As the political temperature rises in anticipation of the general election slated for early next year, Lucknow University (LU —estb. 1921) professors have stepped up their demand for grant of central status to the university which has 36,000 students on its muster rolls. But as befits a university which is in the news mostly for the wrong reasons (student violence, forced closures, irregular academic sessions etc) even as decibels in support of the demand became louder, reports of exam paper leaks in the just concluded university examinations threw a damper over the legitimacy of the demand.
The clamour for central status is driven by the relatively larger grants Central universities get directly from New Delhi. For instance in fiscal 2007-08 the country’s 18 Central universities shared Rs.576 crore for capacity building in addition to revenue expenses, whereas Lucknow University with its composite (state government funded) Rs.49.5 crore budget struggled to keep its seven faculties running and suffered a Rs.10 crore deficit.
Little wonder Anil Shukla, president of the LU Teachers’ Association (LUTA), makes a strong case for central status for LU. “This university has a brilliant track record. For instance it was the first to introduce separate departments of political science and anthropology. It has also produced the largest number of law graduates, and our teachers helped to draft the constitutions of Nepal and Bangladesh. This clearly points to the immense potential of this institution which is being stifled by insufficient funding,” says Shukla who prefers to gloss over LU’s more recent track record which includes sale of question papers just hours before exams and discovery of teachers impersonating students for examination writing purposes.
The resource crunch lament however is genuine. Over the past five years the university has had to surrender 100 faculty positions because of financial constraints. Ajaib Singh Brar, recently appointed vice chancellor of LU offers a cautious response to the proposal. “Many changes are required within the university to make it a competitive and credible institution of higher learning,” he concedes. But Brar’s attempts to raise teaching-learning standards have predictably drawn howls of protest. The introduction of a system for teachers to be graded by students and a bid to stop teachers from working in private coaching centres have met with fierce faculty resistance.
Moreover cold vibes between Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress party ruling in New Delhi don’t help either, as the Centre has to endorse a formal proposal of the state government soliciting grant of central status. The state’s chief minister Mayawati is unlikely to make any such solicitation in a hurry given that denial of central status to LU is a campaign platform to use against the Congress party in the forthcoming polls. By blaming New Delhi for not awarding central status to LU, she is mobilising the state’s powerful student-teacher community behind the BSP which is a serious contender for power at the Centre come next year.
Even though the Union budget 2008-09 promised to establish 16 Central universities, LU was not listed among them because Uttar Pradesh already has three Central varsities — Aligarh Muslim University, Allahabad University and Bhartendu Harischandra University, Benares. Moreover there are perhaps worthier contenders in other states such as Sir Hari Singh Gaur University, Sagar University (Madhya Pradesh) and Punjab University, alma mater of prime minister Manmohan Singh. It was perhaps this awareness that prevented then chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav from giving his approval to a similar campaign three years ago. Instead he promised LU a grant increase and upgradation to “world-class status”. That didn’t happen and isn’t likely to happen soon given that University Grants Commission chairman Sukhdev Thorat somewhat despairingly stated last October that no university in the state (LU included) has the potential to be developed into a centre of excellence.
But LU faculty believe that for a 87-year-old university which boasts an impressive alumni list (including former President Shankar Dayal Sharma and former chief justice of India A.S. Anand) and renowned scholars such as Gopala Saran (anthropology) and Birbal Sahni (palaeobotanist) as teachers, the case is clear. In their breasts hope springs eternal, never mind the varsity’s reputation for shame and scandals.
Vidya Pandit (Lucknow)