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Journalism of Courage
Yet another academic appointment process has run into a controversy. Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal has rejected all three candidates proposed by a search-cum-selection committee for the position of the vice-chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) as he feels they are not the best suited for the job.The search-cum-selection committee was headed by space scientist K Kasturirangan and also had the UPSC chairman on board.
The HRD Ministry has now referred the issue to the President of India,who is Visitor to all central universities,to recommend the next course of action,that is,whether the same search panel should suggest a fresh set of candidates or a new search panel should be constituted.
The move comes within days of PILs being admitted by the Delhi High Court challenging the selection process for the positions of chairman and vice-chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Those shortlisted by the committee were Prof D P Singh,former vice-chancellor of Banaras Hindu University; Prof K K Agarwal,former V-C Indraprastha University,Delhi; and Prof Manoj Mishra,V-C,Lucknow University.
Highly placed sources told The Indian Express that while those in contention for the IGNOU V-Cs position included some eminent IIT directors and vice-chancellors who would be more worthy of the job,they appear to have been purposefully overlooked.
While the ministry has rejected all three candidates saying they are not the ideal candidates for the job,murmurs of the selection process being designed to choose certain candidates are abuzz. New Delhi-based IGNOU is the largest distance learning university of the country that caters to the educational needs of over four million students.
The post of IGNOU V-C has been vacant since the time Rajasekharan Pillai completed his term in October 2011. The search for his successor has had its share of controversy. Well-known agriculture scientist and Rajya Sabha MP M S Swaminathan and NIIT chairman Rajendra Pawar were originally on the search-cum-selection panel,but had to step down following allegations of a conflict of interest by the university staff. The IGNOU Board of Management headed by Pillai had nominated the two to the selection panel formed to search his successor.
As per norms,the two persons nominated by board of management should not be employed in any way by IGNOU.
