Late Mr V N Narayanan, before joining as the
Editor in Chief of the Tribune group of papers at Chandigarh, was working as a
Resident Editor of the local edition of a Delhi based national Newspaper.
Once I asked him how he was feeling after being
elevated from an earlier number two position to that of number one. After a
brief pause he replied that he loved working at the number two position more
than at the current top position. Frankly speaking then I could not comprehend
his remark fully.
It was much later when I got elevated to the post
of principal of the college where I was working as a teacher, I fully
understood Mr Narayanan’s predicament. For I found out, sooner than later, how hard
it is to head an institution. It is like walking on a tight rope while every
other fellow tries to pull you down. Filing of anonymous and malicious
complaints is a very common ploy that people in educational institutions use to
pull down a head.
Since its establishment
in 1882 as University of Punjab
at Lahore (now in Pakistan), the Panjab University Chandigarh has went through
many ups and downs; mostly downs. Following is the recent incident of its
lowest and unimaginable fall.
When Arun Grover, a hard core academician, joined
as the Vice Chancellor of The Panjab University in the year 2012, there emerged
a ray of hope that the varsity would now grow academically well.
Basically a scientist of international repute
Grover, who is known for his winning First Burker Young Scientist award;
of getting Material Research of India Medal; of getting Homi Bhabha Science and
Technology Award of Barc, D,A.E; of being fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences
and National Academy of Sciences; of being designated by the Government of
Japan as a Foreign Specialist Awardee and thus carrying out a collaborative
research at Electro Technical Laboratory at Tsukba, also has been an able
teacher and administrator.
And he certainly did achieve quite a number of
successes in improving the academic standards of the varsity, particularly in
boosting research oriented fields.
However, impediments in his
functioning were raised more than often because he did not become a party to
any particular group in the governing bodies, against whose faulty formation,
based on decades old provisions contained in varsity calendar, he has been
fighting.
As if putting of minor hiccups in his working was
insufficient to pull him down, a case of sexual harassment allegedly was
planted against him in 2015, from which he has recently been absolved after
five long years, which he passed through humiliations and hurts of unimaginable
volume.
Interestingly, in this case, perhaps first of its
kind, the
complainant
reportedly used every legal
lacuna to linger the case for such a long period by never appearing before the
fact finding committee that was duly constituted by the Vice President of
India, ex-officio Chancellor of the University.
For on the eve of very first date that was fixed
by the Committee to start its proceedings, the complainant sought its
deferment, till the Chancellor decides upon her representation that she had
submitted to his office against the formation of the committee.
Still the Committee gave her three more chances
to appear before it. But she did not appear on any specified date. Using the
same delaying tactics she, a day or so before the last and third chance that
was given to her to appear before the committee, the complainant filed a suit
in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, pleading the scrapping of the
committee.
Surely the proceedings of the case did get delay
for a considerable long time. But ultimately the court disallowed her
petition.
After the court’s judgement a seemingly
irritated by the complainants delaying schemes the Chancellor’s office “desired
the university to request the Chairman of the Committee to complete the enquiry
within a stipulated period of ninety daysâ€.
This time also the Committee gave her three
chances to appear before it, as she did not attend any of the meeting, harping
on the same old objection over the formation of the committee, which the court
had already set aside.
All this was being done by the complainant
perhaps because there was not any meat in her allegations. Her only aim seemed to
linger the case on for as long as possible so that Grover’s image remains
sullied.
Finally, providing relief to Arun Grover, the
committee cleared him of the malicious charges some four years after these were
levelled against him.
Though Grover has now been absolved of the vile
charges by an authoritative committee, the scars of continual mental sufferings
of four years, due to an extreme loss of his repute and credibility, perhaps
cannot be healed soon. Moreover the case is yet to reach its conclusion.
Sadly enough, because of such malicious charges,
despite being nullified, still eclipse his commendable doings both as a fine
academic administrator at the varsity level and as a mature scientist at the
international level. Now you Google Arun Grover’s name scores of news reports
about his sexual harassment case would pop up.
The former vice chancellor is now reported to
have requested his successor to convene a meeting of the outgoing Senate before
the end of its four year term in 2020, so to punish the errant complainant. His
demand has reportedly been supported, in writing, by quite a few in the
governing body.
However having a known tardy functioning of our
jurisprudence how many more years it will now take to punish a wrong filer of
such a serious natured complaint, only God knows.
Justice delayed is not just its denial: it is
injustice!
(Published on 07th September 2020, Volume XXXII, Issue 37)
