The Union HRD ministry’s resolve to revoke the deemed university status of 44 higher education institutions on the recommendation of the P.N. Tandon Committee’s report, has a deep connection with the ubiquitous licence-permit-quota regime which unmindful of liberalisation and deregulation of the Indian economy since 1991, is still pervasive in Indian education. Under s.3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, the Delhi-based UGC is invested with the power to confer deemed university status on outstanding and/or extraordinary institutions of higher education, including privately promoted professional (engineering, medical etc) colleges. In the past decade (1999-2009) during the incumbencies of the BJP’s Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi (1999-2004) and the Congress party’s Arjun Singh (2004-09) in the Union HRD ministry, this discretionary power has been exercised liberally, multiplying the number of deemed varsities countrywide from 37 in 1999 to 127 currently.
Unsurprisingly, many of the private higher education institutions conferred deemed varsity status are professional education colleges promoted by powerful state-level politicians, particularly in peninsular India. With their power and influence in state government secretariats, a large and growing number of politicians have promoted colleges and higher education institutions cutting through the red tape which slows non-political education entrepreneurs. But now with the Congress-led UPA-2 government and Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal hell-bent on cracking down on substandard deemed universities, institutions promoted by politicians are also in the line of fire. An estimated 18 of the 44 deemed universities on the ministry’s hit list are politically connected.
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Of these 18 politicians-owned blacklisted universities, 12 are in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, with most of them promoted by members of the ruling DMK party, an important ally of the 17-party coalition UPA-1 government (2004-2009) and the incumbent Congress-led UPA-2 government in New Delhi. Prominent among them are the Bharath University, promoted by S. Jagathrakshakan of the DMK who is currently minister of state for information and broadcasting in the UPA-2 government; St Peter’s University (promoted by former Tamil Nadu education minister M. Thambidurai); Dr. MGR University (former AIDMK leader A.C. Shanmugham) and Periyar Maniammai University (K. Veeramani, leader of the Dravida Kazhagam).
In the neighbouring state of Karnataka, two of the six universities recommended for withdrawal of deemed university status are promoted by politicians. The Devraj Urs Academy of Higher Education and Research, Kolar is owned by former Congress MP and former Union minister L. Jalappa; and BLDE University, Bijapur, is administered by incumbent Congress MLA M.B. Patil.
The politicians-deemed universities connection is not confined to southern states. In Maharashtra D.Y. Patil University, promoted by Congress leader and incumbent governor of Tripura D.Y. Patil, has also been blacklisted by the Tandon Committee. In Uttar Pradesh, one of the ‘doomed universities’ — Santosh University, Ghaziabad — was established by Dr. P. Mahalingam, former personal physician of BSP founder Kanshi Ram.
With the 44 blacklisted deemed universities, especially those owned by politicians, all set to defend themselves when the Supreme Court resumes hearing of the case on March 8, the HRD/UGC-politicians nexus is likely to be exposed as never before. Liberal academics are hopeful that it will signal the beginning of the end of licence-permit-quota-raj in education, which gives politicians an inside track in India’s reforms-resistant higher education system.