The opposition against Bharathiar University VC selection process continues with some of the candidates who have applied for the post writing to Governor seeking his intervention. In a joint letter to the Governor Banwarilal Purohit, R Boopathy, G Ganesan, K Balachandran and KK Suresh who had applied for the VC posts have said that the list of ten shortlisted candidates came as a rude shock as the shortlisted ones fall short of the achievements of the majority of the applicants from Bharathiar University in merit, administrative experience and intellectual attainments. Bharathiar University stands first in overall research publication and citations in the Web of Science for the period 2012-2018 among the state universities in the country.
This brought India Research Excellence Citation Award 2019 and quite a few of us deserve the credit for the achievement. While this is so, it is surprising that Bharathiar University does not find a matching representation in the shortlist especially as the search committee is supposed to have gone by the objective parameters meant for the purpose, they said in the letter. Transparency which is expected to be present as per the norms, we suspect, has become a casualty in the present case.
"We appeal to you to make the process of shortlisting public so that the truth will be known. We make an earnest appeal to the Governor-Chancellor to intervene in this matter immediately to ensure justice and fairness," they demanded. In a separate letter to the Governor, another applicant C Namasivayam, former head of the Environmental Sciences department of Bharathiar University, has said that, "Though I have the eligibility for the post, I do not understand why I am left out of the 10 eligible candidates. It appears to me that the Search Committee is biased."Aided College Teachers' Association (ACTA) has appealed to the Governor to order a CBCID or DVAC inquiry and urged him to dissolve the committee and form a fresh panel.
When the university waits for two years it can as well wait for few more months to get a leader of highest morals and honest VC, ACTA president R Sankarasubramanian said in a release. The ACTA is shocked and dismayed over the shabby and motivated process of the search committee for the selection of the VC of Bharathiar University by shortlisting handpicked candidates succumbing to political powers and grossly overlooking some of the outstanding academics who applied for the post of VC, he added.
However, welcoming the search committee for shortlisting candidates by following UGC guidelines, Bharathiar University SC/ST Teachers and Staff Welfare Association president M Ilanchelian and secretary N Selvam have appealed to the Governor to appoint an honest person as VC, so as to eradicate corruption.
