How Sangh Parivar puppets plotted against me at IIT-BHU
In the background of the controversy over premature termination of my visiting faculty contract in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), the vice-chancellor of BHU, Prof GC Tripathi, has asked me through the director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-BHU, Prof Rajeev Sangal, why I'm raising the issue at the level of the university when the matter pertains to only the IIT. He has asked me why I am making personal allegations against him and why a judicial enquiry should not be set up in this matter.
I wish to state that even though Prof Tripathi, who was made the chairman of the board of governors (BoG) at the IIT-BHU by the human resources development ministry, bypassing the panel of five members recommended by the BoG, brought up my issue under "any other matter" on the agenda, not as vice-chancellor of the BHU but as chairman of the BoG.
The irregularities going on in the BHU in terms of regular appointments of unqualified people associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) as facutly members and admission of undeserving students associated with the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) are so serious (my termination is only one outrageous decision in the series), that I am afraid, by the time Prof Tripathi leaves the BHU or the NDA government departs from Delhi, irreparable damage would have been caused to BHU.
The academic quality of the BHU and other academic institutions - the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) being just one other example - is being seriously compromised under the NDA regime.
By acting against me based on a single complaint by Avinash Pandey, a second year MA student of the Department of Political Science, who is associated with RSS as well, and not that of any IIT student(s) who attended one of my classes, the vice-chancellor has made it a university-level issue.
Avinash Pandey has alleged that "There is no requirement of taking attendance, classes and examination in the Development Studies course run by Dr Sandeep Pandey and students get A grade without any examination."
In response, I have to say that I have conducted all my classes, which may be verified. I had taken permission from the director, IIT-BHU for getting the requirement of attendance and examination waived. I have used one-to-one interactive non-competitive method of evaluation not for the first time at the IIT-BHU but earlier at IIT-Gandhinagar and IIT-Kanpur as well.
I was invited to the Salizburg Global Seminar, "Untapped Talent: Can better testing and data accelerate creativity in learning and societies?" Salzburg, Austria from December 12 to 17, 2015, which was sponsored by the Educational Testing Service, Princeton, the Inter-American Development Bank, Washington DC, National Science Foundation of the US, and Royal Society of Arts, London, to make a presentation on my evaluation method, only days before the decision was taken in the BHU to terminate my contract.
The students who complete all their assigned work only get A grades in my class, the rest get lower grades, which may also be verified from my grading three times when I have taught the Development Studies course.
Since it was the vice-chancellor who had brought up my issue in the BoG, he is guilty of tarnishing my image by claiming that I am a Naxalite and involved in anti-national activities, now making it difficult for me to teach anywhere else in the country.
Oblivious of my academic performance, he has decided to proceed against me completely on non-academic considerations. It is interesting that he is troubled by the allegations that he has not conducted a class at the Allahabad University for many years, nor has any publication to his name, making his appointment to the prestigious position of vice-chancellor questionable.
The only difference is that he is accusing me of false non-academic things and I am raising questions about his academic capability.
The people who are speaking in my favour too are demanding an enquiry into the serious charges levelled against me. The BoG has taken a decision against me based on rumours floated and sustained by the Sangh Parivar for past many years without getting any enquiry conducted and giving me a chance to clarify my position.
The principle of natural justice requires that charges be proved before a punitive action is taken. Here the vice-chancellor and his RSS accomplice Prof Dhananjay Pandey, dean of faculty affairs at the IIT-BHU, who rejected my application for reimbursement of visa fee for attending the Salzburg Global Seminar, have forced the punishment based on hearsay.
The only concrete charge is of posting on the BHU website, the Nirbhaya documentary, banned by the government, falling under cyber-crime. It is not a serious charge as the film was never screened publicly. It was there on YouTube for anybody to watch.
The subject of the film is violence against women. The alacrity shown by the university authorities in preventing the screening of this film was missing when enquiry was conducted against a professor of Management Studies after a complaint was filed against him by a female student of the same department accusing him of sexual misconduct last year.
The professor's suspension is likely to be revoked as the university complaints committee has not found him guilty even though the female student has filed an FIR and the professor is facing a judicial trial.
I want a judicial enquiry and would like the vice-chancellor to resign if the allegations against me are proved false.