become dynamic and vibrant once again and should never again allow the institute to lapse into another dictatorship. It has suffered enough; once itself is too many. The task for a vibrant and dynamic campus is already cut out. After years of corruption and financial misappropriation, GRCR is leaving NITC. Now, no effort should be spared to ensure that his filthy and corrupt deeds at NITC are brought out into the daylight and to make sure that he and his chums are made to account for each and every one of their stinking acts. Simultaneously a great purge of the officialdom is called for. The collaborators during the reign of the Reddy regime should be kicked out without delay. Their deeds and acts should be subjected to thorough scrutiny and they should be made to pay for each of their manipulative and underhand dealings. Young, dynamic and unbiased blood should be brought to positions of power to take NITC forward on the path of academics, social commitment and political enlightenment. Here, when we say goodbye to GRCR, let it be a firm goodbye to all the filth that Reddy and his gang represented at NITC.

On top of it all, a farewell dinner as arragned to GRCR by the so called senior faculty members, who were active members of the corrupt and self centred coterie around him, at a prominent luxury hotel at Calicut. And guess who payed for this farce; we payed for it, all of this impoverished country payed for it, it was done with public money. It is the most disgusting act than you can imagine, taking money out of the poor working men's pocket to give a sumptuous dinner to a man who is considered to be the root cause of all this filth. We are completely perplexed and shocked by this and demand  those who participated in the function to immediately repay from their own pockets the amount spent for this dinner. Our country's public wealth cannot be used for feeding the corrupt and the buffoons; if they do not repay the said amount to the public fund very soon, they can expect protests to rain on them like torrential downpour. Another lunch, this time contributory, was arragned to honour the great outgoing Director and all the faculty members were supposed to participate. But more than half of the faculty did not participate in this, this Institute shall be indebted to them for keeping its dignity intact. We have nothing to say to those who actively took  part; history always gives a place for such men, they just have to wait.

Plato said a good two thousand years ago, ‘those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.’ The forty to fifty students who took part in the agitation need a special mention and applause. They displayed great personal courage to come out and support the stir. Our appeal to the rest of the student community in this context is to put a conscious step forward to create, nurture and sustain socially and politically conscious progressive student movements to ensure the emergence of a democratic, corruption-less, vibrant and dynamic NITC. An NITC to the growth of which all and sundry contributes and from which one and all benefits should be our dream. NITC is too important an institution to be left to be managed by the corrupt and the self-centred. The choice is yours. Let us end with Marx; ‘history repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce.’ Surely, we have had a tragedy at NITC but we can definitely do without a farce.