Bihar governor Phagu Chauhan has suspended 12 assistant professors of Rajendra School, Chapra, for dancing to Bollywood tunes and pop music with their relations and college students on the establishment’s annual day operate, triggering expenses of “ethical policing”.
The governor — chancellor of all state universities — has additionally suspended principal Premendra Ranjan Singh, indicted by a probe for “cake-cutting” and “inserting merchandise songs and dance” into an occasion held on the beginning anniversary of India’s first President, Rajendra Prasad, after whom the faculty is called.
Chauhan, a former Uttar Pradesh BJP chief with roots within the RSS, has additional suspended three professors of Jai Prakash College, to which Rajendra School is affiliated, on the cost of failing to hold out an “neutral” inquiry into the dance controversy and “giving advantages” to the dancing lecturers. The trio have been a part of a probe committee fashioned by JPU vice-chancellor Faruque Ali.
A letter issued to Ali by joint secretary Raj Kumar Sinha from the governor’s secretariat says the 12 lecturers have been punished for “gross misconduct and dereliction of duties” and mentions the dancing.
A number of lecturers have castigated the February 13 motion in opposition to the lecturers as “unwarranted ethical policing” by self-appointed “guardians of our tradition”. The presumption is that the actual cost, unsaid however left hanging within the air, is that the dancing constituted obscene behaviour.
“We danced for nearly 5 minutes. We have been dancing with our college students, colleagues and relations — wives, daughters and sons. How can anybody dare assume there was any obscenity? It was a standard, joyful operate,” one of many suspended assistant professors stated.
One other stated: “We had participated in such occasions as college students at respected universities throughout the nation. That is unwarranted ethical policing by individuals who think about themselves the guardians of our tradition.”
A couple of purported video clips of the occasion that The Telegraph has seen don’t present something that will have been misplaced at a household wedding ceremony.
The suspended assistant professors are from the faculty’s psychology, chemistry, commerce, economics, English and Hindi departments.
The motion was taken on the premise of social media movies as a result of a number of days after the occasion, purported burglars made off with the faculty’s digital video recorder which contained recordings of the occasion.
Academics on the faculty stated the social media clips present a number of the 12 lecturers dancing. The songs performed embody the Haryanvi quantity Teri Aakhya ka yo Kajal by Sapna Chaudhary and London Thumakda from the Bollywood film Queen.
A suspended trainer stated the dancing had begun after the chief visitors had left, with some lecturers becoming a member of in on the college students’ request.
After the video clips went viral, Ali fashioned a three-member probe committee with professors Ashok Kumar Jha (dean, college of science), Uday Shankar Ojha (dean, scholar welfare) and proctor Kapil Dev Singh on December 5. The committee visited the faculty and requested lecturers to jot down in regards to the occasion. Twelve did however many others refused.
On the premise of the committee’s report, Ali handed the 12 assistant professors increment and dearness allowance deductions.
Raj Bhavan too constituted a two-member probe committee on December 7 with Patna College vice-chancellor G.Okay. Choudhary and Lalit Narayan Mithila College (Darbhanga) vice-chancellor S.P. Singh. The panel visited Rajendra School on December 10.
On February 13, the increment and DA deductions have been withdrawn and the suspensions imposed on the governor’s orders. All of the 16 lecturers suspended got 15 days to elucidate their conduct.
Sinha’s letter to Ali says the chancellor (governor) had acted after reviewing the two-member panel’s report.
“He (the principal) confirmed least respect for the college legal guidelines and with out having a correct approval, organised the beginning anniversary and by inserting merchandise songs and dance within the programme on the stage beneath the banner of Dr Rajendra Prasad Jayanti Samaroh, in addition to, cake-cutting ceremony in his workplace chamber, deserves to be proceeded in opposition to for such an unethical and non-moral practices,” the panel report, a replica of which this newspaper has seen, says.
The lecturers’ affiliation of the faculty, which has a college power of 48, stated in a press release: “Can a dance carried out with relations and kids be obscene?… If that’s the case, who has the ethical authority to resolve?”
A professor on the faculty stated the suspended assistant professors had all joined the establishment throughout the previous three years and helped clear up many malpractices.
“They stopped exterior interference in admission, courses and examinations, ensured self-discipline and common courses and attendance, banned outsiders from loitering on the campus, stopped copying at exams,” the professor stated.
“Simply when the faculty was trying like a correct place of schooling after many years, they’ve been suspended. There’s the hand of the native mafia and politicians on this.”
Requested what made the songs and dances obscene and who needs to be the choose, the governor’s PRO, S.Okay. Pathak, stated on Sunday night: “I’ll put the questions earlier than the governor and get again to you if he responds.”
There was no response until Monday evening. The vice-chancellors who have been a part of the two-member probe committee refused to be quoted.
However considered one of them stated on the situation of anonymity: “The governor took an curiosity within the case and despatched us. We have been only a fact-finding committee and we reported the info. The governor is monitoring every part.”
MLC Kedar Pandey, who gained from the Saran lecturers’ constituency that covers Rajendra School and JPU, questioned the “harsh punishment”.
“A number of departments within the faculty have nearly shut down. I’ve requested Raj Bhavan to be sympathetic in the direction of the lecturers. A warning ought to have been sufficient if the higher-ups thought that they had dedicated something fallacious,” Pandey stated.
