ऑनलाइन एजुकेशन : संभावनाएं, चुनौतियां और भ्रम - मेरे विचार

I have discussed the issue of Online Education in India and given arguments to convince how it can made to serve primarily a segment of students, aged between 25-35 years of age, who were hitherto left unattended in India. For others, who are receiving traditional classroom education, online education can only work as a complementary feature and it will never be able to become a substitute for the face to face Classroom education.

- Dr. Rakesh Kumar Pandey

On the disturbing state of affairs in Delhi University – a view of NDTF

NDTF is convinced that Delhi University is hardly functioning for the past four years with cases of pensions, promotions and appointments piled up beyond alarming limits. Just to establish this point beyond all doubts it should be enough to state that the size of the problems in all these cases have swelled by at least twice of what it was four years ago. And the fact that the University is hardly showing any urge to even acknowledge the explosive state of affairs goes on to paint a disastrous picture of DU with almost no sign of its recovery in the immediate future. DUTA being on a continuous strike mode for more than three months and Karmachari Union also following the same line further multiplies to our combined worries. One can easily realize that instead of resolution of issues, negative approach adopted by the University authorities on several contentious concerns has culminated into aggravating the problem to unmanageable levels. A routine fixation of scales of working employees on account of implementation of new pay scales has resulted this time into controversial notices of recoveries. Many colleges have failed to complete this routine task even after a passage of more than two years now. Ironically, all such problems have originated due to some undesired/unnecessary re-opening of issues that were duly settled long ago within the University. Another such absence of 'timely or otherwise' action by DU authority has led to the misinterpretation of yet another issue that was well settled within the University more than three decades ago regarding the status of teachers working in the department of Physical education.

I am afraid, but for Professor Tyagi, any administrator would have contemplated of resigning from the post – but ironically for that too, one will need to act. Our university, arguably one among the largest in the world, can hardly afford to suffer from inaction and indecisiveness of Professor Tyagi, the Vice Chancellor. Cases of promotions have been made to hang in inaction first by playing blind to the problems, then by denying the due dates of promotions in a countable few cases of the Law Faculty and then latest by notifying a mysterious 'Option Form'. This ambiguous option form hides everything and reveals little to help the applicants exercise the options. Even routine cases of notifications of Headship in the University Departments are facing inexplicable delays in departments such as Hindi and Physics and are forced to function under adhoc arrangement for a prolonged period. Governing Bodies and Acting Principals are forced to continue by default in the absence of timely communication for their continuity. The University is running without a dedicated Pro-Vice Chancellor, Dean of Colleges and South Campus Director and more recently without a Registrar.

The Vice-Chancellor has shown not even a fraction of interest in running the primary affairs of Delhi University as compared to whatever strange interest he has taken in the functioning of allied institutions like non-collegiate women education (NCWEB), Delhi School of Journalism and IoE. Almost half the Colleges of Delhi University are still being managed by acting and officiating Principals and almost half of the teachers' strength is compelled to work on adhoc basis. The strangest of all his misadventures has been his recalcitrant approach in introducing guest and contract teaching in this University and that too when the University was supposedly struggling to act under the pressures from the government and the courts to make time-bound and extra-fast permanent appointments. Just a few months ago the misadventure of VC in the form of the August 28 letter threatening to snatch the livelihood of five thousand teachers in one stroke led to an unprecedented turmoil in this University on December 4, 2019, that has refused to die down completely even now. That blunder in judgement was enough to make any sensible person to realize that he poorly lacks the desirable skill to run a University of the size of DU. After that day when teachers occupied the Vice chancellor's office for more than two days, the University is running almost clueless on how to bootstrap the University from this mess created by inaction and indecisiveness of the Vice Chancellor.

He has not only been a mute spectator of the armtwisting by Delhi Government that is politicizing the constitution of Governing Bodies in the 28 colleges managed by them but has succumbed to their blackmail by agreeing to accept their recommendations of including members purely on political grounds defying all norms and resolutions of DU. He did nothing to ensure that these institutions do not face Funding problem as they have been reportedly facing problems in paying salaries to their employees and teachers.

What is even more disturbing is the fact that most of the concerns faced in Delhi University are on issues that hardly require any move, clarification or direction from the central government. To make this point clear it is sufficient to notice that while promotions and appointments are being done at a very fast pace in all other central universities, DU alone is yet to make a meaningful move in the direction. UGC regulations 2018 that offers solution to a vast collection of promotion cases that had got stuck in the earlier UGC Regulation 2010 are still being misinterpreted for weird reasons. The Vice-Chancellor's continued stubbornness for an inexplicably long period in not yielding to count the adhoc teaching for the purpose of promotions even after the clause 10 of UGC regulations 2018, clarifying all ambiguities in this regard is baffling. NDTF feels that it is time for the Vice Chancellor to realise that the problems of this University needs an efficient administrator to handle these long pending issues and piled up cases and in the best interest of this University he must allow someone else to take up this responsibility at the earliest.

Yes, to save this premier University, he must leave.

Savarkar - The Unchallenged Veer

While ordinary revolutionaries who used arms in independence movement of Hindustan were sentenced to only single death by hanging, British saw reasons in taking two lives out of one Savarkar. He was sentenced to serve two life-terms and that too under rigorous imprisonment – a punishment – that was arguably one of the toughest pronounced in the Colonial era. A cruel sentence for two-life terms puts him in a category worth titled as 'Veer' by the Indians and that makes him easily a revolutionary against the colonial era, unmatched in the history. That the British government kept on rejecting his several assurances that he will keep himself away from revolutionary activities, is yet another proof of how British were convinced that his assurances were merely hiding a revolution awaiting to explode with his release. His mercy petitions were especially singled out for repeated rejections as British could hardly believe them. It was not for no reason that even after ten years of his inhuman imprisonment, when his brother Ganesh Savarkar was being released in 1920, the British decided to keep him as a hostage in an openly declared strategy to restrict Ganesh from indulging in revolutionary activities again. Just as British army were known to fear coming close to the armed-revolutionaries even after their death in encounters, Savarkar was never trusted for whatever he used to write to the British government in the name of these petitions. As a matter of fact, a few propagandist-historians have kept on misleading us and have been conspiratorially evading reasoned analysis of these rejections one after the other. Even after his so called release, he was confined to a place in Ratnagiri and was not allowed to move freely till he served his imprisonment for 26 years in continuation. This period was more than a life term and includes his ten years of 'Kala Pani' punishment in the Cellular jail of Andaman and Nicobar Island known for torturing the imprisoned revolutionaries in general and Savarkar in particular.

Savarkar symbolizes revolution as his ideas and writings seem to have naturally erupted from a nationalists' volcano. Recent researches have uncovered his strategic association with Netaji and other revolutionaries with whom he contributed in strategising the armed struggle for independence even after his 'technical' release from imprisonment.

Savarkar realised that Indians collectively had almost lost all sense of pride after suffering continuously for a stretch of thousand long years of brutal invasions, unimaginable atrocities and inhuman mistreatments. We were made to forget that before the religion-driven medieval invasions, this part of the world used to have the most prosperous, most happy and most contended population. We used to lead developments in all streams of knowledge such as Arts, Science and Philosophy. Savarkar found it more disturbing that apart from this, we were also losing our common threads to unite ourselves in a changed world that had become highly polarized where religion had become the primary identity of individuals and collective. It was difficult for us to accept this change as this used to be a place that had never witnessed Rulers making violent distinction among citizens based on their religious identities before the medieval era. Indian society was shocked and unable to find ways to deal with this kind of brutality unleashed on the basis of religion. In this demoralizing era, his idea of 'Hindutva' helped India to realize its potential that helped us later in establishing a cohesive sovereign and a country united by common culture, shared traditions and common moral values. He carried forward the legacy of Chatrapati Shivaji of strategising fights and wars with a singular aim to snatch wins by all means and topped it with Swami Vivekananda-like revolutionary vision and discussions that used to infuse positivity in a society that was otherwise finding it hard to discover its pride following centuries of slavery.

Savarkar reminded us that our idea of nation was never derived from religion or language. Our idea of nation was geo-cultural and therefore always inclusive as against the medieval-era understanding that was forcing us to digest an idea of nation based on religion. He called our ancient traditional idea of nation as Hindu Rashtra and advocated to continue with our rich past traditions and reject the medieval idea of nation. Before medieval era invasions our practices and traditions were so rich that historically in this part of the world even wars were fought observing well laid down norms of not hurting the interest and lives of common citizens other than the armed warriors. It was exactly for this reason that wars, those days, were fought in open fields and only during day-time, as noticed by Megasthenes in his book 'Indica'. Saavarkar gave us the identity that we were losing. Being a true intellectual revolutionary he could identify the common thread among us that was being destroyed in the era of narrow religious identities. Savarkar came up with the revolutionary idea of identifying our unique and traditional characteristics with 'Hindutva' that was always there within us but never decoded in this simple way.

In the words of Savarkar, "We are Hindus only because you are Muslims" thereby meaning that actually those who identify themselves completely with their religion happen to confuse Hinduism with yet another religion. In his opinion, putting religion above all of their other identities, simple contradicts the idea of nationalism. Medieval Invaders identified everyone residing east of river 'Sindhu' as Hindus. However, when they invaded Hindustan, they spared Muslims living over here and picked up non-muslims for some of the worst kind of inhuman treatment. They plundered, butchered, raped and did all kinds of atrocious acts on all, except Muslims. People residing in Hindustan were not very familiar with the idea of organised religion by that time. People in this part of the world were known to be religiously curious. We were used to find ways to handle our own spiritual inquisitiveness by choosing an explored path or by exploring an innovative approach. We were known for practicing complete freedom of choice and switch-over of thoughts on the Creator of this universe. We were identified as Hindus only because we were identified as those who were ever curious about the idea of God. Savarkar himself was a self confessed atheist. His idea of Hinduism was as wide as our traditions and practices. His idea of Hindu Rashtra was beyond the scope and comprehension of those who were confined to trivial religious identities. He was a social reformer who rejected untouchability and fought against the caste system prevailing in the society. We collectively were never bound to uniform kind of rituals and were never known to have identical understanding about the Creator. In the understanding of Savarkar, Hindus are primarily those people who still continue to associate themselves with our ancient old civilization. It was the brilliance of Savarkar who could discover and concretize a common thread of unity among the fellow residents of this region.

The present India, has recently started finding inspiration in the understanding and vision of Savarkar. Savarkar's ideas have slowly begun to find acceptance in the new India that has rejected the policy of minority appeasement and the idea of a theocratic state. To spread the vision of this visionary a two-day Seminar 'Savarkar Sahitya Sammelan' is being organised in Delhi by 'Savarkar Darshan Pratishthan' in the memory of this great son of Bharat on February 26 and 27 this year in the Ambedkar International Centre at 15, Janpath, Delhi.

Spontaneous Protest of Teachers: an Honest Analysis

Panic on the faces of teachers is clear, intense and visible. The protest and the March today from 'Ramleela Maidan' to the 'Parliament street' indeed reflected the true mood of teachers and especially the adhoc teachers. We all are feeling agitated. The manner this protest has picked up spontaneously, it beats the anger and panic that was expressed by teachers when a modification in the workload calculations in the third amendment was noticed.

In this background, being an honest organisation, NDTF has already started to establish its links with the government to convey the mood of the teachers.

Given the track record of the present government and the manner they have responded on earlier occasions to much weaker aggressions of the teachers as compared to the present one, I am sure this new provision of appointment under 'Contract' in Delhi University under the Ordinance 12(e) will get dropped, if DUTA pursues this issue as honestly as it is expected to. I am convinced that my optimism is not based on assumptions as the way this government, reversed the FYUP format; came up with a fourth amendment nullifying its own third amendment; the manner that this government has been forced to keep on modifying its New Education Policy; the way this government went back on its plans to approve the requests of privatisation from the St. Stephens College and Hindu College; the way this government kept on reviewing the UGC regulations 2018 to finally address all the problems of promotions continuing for the last more than ten years, it is only logical to conclude a similar kind of response in this case too. There is a complete list of issues on which the HRD ministry has shown its sensitivity. This government has proved to be so sensitive that recently DUTA has preferred to launch its protest against the HRD even on several important issues including the present one, where only VC is openly responsible.

In addition to the issues listed above, when the present government reversed its own policies in response to the protest of teachers, there were other issues on which DUTA politically and tactfully convinced the teachers that it was DUTA that prevented this government from implementing 70:30 funding pattern, Loan Funding, its policy of neither implementing seventh pay recommendations nor notifying the UGC regulations 2018. As the teaching community later realised that the above threats were never real.

When tempers are running high, it is difficult to talk different. But I am ready to take a risk just because we should not repent on the desired outcome of our own agitation. Contrary to our popular perception about 'Teachers on Contract' that is traditionally associated with less salary and no counting of service, this provision offers something that doesn't match with such a traditional understanding of the term 'Contract'. Teachers on 'Contract' under this provision will get the same salary that the adhoc teachers are getting in this university and a single term will be of an entire year. In addition to this the period will also be counted as Teaching Experience.

The provision of having teachers on Contract has features that need to be discussed before rejecting it unconditionally. This provision will force the teachers to face the trauma of demanding their appointment letter only once a year which is now being done on an inhuman count of thrice in a year. Teachers appointed through this provision may be able to claim some of the additional benefits such as EL, CL, maternity, paternity and medical that is not available for them under Adhoc appointment.

NDTF is working hard to convince those who can matter to succumb to our pressure and find a legally sustainable way for allowing Absorption as a one-time exception for at least long-serving Adhoc teachers. In response to the current crisis, NDTF has postponed its ongoing efforts in this direction temporarily to shift its focus on convincing them to see reasons in reversing this misadventure of this VC. The government is being made aware of the fact that this VC has unnecessarily introduced an irrelevant provision of 'Contract' in our Ordinance against all advice when the provision of 'Adhoc' is already in existence under Ordinance 12(d).