Open letter to Maharashtra's Education Minister Vinod Tawade from An Engineering Student

My Raised Expectations Broken and Hopes Diminished!

Dear Vinod Shridhar Vijaya Tawade,

This was the name you took during your oath-taking ceremony as the Education Minister of Maharashtra and signaled that you are not one of the veteran politics, but an activist-turned politician, who is in politics to make a difference. With a proven track-record of activism, building mass organizations, revolutionary social work and proactive legislator, you had raised a lot of hope in the entire youth of Maharashtra. Reading your interview with DNA journalist Santosh Andhale on 4th of November 2014, assured me further that you were born for this job. 

I had the opportunity to meet you at the Vice Chancellor's Office of Savitribai Phule Pune University when you had called meeting of all the student organizations. While it ended up as a formality, still such temperament  of yours raised my hopes further. As a part of ABVP, we had submitted you a memorandum to which you had assured swift action. As it would be now lying in some corner of your office, I would like to remind you some of the demands that it mentioned. Along with the continuing demand of starting open student council elections, it mentioned crucial issues like mass corruption in all engineering colleges through charging extra fees, open disregard for all the norms laid down by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the disastrous plight of quality and research in engineering education in Maharashtra. Being an engineer, I was very hopeful that you'll immediately start acting on this issues as this were very much in the public domain since privatization of engineering education was initiated way back in the 90's. Experiencing your inaction for two years, I regret keeping the hopes alive to only see it diminished today. 

It all started when ABVP exposed Rs. 8 crore scam by Pune's JSPM Institutes. JSPM engineering colleges that have an intake of nearly 10,000 engineering students, had been illegally charging Rs. 8000 as  stationary fees while the actual market value of the stationary priced below Rs. 400! ABVP protested at the JSPM Hadapsar Campus and gave a 3-month ultimatum to the JSPM administration to refund the entire amount to the students. We had approached Directorate of Technical Education (DTE), Maharashtra along with university and your office. But both the authorities along with you, kept a deaf ear to it. Disappointed by this, we took to streets and ABVP along with the JSPM students protested for hours at the JSPM administrative office. Finally, because of continuous struggle of ABVP, JSPM refunded back the money to the students. ABVP then demanded action against the institute who was busy playing vendetta politics against it's own college students purposely failing them in internal exams. ABVP protested in DTE Pune office in 2015, but still no action has been taken against the institute. I realized about the dirty government-education mafia nexus that exists in Maharashtra irrespective of the government which is in power. 

As the news of engineering college's scams being exposed by student organizations went viral, ABVP started receiving thousands of complaints from engineering students. With Pune city being the epicenter of such complaints, I was completely horrified by the plight of engineering students. I shared the same feeling while pursuing my engineering from G.H. Raisoni CEM, Wagholi which had similar issues. Every private engineering college had the same story. Faculties being offered Rs. 15,000 per month which led to incapable faculty members recruited, showing exaggerated number of professors, insufficient laboratory instruments and on top of it charging extra fees in the name of stationary fees, gymkhana fees, training fees, placement fees, alumini fees and what not. This were few of the atrocities that an engineering student paying 4lakhs for his graduation had to face! It was crystal clear that none of the colleges satisfied the AICTE norms, still no action was initiated on any of the colleges since years. On the contrary, they were granted ranks of excellence by monitoring institutions like NAAC and NBA. My own college stands as an example when even after not qualifying in reality for even one parameters that is required to grant the autonomous status, it still managed to get autonomous status. With the NAAC report personally read by me and the reality known clearly to me, what 'extra'-procedure they followed to get the autonomous status is clearly known! 

We received complaints from large number of students of Ajeenkya D.Y. Patil Lohegaon campus that the administration was doing the same illegality like JSPM, by charging bogus stationary fees. We gave memorandum to the administration and informed them about the protest that forced JSPM to refund the amount. We thought that they would follow the same line. The reply we got from them is worth mentioning. They were reminding us about the family relations that they shared with you and how they will 'manage' every action that would be initiated against them. When we along with the college students organized a protest against the administration at the main gate of the college, goons called by the administration physically attacked us with weapons in which three of our activists were seriously injured. That was the darkest day in the history of student activism in Pune! Activists and students that were still to began their protest for their rights were beaten with the police being mute spectator to this scenario. Entire Maharashtra erupted with protests against the attack on student activists with every part of the society condemning the physical assault on common students. On the same lines, it was expected that the Education Minister who also holds responsibility for looking into this and that too who has been in student activism for decades would speak on this, if not initiate action against the perpetrators. But you decided to ignore the complete episode which made me feel uncomfortable by the fact that once you too were part of the same student organization that was attacked by an education mafia. You didn't stop there, you granted this campus which had innumerable issues a deemed-university status for them to decide their own fee-structure and own rules. What more could be expect from you? 

The dark story cotinued. Once again this year a student of MIT and ABVP activist was attacked by MIT's administration when he had accompanied a girl who was denied admission as she refused to pay the entire fees even when she belonged to the SC-category availing fee-exemption. Exactly a month ago, the same MIT student and ABVP activist had initiated a protest against the college when a final year  meritorious student was failed thrice in his internal practical exam after complaining about the technical inability of the faculty assigned to conduct practicals for a subject. In return of the complaint, the professor failed him thrice, with the third attempt being in his last year. Even after getting distinction marks in his last year, his graduation couldn't get completed because of that backlog practical subject. He complained to the university student grievance cell, but as expected and experienced by every student, he got no response. Finally he approached ABVP which followed-up the issue and protested against the college. The college administration had to re-conduct the exams and today the student is graduated! This grudge that 'a common student activist challenged us,' provoked the MIT administration to physically assault ABVP activist in their office. 49 MIT students along with ABVP activists were on hunger-strike for two days. Everyone in the academic fraternity was discussing this, still it didn't managed to reach your ears. Once again you completely ignored a student activist being beaten up only to continue your public relations with the pseudo-academia. 

This examples clearly shows us that why college administration lobby don't want student council elections. It is the fear that the student community whom they consider as their paying space-goats, would act as an vibrant pressure-group to keep a check on them. Without the student council elections, every professor in every college would continue to threaten the student that they would be failed in the internals and their careers would be finished before it takes off, if they complaint against any irregularities of the college. It is very unfortunate that it has been two years since you announced open student council elections, still it is to see the day of light. Is some force stopping you from announcing it? Do you realize the fact that every year, engineering students that are get graduated have this fact clear in their mind that 'Injustice cannot be challenged?' What is the use of such citizens to the society?

I completely agree that you have got an universe of problems passed on from the previous governments, but I dint expect you to solve all of them in a year or two. The only little hope that I carried was that you would initiate steps in solving such problems. If not the impact, then atleast the intent? I know that the environment for such an action is not conducive  as right from the ministry bureaucracy to the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) officials, to the various public university administrations, everyone amongst these is in sync with the vested interests of the education mafia's, but I cannot ignore the fact that as a minister of an elected-government, you hold an veto over all of them. The DTE that was established to enhance quality education, maintain transparency and encourage research is to-date the most inefficient and corrupt link in this nexus. As a minister, can you help me with all the complaints that DTE received and the action it took? I know you would have no answers as I myself know innumerable cases in which the DTE has done absolutely nothing. There is no space for engineering student grievances to be addressed. For every engineering student who is unable to pay some amount of fees, he is denied admission, taking away his Right To Education! In front of my own eyes, I have seen engineering students dropping off engineering education because of EBC-eligible students being told to pay the entire fees denying their right to fee exemption. If the government is not able to provide the scholarships in time, why the students have to bear the wrath of the money-hungry colleges? Leave aside delay, you fail to act on JSPM institutes that had delayed distributing EBC scholarships running into cores of rupees to students by keeping the amount with them. A memorandum was given to you too in this regards, but no action was initiated from your end. A police complaint by ABVP and JSPM students against the director forced the institute to give off the EBC scholarship amount to the students while you were busy attending the various public programmes part of your duty as a politician! Experiencing two years of your tenure, I expected no legal action from the DTE or the state government for this scam and you lived to this expectations!

         

                                            

At the end, a fact must be reasoned out that why every politician including MLA's from your party are eager to start new engineering colleges while no engineering post-graduate, even in his worst nights, dreams of being a professor, neither pursues a career in research. Such is the plight of an engineering student who is being literally looted by education mafia in return of a graduation mark-sheet with absolutely no engineering knowledge that could lead him to an engineering career. Each year lakhs of such students are graduating from the various private engineering colleges in Maharashtra unknowingly being a liability to the nation instead of assets. You have to decide for whom you are given the responsibility as the Technical Education Minister of Maharashtra!             

Regards,

Anand Purohit,
Yet Another Victim of Education Mafia's