Whistle blowers have often been victims caught between the corridors of power and the law which only takes the side of the heavy weights. Mr.Ashwani Kumar - may have unbridled power in Delhi with support of some political parties which he would use as a check mate but outside Delhi, States would often resent orders from Delhi and would want to flex their muscles to show that you need to move through them. Surely your complaint must have rankled some AICTE member who had good connection in Rajasthan which he used to ensure that you get the message not to play with fire. I salute your courage in standing up to them and not getting intimidated by their tough act.Also if you have the full support of all your staff members and put up a united front....the authorities would think twice before they try some high handed methods.
You have named Sikkim Manipal & Punjab Technical University.... Anna Malai is also a University who runs distance learning course with center in Delhi besides many other states as well. Education now being a Big Business... there is lot of political interference too and this makes the game all the more murkier. In fact even our Okhla campus of NDIM is having affiliation with PTU and our MBA - 2 year full time PGDBM program is with both PTU and MDU whichever the students should choose. But many times there are small prints which is so small that applicant miss out and the same clause is used by the management to hoodwink the student and the Judiciary and this is how the well oiled machinery of Academia functions in modern times.
Regards,
Stephen
It is certainly a disturbing news, more so since it relates to the noble cause of education.
As Infosys Founder & Chief Mentor Mr. N. R. Narayana Murthy once said "managers should always go by the facts". I do not wish to comment any more on the enclosed news since I do not know the facts. However, I am certainly aware of the following related facts :
- In a survey done at Delhi amongst the leading citizens few years back (where I was also invited and present), CBI was rated as the most corrupt organisation within the government and media was rated as the most corrupt organisation outside the government. I have been a witness and victim of both in view of my persistent refusal to compromise.
On 25 June 2009, I met Mr. Ashwani Kumar, the then Director of CBI in his office in North Block, New Delhi. I told him about the rampant corruption in AICTE and handed over to him a dossier containing documentary evidence of the same. Acting promptly, he ordered for the investigation right away in my presence itself. This lead to a lot of much needed cleaning up action in AICTE at that time. Our Aravali Institute of Management also at last got the AICTE approval on merit alone on 01 July 2009 after fighting for nine long years.
CBI Headquarters also referred the matter to their Jodhpur office since we are located at Jodhpur. On 06 August 2009 morning, 10 members team from CBI Jodhpur landed up at our premises and when I requested for the purpose, their Investigating Officer DSP Mr. N. S. Chauhan rudely told me that an FIR was lodged against me, I was an accused and I should better behave like an accused. When I requested for the details and the case in the FIR, I was told to ascertain it from CBI Court only. Later in the day, when our advocate checked with the CBI Court, we were told that there was no case nor any FIR against me. Also the said CBI Jodhpur team was soon joined even by its head - SSP.
During the investigation, CBI Jodhpur team did not ask any question on the most important aspects for a good management institute like the faculty (we had a number of IITs & IIMs senior alumni and faculty teaching), courses (our courses were based on IIM Ahmedabad curricula), facilities or the organisational networking to facilitate the placements. All they were concerned with and did was the sizes of the various rooms including the bathrooms and toilets with the measuring tapes they were carrying.
CBI Jodhpur made a reference to the Government of Rajasthan in the context of our land conversion approval. Based on this, our land conversion approval was stopped. On the other hand, CBI Jodhpur also wrote to AICTE not to renew our approval, since we had not got the land conversion and therefore, we had not constructed the campus.
CBI Jodhpur wrote to AICTE to take action against us on matters which were none of their business and beyond their jurisdiction - like our taking action for gross indiscipline and misconduct against a student. Incidently here the student had earlier gone to the District Consumer Forum, Jodhpur and after we submitted the documentary evidences of student's misconduct to the court then the student did not pursue the matter.
All the above CBI Jodhpur did because they wanted some favours from us which we refused. Of course, we fought CBI Jodhpur's unwarranted acts administratively as well as judicially and CBI Jodhpur had to at last withdraw.
- Both Sikkim Manipal University and Punjab Technical University are state universities, that is, universities which came into existence because of Acts of respective state legislatures Sikkim and Punjab. By law, state universities have jurisdiction within the concerned state only. Their conducting any courses and programmes outside the relevant state are illegal. However, both said universities are known to have opened distance education centres all over India. They have centres even at Jodhpur, which are all illegal.
Thanks and best regards
Varun Arya
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Stephen Narayanan
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