In an apparent cover-up bid, the HRD Ministry had ‘asked’ Professor Virginius Xaxa, the then member of the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE), to resign following an RTI query by education activist and RSS member Dinanath Batra seeking details about the eligibility criteria of members of the governing council.
The matter has come to fore now after Batra has in a separate RTI application asked the HRD Ministry to allow him to “examine” the matter, files and noting related to the appointment of the entire NCTE governing council during the UPA regime. Batra’s latest move may result in many more heads to roll in the NCTE as he has also sought to know the name of the person/s who suggested these names and who recommended them to former HRD Minister MM Pallam Raju.
Then Additional Secretary Amarjit Singh, in-charge of NCTE, was removed by HRD Minister Smriti Irani immediately after she took over and was briefed about the anomalies at several institutions including NCTE and National Bal Bhawan (NBB) where Raju ignored the search committee’s recommendations and appointed MC Usha Kumari, wife of a senior IAS who served as PS to former HRD Minister late Arjun Singh, as the Director of NBB.
Singh was chairman of NCTE and also incharge of NBB when the alleged appointments including that of Xaxa of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) took place. “I want to examine all the NCTE files pertaining to my query at applicable cost,” Batra said in his application to HRD Minister, HRD Secretary, Additional Secretary and the Chairman, NCTE.
In the latest RTI application, dated September 23, 2014, received by the HRD Ministry last week, Batra has sought details related to resignation of Xaxa from the NCTE and permission to view and examine the noting done by all the levels of officials of the HRD Ministry.
Sources said immediately after Batra's RTI, Xaxa was asked to resign. Xaxa had subsequently in a mail informed the NCTE that he "intends" to resign. Sources said that this is exactly the reason why Batra has asked for a copy of Xaxa's resignation and the noting on the issue.
Another council member Prof Janki Raman is accused of plagiarism for lifting chapters in her Doctoral Theses. Batra has sought to know from the NCTE the action it is taking against its other members, “ineligible” to be in the council.
In its reply to Batra’s first RTI on the matter dated July 22, 2014, HRD Ministry noted that only Xaxa was “ineligible” whereas law Ministry sources said that its HRD counterpart did not seek its position on the matter.
Batra, convenor of the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti, came to prominence early this year when due to his civil suit Penguin India withdrew with immediate effect all copies of Wendy Doniger’s The Hindus: An Alternative History from India. Known for his advocacy of Hindu texts in schools, Batra’s writings have been translated to Gujarati and at least 10 textbooks are part of Gujarat State School Textbook Board.
The Pioneer in a series of reports had earlier exposed the “illegal” appointments in the governing council of NCTE. The Council comprised of Prof Krishna Kumar of NCERT, Prof Janaki Ranjan of Jamia Millia Islamia, Prof. Padma Sarangapani of Institute of Social and Economic Changes, Bangalore, Prof Virginius Xaxa of TISS, Guwahati, Prof Poonam Batra of Delhi University, Prof Venetian Kaul, AUD and Alok Mathura of Rishikesh Valley School, Andhra Pradesh.
While Kumar's and Janaki's ineligibility was that they were not the Dean at that point of time, Prof Sarangapani was neither a Dean nor a Professor making him ineligible for the NCTE council. Prof Xaxa too, according to NCTE Act, did not meet the requirements as he was not a Professor at the time of appointment, sources said.
This is the second institution that Batra has targeted within a month. last month, NCERT Director Prof Pravin Sinclair put in her paper midway after Batra threatened her with an inquiry in some financial irregularities few years ago. But, sources said, the other part of the story is that Sinclair was in the process of reviewing the National Curriculum Framework 2005.