Quite often the students resist it but all the time they remain unsuccessful. On 29th April 2011, the AMU has once again been closed sine die and in this scorching summer with acute scarcity of rail berths, they have been ordered to vacate the hostels within 48 hours. The final/ semester exams are in progress. The students are therefore extremely angry with this decision of the administration.
The insiders of the AMU were already apprehending that the ‘coterie’ of a powerful lobby consisting of sections of the teachers/administrators and high functionaries, presently the collaborators of the VC, is trying to replace the Controller with a pliant man from the coterie. The speculation was in wide circulation on the campus that a daughter of a high functionary, indicted by the CAG report [vide AB(C) 09-10/ 249 dated 17-11-2009 to HRD ministry] as well as by the Justice Divecha Report (submitted to the Union Minister of HRD, on 21 March 2011) has to be admitted to the MBBS course anyhow, this year.
On 27th April 2011, one student “leader”, Mushtaque, along with his friends, stormed into the Controller’s office and is said to have slapped the Dy. Controller. He is also said to have demanded the Controller to quit his office. The office was kept under siege by him. Mushtaque had launched the agitation for students’ union elections in 2010, but was found ineligible to contest the elections as per the Lyngdoh Committee Report/ Supreme Court. Mushtaque is supposed to be patronised by the coterie in collaboration with the VC.
Other student groups followed in opposition to Mushtaque, and they actually shouted out revealing all the hidden agenda [mentioned above] of the collaborator coterie. And in retaliation of Mushtaque’s demand of resignation from the Controller, the other group demanded the resignations of the Proctor and Finance Officer. They also lambasted the Proctor for trying to grab the post of Pro-Vice Chancellor.
If the insiders’ speculations are to be believed, this whole episode of clash is because of these ambitions of the coterie of teachers and high officers. The violent clash of the students on 28th April is an outcome of the unscrupulous ambitions of the teachers/ officers.
In short, once again, behind the apparent scene of clash between two groups of students, the actual site of contest is some of the ‘lucrative’ posts of the AMU and the game is being played from behind the scene, by the coterie of teachers/officers. This is an old story, usually missed by the media. The disgusting thing about the AMU and the District administration is that no action has been taken against the students who slapped an officer and disturbed the official functioning- a non-bailable offence. This is probably the strongest testimony of the connivance between the student and the administration. Be it the violence of September 2007 or most other such incidents, the miscreants are often let off. The conspirators (teachers/ officers) almost always remain hidden and unexposed, what to say of appropriate action against such people. There is a likelihood that with this sine die closure and forced exit of the students from the hostels, the AMU Students’ Union would probably be dissolved, dirtiest possible manipulations in admissions will be done, and the issue of corruption and indictment of the high functionaries by the Justice Divecha Report will be pushed under the carpet.
The Justice Mathew Report (1998), Prof. Chatterji Report (1961), “Justice” Ibraheem Rahimatoola Report (1927), have also been shunted into cold store. The AMU has got a long history of: corruption and irregularities, impunity to the wrongdoers. The UPA-II govt. is too tolerant about all kinds of corruption; it therefore sits on the Justice Divecha Report. Moreover an earlier enquiry committee (under Justice Fakhruddin and AH Jung) had given it up on the charges of non-cooperation from the incumbent AMU administration. It was therefore absolutely no justification for allowing the high functionaries to continue in the office while proceedings of fraudulent financial practices were going on and these charges were already testified by the CAG Report. The list of charges is long: claiming travelling allowance against university rules, paying income tax from the varsity fund, bringing in furniture worth several lakhs from Kerala (Azis’s home state) and paying another Rs 12 lakh for its transport, spending close to Rs 2 crore to refurbish the V-C’s residence (including installation of jacuzzis in the bathrooms), buying a Honda City Car despite the availability of two cars, and adopting improper tendering practices, causing losses of millions to the varsity. The CAG Report says, “There’s a complete collapse of financial management and the VC and registrar, instead of stopping this frequent financial irregularity, they became part of it.” Even the UGC openly stated that it has withheld Rs 8.38 crore because of financial irregularities by the university administration during 2008-09.
The Registrar is claiming house rent allowance in his salary while he lives in official accommodation. Besides, he also charges 10% of the basic salary, for each school maintained by the AMU, by appointing himself as the manager of every school of AMU. Ask about the works done by him in the capacity of the manager, you won’t get anything worth mentioning.
There are other sections of teachers/officers in AMU, who are only interested in removing the VC. They don’t want more than this. Interestingly, they had played the most instrumental role in empanelling the VC in April 2007, despite the fact the VC Prof. P.K. Azis has got very poor academic record, has allegations of plagiarising the researches, and indulging in financial-administrative irregularities in the Cochin University. These were reported by the Indian Express, way back in November 2006 and by the Outlook in April 2007. Yet, the Executive Council (EC) and the AMU Court empanelled this tainted man on the top, and the bureaucracy of the Union Ministry of HRD, as well as of the Visitor, ignored the allegations, and appointed Prof. Azis as the AMU-VC.
While the media is inadequately informed hence telling less than half of truth, it is blaming the two groups of clashing students, the real culprits [viz. the power lobbies inside the AMU consisting of the sections of teachers and officers-the disgusting coterie, and the lapses of the Union government] remain unexposed, once again. That is the saddest part of the story.
This is a personal observation of the student who is staying in campus