Pranab to launch OU centenary celebrations

Osmania University has fallen on bad days due to a paucity of funds and politicisation of administration.

President Pranab Mukherjee will launch the year-long centenary celebrations of Osmania University (OU) at a function to be held on its campus on Wednesday at a time when the varsity is struggling hard to regain its lost glory. Once hailed as one of the top five universities in India by 1947, the OU today is a poor 23 in the recently released list of National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF).

The President, as per the inputs sought by his office in Rashtrapathi Bhawan from the university, is likely to throw light on the role of universities in nation building and the need to promote quest for knowledge and research. The President’s office sought information on the visit of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore to the university in its early days.

Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), too, will accompany the President. Maharashtra Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao will chair an alumni meet of the varsity on 27 April and Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar will preside over a meeting of vice-chancellors of important and old universities in the country the same day, kickstarting the year-long fete.

OU was founded through a “firman” (royal charter) by the seventh Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan on 26 April 1918 as he wanted to create a world-class university where medicine, engineering and post-graduation science courses, too, were taught in Urdu medium. Before the Second World War, the university was considered a ma- jor centre of excellence in the middle and south Asia.

However, that was part of a hoary past. Slackened academic standards, shortage of teaching faculty, corruption in administration, lack of funds support from successive governments, students’ preference to petty politics and caste groups and tough competition from private and deemed universities are some of the reasons for the poor showing of the OU over the years. Though the university has grown in size and stature with over three lakh student enrolments and around 10,000 post- graduation students from around 100 departments on its campus colleges, the institution has suffered neglect at the hands of successive governments due to paucity of funds and politicisation of administration. Former Prime Minis- ter P.V. Narasimha Rao leads the pack of dozens of former Union ministers, chief ministers, governors and hundreds of parliamentarians and legislators who had passed out of the university. The OU always symbolised vibrant political life right from the pre-Independence days as its students were in the forefront of many movements.

However, the same has also become its negative point as academics suffered due to those agitations which subsequently were monopolised by the vested interests. Delayed academic calendars, entry of caste groups in campus politics and appointments of vicechancellors who were associated with politicians in power had led to the degeneration of the academic atmosphere on the campus.

“In the earlier days, VCs of OU were of high academic background and known for their commitment to excellence and integrity. But, over time, appointments were made purely on the basis of their closeness to politicians in the ruling parties,” former MLC Chukka Ramaiah said.

Ramaiah, who had also served on the executive council of the OU for three years during the previous Congress government, voiced concern over the financial state of the university. The OU, which gets about Rs 700 crore from the state and the Central governments and generates another Rs 100 crore through internal resources, runs on deficit budget as the entire money goes into staff salaries and pensions. The TRS government has promised to give Rs 200 crore for the centenary celebrations, but has so far released only Rs 50 crore. Telangana Chief Minister and TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) is in two minds on elevating his son and IT and Urban Development Minister K.T. Rama Rao (KTR) as the party working president immediately. KCR is supposed to announce the new post for his son at the party’s 16th anniversary rally to be held at Warangal on Thursday, but now there is uncertainty on that. Presently, there is no working president post in TRS. To appoint KTR in the post, the party will have to amend its constitution. The TRS, which held a day-long plenary at Kompally in Hyderabad on Friday skipped the issue even as it passed three more changes to the party constitution. KCR was present when TRS Rajya Sabha member and secretary general K. Keshav Rao moved the changes.

The changes include increasing the term of all party’s elected posts from two to four years, abolishing the existing district committees and replacing them with Assembly constituency level panels and creating new posts of Assembly constituency coordinators. Surprisingly, there was no resolution on creating a new post of working president in the party.

Though the Chief Minister can make an announcement on making his son the working president even without a formal change in the party constitution at the Warangal meeting, he appeared to be not interested in it at this stage, according to sources close to him. “The issue of creating a working president post didn’t figure in our talks,” a senior leader close to KCR told The Sunday Guardian on Saturday. A section of TRS leaders didn’t rule out the possibility of KTR’s elevation at the Warangal meeting. A majority of seniors are of the view that the Chief Minister is unlikely to make the move anytime soon as it is ridden with risky political consequences. The CM is wary of criticism that TRS was adopting dynastic politics as well as resentment from his nephew and Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao to the move.

Harish Rao, son of KCR’s sister, is senior to KTR and was in TRS since its inception in 2001. Harish was instrumental in building the party in the early stages.