Rajasthan: Citing harassment by BJP MLA, Brij University V-C quits

“The MLA has been opposed to me since long. Last year, we had issued an advertisement for the posts of one deputy registrar and two assistant registrars. On August 23, 2015, we held a written test for the same but few days before results were to be declared, the MLA submitted a complaint to the Governor’s office, while a similar complaint was submitted by the local unit of the ABVP, alleging irregularities in the test,” Swami said.

“The Governor’s office then stayed the declaration of results. On January 29, at a coordination committee meeting of V-Cs with the Governor, I raised the issue of the pending result. After being satisfied about the fairness and sanctity of the test, the Governor permitted us to complete the recruitment process on March 1,” he said.

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“We then conducted interviews for nine candidates and decided on three names, which were to be announced on Saturday at a meeting of Board of Management (BoM). However, the MLA declared that he will not let the results be declared and used unparliamentary language and accused me of corruption,” the V-C said.

The MLA, on the other hand, has accused the V-C of a “dictatorial attitude” and of indulging in corruption.

“The V-C called the BoM meeting only once in two years while it should be called every three months or four times in a year. And, the Registrar is supposed to take down minutes of the meeting but the V-C employed a private person for the purpose. Also, the BoM did not approve of his demand for a four-wheeler yet he went ahead with it. Also, the candidates for the posts were interviewed outside the campus, while they should have been interviewed at his office,” Bansal alleged.

The local BJP MLA also accused the V-C of high-handedness for calling a meeting of the BoM, of which the MLA is also a member, while the Assembly session was on, so that Bansal doesn’t get to participate.

“I raised the issue in the Assembly through ‘Point of Information’ following which the Vidhan Sabha Speaker issued necessary directions and stayed the meeting,” the MLA said.

The V-C, however, denied any wrongdoing and questioned the MLA’s motives for “stalling the opening of envelopes, despite the go ahead from the Governor”. He said the entire hiring process for the three posts has been fair and the government’s own representatives were involved in the interviews. Bansal, nonetheless, claimed that in the latest meeting of the BoM, a committee under Rajasthan University V-C and two members from BoM has been constituted, which will submit a report into the “financial irregularities” by the V-C on June 30. “The V-C was scheduled to retire in June anyway. This is just a pressure tactic employed by him,” the MLA alleged.

Rajasthan University and College Teachers’ Association (RUCTA), meanwhile, has accused MLA Bansal and the RSS of “serving an agenda.”

“We demand the Governor to not accept the resignation of V-C K D Swami. The MLA has been only furthering the cause of Bharti Bhawan — the RSS’ Jaipur office — and is misusing his authority,” said RUCTA’s regional committee member Arvind Verma.

The university had been set up the previous Ashok Gehlot government through an Act in September 2012, and Swami was appointed as the founder V-C. The Rajasthan government recently passed a Bill to rename and shift Udaipur-based Rajiv Gandhi Tribal University (RGTU) — also set up in 2012, while in January, the Cabinet had decided to “merge” Haridev Joshi University of Journalism and Mass Communication (HJUJ), Jaipur, with Rajasthan University, Jaipur. The HJUJ, too, had been set up by the Gehlot government in 2012.