How 12 dead scholars' names were used to appoint the ICSSR chief
The apex body of social science research in the country, Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) has been subjected to severe criticism since its inception in July 1969 in the course of four inquiries of the council and one by the ministry of human resource development itself - the latter was conducted in June 2011.
But the council has plunged into ignominy during the past three years, under the regime of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which, paradoxically, doesn't tire itself in projecting an unimpeachable image that facts on record fail to substantiate.
The following account has been unearthed over the course of a painstaking investigation into the enormously clumsy affairs of the council, in collusion with the MHRD:
Science of manipulation
The foremost illegal act committed during this period as a result of connivance between the ICSSR and the MHRD is the formation of a collegium. This was approved by the continuing council well after the completion of its three-year tenure that commenced in November 2014, with tacit clearance from the MHRD. Why? For the express purpose of guiding nominations for the appointment of the next ICSSR chairperson.
Based on recommendations from members of the extra-legal collegium, the order of HRD minister Prakash Javadekar notified Braj Bihari Kumar's appointment as the ICSSR chief, disregarding the facts.
The most baffling part of the appointment is the inclusion of a host of well-known social scientists, all of whom died between 1985 and December 2016.
The collegium consists of names of at least 12 deceased social scientists, including five former chairpersons of the ICHR - Nihar Ranjan Ray, BR Grover, KS Lal, AR Kulkarni and Prof RS Sharma.
It also includes names of renowned scholars like Ravinder Kumar, Bimal Prasad, Javeed Alam, Rajni Kothari, LS Bhatt, TS Papola and Randhir Singh, all of whom have been closely associated with the vast spectrum of social science research in India and the ICSSR since its inception.
How tragically absurd and callous is it that the list has passed the scrutiny of the concerned officers of the ICSSR secretariat, including its two-term chairman Sukhadeo Thorat, member secretaries Ramesh Dadhich and VK Malhotra, the member council and more importantly, HRD minister Javadekar and HRD minister of state MN Pandey, in association with the top most authorities of their ministry?
100 soldiers afoot
In effect, more than 100 members of the collegium have made blindfolded recommendations to appoint the ICSSR chairman. Aided by such unequivocal support, a three-member search-cum-selection committee comprising the MHRD early in March 2017 came out with the final proposal in favour of Brij Bihari Kumar as the unanimous choice for the prestigious position of ICSSR chief.
According to reports, this team comprised two members of the RSS-linked Akhil Bhartiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana, including national research professor Ashok Modak and KC Mittal, former Archaeology professor at Kurukshetra University. The third member was Jitendra Mohan, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Panjab University.
He is the present nominee of the council. Interestingly, Mohan, who was nominated as a member of the council in November 2011 under UPA-2, continues to hold his position three years after the completion of his term in November 2014.
Needless to say, the appointment of the ICSSR chief in the backdrop of such bare facts is an insult to the late reputed social scientists and an affront to the entire academic community.
The MHRD has turned itself into a laughing stock, and at the other end is the ICSSR at whose behest such blatant erosion of the institution transpired.
It goes without saying that birds of a feather have indeed flocked together.
ICSSR colludes with HRD ministry
It is worth mentioning that the MHRD did not even bother to implement the provisions of the five-year-old Memorandum of Association (MoA) of the ICSSR with respect to the formation of the council upon the expiry of its three-year term in November 2014.
Evidently, the previous council illegitimately helms the affairs to this day, and has teamed up with the ministry.
The extent of the ruling government's callousness is highlighted by the fact that it did not even bother with the cancellation of an illegal amendment of the MoA on March 24, 2014, at the behest of former HRD minister Kapil Sibal in a devious manner and its equally extra-legal approval by the council of the ICSSR on March 27, 2014, at the behest of the then ICSSR chairman Sukhadeo Thorat - in the backdrop of the notification of the parliamentary polls on March 19, 2014.
Thorat had won a prized second term from Sibal at the end of February 2014.
The former has retained his position in the ICSSR to this day owing to his strong political clout. Javadekar's predecessor Smriti Irani proclaimed that her office would review all the irregular decisions made under the UPA-2, but her claim vanished into thin air like the morning mist.
The status of the ICSSR has made apparent gross impropriety, moral bankruptcy and illegal interference involved in several crucial decisions of the council.
They have wiped out the empty pretensions of the MHRD and the professed piety of its members and supporters on public fora.