Bihar’s higher education minister and officials on Monday stayed away from a function at Governor’s House to felicitate best teachers and students in higher education, indicating a rift between the state government and the Raj Bhawan over running of state universities, in a repeat of the situation that prevailed in 2012-13 that led to a face-off between the two in Supreme Court and resulted in subsequent quashing of all appointments of vice chancellors then.
There was no education department representative at the Raj Bhawan function to present Chancellor’s Awards -2019-20 to the best VC, best principal, best teacher and the best student. Though the move to award best performers was initiated in 2018 during the term of former Bihar governor Lalji Tandon, the first function was scheduled in 2021 just as the institutions opened after 18-month disruption due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Things became clear on Monday evening itself when the VC of Patna-based Maulana Mazharul Haq Arabic and Persian University (MMHAPU), Prof Md Qudus, in a rare instance, wrote directly to the chief minister, levelling corruption allegations against Lalit Narayan Mithila University (Darbhanga) VC SP Singh, who has been chosen for the best VC award and presently holds charge of three state universities. Three months ago, Singh held the charge of four universities, including MMHAPU.
Education minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary parried the question on his absence from the Raj Bhawan function, but said the government or the department was no way involved with the institution of awards or selection of awardees at any stage. “It is entirely Chancellor’s function. We don’t know what period of performance has been considered for award and if the various categories of award conform to the advertisement,” he said.
It is rare that no top official or minister attended the Raj Bhawan function on higher education.
Even the Raj Bhawan did not mention about presence of dignitaries in the invitation card which just read: “The Governor of Bihar will confer the Chancellor’s Awards at an esteemed ceremony at Rajendra Mandapam, Raj Bhawan”. It was sent to principals and others. The function was earlier planned for November 16, but was later rescheduled to November 23 due to “unavoidable reasons”.
On the charges against the awardee VC, Choudhary said it was natural to expect a thorough probe. “It is all about public perception. If charges of corruption are consistently being levelled, and that too from people within the system, there must be an inquiry to clear the doubts. Higher education needs to be clean,” he said.
Social analyst Prof NK Choudhary said there was more to the entire episode than met the eye. “It is CM vs Governor for oneupmanship. It is unfortunate. The fight is for control of higher education. The fact is neither can escape the responsibility for the mess in the higher education. The government has also not played its part as it should have. The buck stops at the government in a democratic system,” he said.
Amid the raging controversy over corruption in varsities of Bihar following raids at the office and residence of Magadh University (Bodh Gaya) VC Rajendra Prasad, Qudus’s letter has become another flashpoint.
Congress leader Rajesh Rathore said the CM must take Qudus letter seriously and recommend a CBI probe into the allegations. BJP MLA Gyanendra Singh Gyanu said the “Raj Bhawan was responsible for appointment of corrupt VCs”.
In his letter, which has been accessed by HT, Qudus has cited coercion and intimidation for illegal payment to non-existing outsourced staff and inflated bills of answer sheets, the orders for which “were placed by registrar Dr Habibur Rahman at the behest of the then acting VC the day (August 19) his appointment letter was issued”.
SP Singh could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.
Talking to HT, Qudus said that after getting his appointment letter from the Raj Bhawan, he went straight to the university for joining, where the registrar told him he could officially join on August 23 only due to “order from above”. “I thought there might be some order for all VCs, but later discovered that four days were used for all the pre-planned activities,” he has alleged.
MMHAPU university registrar Dr Habibur Rahman said, “Whatever has been done is as per laid down provisions and requirement. The decisions were taken by his predecessor and he had the authority. After 1.60 lakh answer books, another order for 40,000 practical answer books were placed. As far as his joining is concerned, he came quite late, around 8 pm, as he got stuck in traffic jam. There was a call from Raj Bhawan that all VCs should join the same day on November 23 to maintain symmetry. If he knew there was so much wrong, he should not have waited for close to three months to raise it.”
The VC has also pointed to “murky deal” with a Lucknow-based supplier for supply of 1.60 lakh answer sheets at inflated price of ₹16/copy by the acting VC prior to him, and another order was placed by the registrar in October without his knowledge for 40,000 answer sheets at ₹30/copy, while the same cost barely ₹7/copy earlier.
“The supplier, however, supplied 1.60 lakh answer sheets,” he has written, levelling allegations against his own university registrar for being hand in glove with his predecessor in the shady deals.
Qudus said he had written to the Raj Bhawan for replacement of the registrar Dr Habibir Rahman and controller Prof Shaukat Ali, who is from Lalit Narayan Mithila University (Darbhanga). The acting VC, SP Singh, was also from LNMU.
