Academic activities at BBAU taking a back-seat amid caste politics?
LUCKNOW: Academic activities have apparently taken a back seat at the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU) amid caste politics (dalits vs non dalits).
Thursday’s spat between registrar Sunita Chandra, a dalit and the finance officer was not a oneoff incident. In the last 18 months, the ‘A Grade’ university has seen a series of incidents that say it all.
However, vice-chancellor RC Sobti refused to speak on the issue.
The institution has around 4,000 students and 50% of them are dalits.
Early this year, the HRD had identified 11 ‘non-performing’ centrally- funded institutions and BBAU was one of them. “The BBAU and other non-performing varsities will undergo the audit,” said a senior official in the HRD ministry.
HT traced the incidents that brought the institution in the news.
On January 10 last year, vicechancellor RC Sobti gave a ‘poetic welcome’ to the then union HRD minister Smriti Irani. The ‘inappropriate words’ used by him did not go down well with the minister and women activists.
On January 22, 2016, a group of dalit students raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he started addressing a gathering at BBAU. The students raised slogans like ‘Modi go back’ and ‘Inquilab Zindabad’.
The protestors, mostly Dalits, claimed that the BBAU administration had been committing atrocities against SC/ST students. They alleged the university was “inciting Dalit students to take extreme step like Rohith Vemula.”
Then on May 3, 2016, police resorted to a lathi-charge on dalit students who gheraoed the vicechancellor and other staff inside their office. The dalit students were protesting against OBC students who moved a petition in court demanding scrapping of 50% reservation, which dalit students enjoy because of the special ordinance of the university.
On September 7, dalit students beat up a professor for passing casteist remarks on them. Consequently, the BBAU administration rusticated eight protestors.
On September 11, a critically ill dalit student (suffering from liver cirrhosis) was allegedly forced to vacate his room by the university officials. The varsity administration threw out all his medicines and ultrasound reports in order to get the room vacated, alleged the student.
In October, dalit students boycotted their classes as the university did not roll back its order to rusticate students. Dalit supporters held open classes for them to ensure they did not miss studies.
After a few months, the university’s reputation suffered another jolt on June 2 when a professor and his office assistant were held for bribery by the CBI’s anti-corruption wing. Vijay Dwivedi, office assistant, was caught while accepting bribe allegedly at the behest of Prof Vipin Saxena, dean of school of information science and technology, for renewing contracts of contractual teachers for the new academic session. And on June 15, the spat between dalit registrar Sunita Chandra and finance officer again brought to fore dalit versus non-dalit politics. “Despite BBAU being an accredited A-grade university, it has not been known for high standards of academics. The university remained a battlefield for caste politics among students and teachers,” said Vinod Chandra, former controller of examination BBAU. Chandra added, “The BBAU has grown in terms of infrastructure, but failed to grow on the academic front. Established to run PG courses and undertake research projects, the university gradually forgot its basic mandate.” “The second objective was to give special attention to SC/ST students for academic excellence, but the students were divided on caste lines. This happened due to mishandling of issues,” he said.
However, BBAU spokesperson Govind Pandey said it would be incorrect to say that the university had not made any strides in academics. “The university runs 74 courses, 22 PhD programmes, nine M Phil courses and is making good progress in academics,” he emphasised.
IN THE LAST 18 MONTHS, THE ‘A GRADE’ UNIVERSITY HAS SEEN A SERIES OF INCIDENTS