In the century of knowledge, India, with its proven record of producing competitive work force for the entire world, is getting ready for playing a prominent and pivotal role in the supply of quality knowledge force to meet the national as well as global market. In the congenial ‘world is flat’ situation the country is looking for ways and means for availing the galaxy of opportunities available to its educated youth. On attaining the status of ‘Youngisthan’, country with about 50 percent of young people available for effective and productive work, the entire world is looking towards India for the multi-skilled human resource requirements of global standards. In the process of utilising the widely opened up job market every effort is made by the administration of our country to meet the demand. For the past few decades our Governments have initiated several programmes and activities to strengthen our human resource development (HRD) systems. The Ministry of Human Resource Development at the centre in liaison with state ministries relating to education started working on several strategies and schemes with an aim of generating the ‘intellectual capital’ through the value added ‘human capital’.
Nation after a long debate and discussion on ‘challenges of education’ has come out with a National Policy on Education (1986) and several programmes of action for strengthening the HRD right from the base. As a consequence, educational reforms have been initiated at the Higher Education. With a strong foundation provided by the relatively well-functioning secondary education system the attention is drawn to affect changes in the higher education matching with the requirements of national and international spheres. Higher Education has now become a high priority sector. Happenings across the world had the impact on our Higher Education system as well. Hence, educational reforms with due consideration of every aspect with three key objectives of ‘expansion, excellence and inclusion’ have been undertaken. Greater emphasis is given in modeling or remodeling in terms of ‘quantity, quality with social concern’. Until 1980s, the higher education in the country had a protected expansion mostly with states’ patronage. From 1990 onwards the liberalisation has been taking place with huge private participation. Increase in demand for persons with competence in science, engineering, technology, management, computers, medical and agricultural sciences necessitated fast growth particularly in professional courses.
Hundreds of institutions have come up catering vast student population with different social backgrounds. The phenomenal growth has pushed the nation in to chaos owing to its unpreparedness to cope with the speed of its occurrence. The Massification of higher education especially the professional education had a tremendous impact on the society and on our educational administration. Limitations of conventional bureaucratic administration have paved the way for a liberalised administration as a reform process. Several Policies, Rules, Regulations, Norms and Standards have been worked out to make the higher education relevant meeting the requirements of modern times. Visions and Missions were planned meticulously for engineering, medical and other streams of education. To implement the programmes of action of the Government, Apex Regulatory Bodies were constituted through Acts of Parliament in the form of AICTE, UGC, MCI etc. The objectives of these bodies are mainly to oversee the effective and efficient implementation of educational programmes with excellence and inclusive aspects. The recent incidents relating to these Regulators have brought shame on the nation. The Guards at the top are trapped in very ugly situations and got arrested for range of allegations of bribery, corrupt practices and manipulations misusing their regulatory powers necessitating yet another need for ‘regulating the regulators’ in higher education. Trust broken by these Guards is unfortunate. Driven to the task of rebuilding the trust we need to analyse the issues relating to the cause and effects of the present crisis with an aim of finding a remedy for combating corruption.
CRISIS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: Responding to the fast changes in the world and the opportunities thrown open by the knowledge economy the higher education has undergone a sea change in recent years. To augment the wide requirement of ‘person power’, efforts for Massification of engineering, management and medical education were initiated all-round the country. Encouraged by the positive results on the abolition of ‘license raj’ in industrial sector, the Government has liberalised its policies in the HRD inviting private participation. Many enlightened and enthusiastic people joined together formed education societies and entered the arena with accelerated speed and pace to grab the opportunities with varied interests. Most of who are: politicians, realtors, businessmen, poultry owners, cinema actors, dairy farm managers, business centric academia… etc. Mushroom growth of the academic institutions has taken place with quality education given a go-by. The entry of these societies was found to be with considerations other than academic.
Most of the institutions were started with commercial outlook taking it as an opportunity for making safe investment of the black money to make earnings from the sacred cow of education. Caste and religion-based institutions have come up vying with each other, some with good and some others with dubious intentions of exploiting the loop holes in the Government initiatives. As a result, private capital entered into the higher education with the backup of powerful lobby of businessmen, politicians, bureaucrats… etc. Behind every institution there is a ‘god father/ god mother’ to protect them from the shortcomings at every level. Private participation in professional education is now ranging anywhere between 50-70 percent or even more in some states making it as a strong ‘for profit’ sector. Turbulent flow of private monies brought along with it several unethical and immoral practices pushing away the philanthropic element necessitating the need for understanding, formulating and creating appropriate ‘police frame work’ to administer the institutions in accordance with the ‘policy frame work’ of the Government. Regulatory mechanisms and controls thus reappeared to discipline the educational institutions particularly the ‘self-financing institutions’ in the private sector.
Reforms have been undertaken for strengthening of Apex Regulatory bodies like AICTE, UGC, MCI … etc. These bodies were vested with all powers of control with functions like according approvals for starting the institutions, sanctioning of additional courses/intake, setting up Norms and Standards relating to land, infrastructure, management practices, teaching-learning and training processes etc. The appointment of Head Guards for these regulatory bodies was done by the Government/(s) from time to time. Most of them are handpicked persons of the choice of the respective ministries with confidence and trust in them to protect the policy interests of the Government. The recent incidents of involvement of the Regulators with their indulgence in bribery, corruption, malfunctioning shocked the nation beyond everybody’s imagination. This indicates the amoral working of the bodies contrary to the objectives with which they have been constituted.
CBI RAIDS & ARRESTS IN AICTE: All India Council Technical Education (AICTE) is in the middle of a major corruption scandal. Its top officials Chairman Prof. R A Yadav and Member-Secretary Prof. K Narayana Rao, Regional Officer Sri Om Dalal, Deputy Director Robinder Randhawa, Advisor H C Rai, a former AICTE Regional Director, Dr Manju Singh and many others were arrested by CBI and are reported to be in their custody. They are accused of charges of bribery, receiving illegal gratification, and various other corruption practices. Cases were registered against them on separate complaints. This apart, many more Professors of IITs, NITs, Universities, other academic institutions etc., who acted as expert committee members of the inspection teams appointed by AICTE were also found to have played a dubious role in the present crisis resorting to unethical and immoral practices.
As per reports appearing in the press from time to time, the officials arrested are not with a clean record and were facing some charges of corrupt practices even prior to their arrest. The question now is, how then, these people were picked up for such high posts requiring utmost honesty and integrity. Even after the arrest of AICTE Chairman and starting a probe, the CBI has investigated over 200 complaints and has registered 42 cases against engineering colleges for illegally obtaining AICTE’s permission without having even basic infrastructure and facilities. As per a CBI source, an IIT professor was among several people booked for submitting false inspection report which had given a go ahead to set an engineering institute. It is learnt that more than 100 people have been accused in these cases currently being probed by CBI all over India.
The findings suggest that officials from AICTE seem to have formed a cartel. As per CBI sources, many times these officials did not even visit the site before giving the approval for setting up engineering colleges there. In some cases, experts deliberately visited the same site again and again and issued certificates for starting two to three engineering colleges at the same place. A professor from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and another from the Delhi University (DU) were booked by the CBI in connection with the AICTE scam. They have been booked for abusing their official positions as public servants cheating the AICTE in criminal conspiracy using fake papers in the process. Also, a case of Criminal Conspiracy, Cheating and Prevention of Corruption Act was filed against the trustees of the promoting agencies and against the convener of the AICTE expert Committee.
The malpractices and corruption in AICTE were there much earlier to the scam of July 2009. In fact ‘cash and carry’ approvals through exchange of suitcases with bundle of currency were making rounds in the grapevine for quite sometime. It has now come out as reality in the recent events of occurrence. It was reported in a prominent magazine way back in 1997 that there was a college in Karnataka which had neither a principal nor any infrastructure; there was only a shell of a building without even a name-plate. When 180 students, who were allotted seats after clearing KCET, landed up at the address they had been given, they discovered it to be a sprawling pink house belonging to a Union Minister and a leader of a political party in power. The Minister, the promoter of the college was also the Chairperson of the Minority Federation of the State, admitted that they had not selected the Principal awaiting decision on the minority status. It was further said that the minority status gives them the leverage to have control over admissions up to 50 percent of the seats as against a non-minority status with control of only 5 percent NRI quota seats, which meant money. The College, despite several shortcomings and objections raised initially by the inspection teams came into existence through the political intervention overruling several of the guidelines formulated by the Government to favour the then Minister who happens to be a person from minority community. This college was accorded approval by the AICTE, by the then Chief, who was handpicked by the Prime Minister at that time.
Looking at all these reports it is clear that the entire system comprising of trustees and managements of institution, AICTE officials, members of the Inspection teams, Government Departments, Organisations meant for welfare of underprivileged castes and minority communities etc., played unscrupulous role and are responsible for the present shameful situation in the higher education system of the country. The Regulators at the apex body worked in collusion with their political /bureaucratic bosses have created a fragile fence with laudable objectives, standards, norms and regulations which appear to be good to protect and safeguard the interests of the people and the cause of quality education. But in practice, the regulators, in the garb of providing quality in professional education, in fact, worked against the purpose for which they were appointed breaking the trust of the people. They acted as stooges to their bosses and grabbed riches exploiting the power bestowed on them through their assigned policing role.
ARRESTS IN MCI: Medical Council of India (MCI), another Apex Regulatory body constituted with powers to control the medical stream of education in the country is found to be sailing along with the AICTE in the corrupt practices and gross misuse of power provided to them by the Government. Its President Ketan Desai was arrested by CBI with his associates on April 22, 2010, on corruption charges and for misusing the regulatory powers. It is reported that Ketan Desai has been misusing his position in the past to earn money and to gain support from politicians of different parties who own and run different medical colleges. He was found to be at the centre of a range of allegations regarding corruption and manipulations. As president of MCI, Dr Desai was a single authority for granting approvals and to carry out inspections of colleges. Many times the inspection reports of medical colleges are alleged to have been changed on the directions of Desai, as the inspections were all carried out by council of inspectors appointed by him.
The allegations against Ketan Desai acquired importance because of huge money transactions involved due to sudden increase in the number of private medical colleges in the past 15 years. Today out of 290 medical colleges in the country 160 are run by the private sector. Each seat in private medical colleges costs any where between Rs. 25 to Rs. 75 lakh. For the smooth transfer of these huge monies to the managements the support of MCI is a must.
Going back to the history of the shameful episode, on February 18 and 20, 2000, the Income Tax Department raided the business and residential premises of Ketan Desai and found bank drafts for Rs 65 lakhs. The Delhi High Court found him guilty of taking bribes and abusing power and also ordered CBI for further enquiry in the matter. But in 2005, CBI gave him a clean chit saying that it was goodwill money. Again, on June 20, 2001 Desai was re-elected in the MCI presidential election to head the prestigious body for the second time, in which he got 69 out of 73 votes. The election itself became an issue considering the majority of votes he received. He was also the Chairman of the Indian Medical Association (IMA). While operating through IMA he entered the executive council of the World Medical Association (WMA) and got himself elected as its President.
The case of Dr. Desai is unique by itself depicting the treacherous role the corruption can play in this knowledge era. The power of the money earned by him could silence the CBI, despite the orders of the Court, get him elected for the second time as President of MCI, make him the Chairman of the IMA and finally help him to become the President of the World Medical Association. It is interesting to note how and how far the wings of corruption can be spread from local to global level, if not clipped in time to protect the academic world. Common man in the society is quite perplexed and failing to know, how the Government could select such a man with doubtful integrity for the highest post that requires greater credibility and extremely high integrity. The selection appears to have been done by a careful design to fulfill the evil intentions of the corrupt people to benefit the corrupting people with an impact of corruption spreading to all the people. Trust has been bartered for the bribes.
The irony is that Dr. Ketan Desai was spearheading an MCI campaign earlier to his arrest preaching fellow doctors to maintain moral and ethical values of the profession by way of rejecting cash, gifts, or hospitality from pharmaceutical companies and others. His true colours had come out shortly afterwards when he was caught by CBI for accepting a bribe for entering into a conspiracy with a Delhi-based middleman and the vice-chairman of a medical college in Punjab for granting permission to admit students from the academic year 2010-11. It is alleged that he rejected certain objections that had been raised by an inspection committee using his regulatory powers in lieu of heavy monetary considerations giving a go-by to his earlier preachings.
All those who are in the process of getting approval for their medical colleges are fully aware of the process of ‘stage managing’ the process of inspection. It is a common practice as reported in print and electronic media that the college professors are often seen shuttling between different institutes to fulfill the staff requirement norms during the inspection by the Medical Council of India (MCI). It is quite unfortunate that all unethical malpractices are being used by the promoters of medical colleges which include borrowing technicians, borrowing furniture and other laboratory equipment from other medical colleges across the state, transporting the hired people to act as patients in the fake hospital environment created on the day of inspection etc. This practice was going on for quite a long time and stated to be happening even now, all is said to be with the full knowledge and connivance of the MCI and perhaps under their guidance. The common unifying formula of this practice is of course ‘money’.
There are instances of hiring doctors from other medical college to exhibit them as faculty working in the medical college under inspection on the day of the Inspection by the MCI. The hired doctors, supporting staff, fake patients etc., are being paid huge sums by the college authorities. All the actors involved in the show of inspection will return back after the show is over with substantial gains for the roles played by them. The press and the media with exciting coverage for a day or two will forget the entire episode/(s) subsequently, making some to suspect even their role in the drama/(s). As things are happening, one can conclude that managements of the private medical colleges mastered the technique/(s) of managing; ‘any body and every body’ who matters in according ‘sanction or approval’ for their proposed institutions and courses. The docile and passive society is staying helpless looking at the things that are happening and is in search of finding ways and means to satisfy the corrupt people and their practices as a matter of routine surrender to the corrupt world.
IMPACT OF CORRUPTION IN REGULATORY MECHANISM: Entry of private participation in HRD institutions supplementing the efforts of the Government to meet the growing demand of the fast changing world for the competent work force to manage the industries /enterprises in professional manner is quite necessary and is a welcome feature. Education sector involved in the generation of the value added, value rich HRD will have to work differently in comparison with other sectors. Structures and strategies of planning, processing, implementing and monitoring will have to be done meticulously with commitment and integrity.
In the stream of expansion of higher education particularly the professional education people with the intention of making business in the education have flown in the form of private participation. This has necessitated the need for effective regulatory mechanism that could educate, formulate and refine the norms, procedures and practices to stall the selfish manipulations of the merchants of education. AICTE and MCI as apex bodies were constituted to guide the institutions covering engineering, management, pharmacy and medical sciences. With considerations of expansion, inclusion and excellence the guidelines have been formulated mostly from the point of control with suspicion on the people. Rules and Regulations have been worked out without providing the needed monitoring and controlling infrastructure and without consideration of ground realities. The regulatory mechanism designed failed to function effectively right from the beginning, as it lacked the determination, commitment and competence.
Amartya Sen, Nobel laureate, 40 years ago expressed that the tendency of the Government to formulate education policies under public pressure is one of the reasons for the crisis in the education system of the country. Unfortunately, the policy-making and its regulation suffers from similar failure even today. Rather than pragmatism, it is populism, wrong ideology and vested interests that are driving the regulatory mechanism to achieve set goals arbitrarily that too being pursued half-heartedly under the influence of corruption at all stages. Shackles of corruption at the regulatory bodies, the key note of which is ‘amorality’ have polluted the whole environment affecting every stake holder connected with professional education. Some of them are as follows:
MANAGEMENTS OF THE INSTITUTIONS: Responding to the need of private partnership in higher education many educational entrepreneurs have come forward to establish and manage educational institutions. Many of them entered without any knowledge whatsoever with regard to running them on healthy lines with service motto maintaining moral and ethical values. The study of the occurrences and the bad episodes clearly indicate that the entry of many was with an intention of making business out of professional education setting aside the aspect of philanthropy in education. Their greed for making money made them adopt many manipulations and violations sacrificing the interests of the students in particular and the academic world at large. Aided by the corruption at the top level of the apex regulatory bodies they chose the path of bribery to overcome every deficiency they encountered in setting and running the educational institutions instead of choosing the path of complying with the norms sincerely. Even some of the managements who were moving on right lines in the initial stages had to tread the path of corruption to fulfill the greed of the corrupt people for getting the needed sanctions and approvals formulated by the apex regulatory bodies. The regulations formulated by the apex bodies are in such a way that it is impossible for the managements to comply with all the norms within the time frame given to them despite their sincere efforts.
To cite a few of them- the land requirement, need for completing the buildings, appointment of faculty, purchase of equipment furniture etc., before hand that too with out any assurance for according the sanction. This apart, requirement of Principals and Professors with Ph.D, M.Tech qualification for all the senior posts, the norms with regards to the supporting and administrative staff, the need to pay the AICTE scales to teaching faculty and payment of state scales to supporting staff initially are found to be difficult for any management to adopt. Firstly, there is a huge shortage of qualified faculty (as stipulated by AICTE) in the entire country for running the professional colleges without exception of the Government-run institutions and the institutions of repute like IITs, IIMs, NITS etc. Secondly, payment of huge salaries to the faculty and staff even without the needed experience for imparting quality education will be an unviable proposition for the managements. Thirdly, asking the managements to procure huge lands (fixed arbitrarily without any scientific basis and justification), to complete buildings in all respects, purchase of furniture and equipment etc., without any formal assurance for sanction is expecting too much from the managements to comply with.
Without extending further, analysis of the present happenings in respect of the above, it is a well-known fact that the norms are difficult to be implemented and are not economically viable, if implemented fully. As such the private sector participants chose the path of bribery to overcome many of the deficiencies. They learnt the art of making huge profits by running their institutions with inferior stuff and staff with an approach of making more earnings with less human or physical resources. They found corruption to be the most economical path to make riches of their investments instead of making efforts for imparting quality education. They mastered the art of manufacturing and producing fake land and business documents, principals and professors, records and commitments from the employees that they are being paid the Govt. scales etc.
To make it simple, they developed the skill of managing everything stipulated by the regulatory mechanism. Quality education and the interests of the students are of least priority to most of them as compared to their motto of making them successful merchants of business in the field of professional education. Their unethical practices squeezing huge amounts of money from the students by way of donations off the record, collection of monies for providing fake minority status certificates, allotting seats under BC, OBC, SC & ST quota to students on fake certificates, filling the seats on commission basis through unscrupulous agencies, collecting service charges for getting scholarships from Govt., collecting huge monies for condoning the attendance stipulations of the Universities etc., is causing enormous damage to the entire society and the mind sets of the people, which is quite unfortunate. In brief, there is a strong notion among the managements that everything can be purchased and can be managed during the inspections this in fact emboldens them to work with practices that are harmful to the academic world.
TEACHING, SUPPORTING AND ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF: This is another group that gets affected either directly or indirectly because of the consequential maladministration as a result of corrupt practices that exist and get dominated in the regulatory mechanism of the educational administration. The enormously low supply of these categories of people (as per the norms set by regulatory bodies) in the institutions is greatly affecting the working of the institutions without exception. In almost all the inspection committee’s reports there will be a definite mention of deficiency of faculty, supporting and administrative staff with regard to both the quantity and quality. It is not an exaggeration to say that in cent percent (100%) of the institutions there is shortage of staff at all levels in terms of numbers, qualifications and experience.
No institution fulfills the norms of the regulatory bodies hence adopts foul practices to win over the problem of this grave deficiency. Fictitious records are maintained, hired proxies are presented, and fake certificates are generated and produced, false and blatant lies in the form of affidavits or commitments are given before the members of the inspection committees which are never checked and followed up for further verification for their correctness. The difficult and different regulatory norms from the angle of ‘transparency’ are easily overcome by the staff in connivance with their managements. As their masters, these category of people learnt all the techniques of hoodwinking the inspection team and at times even their managements with fictitious resumes, false service certificates, some times false qualification certificates issued by unauthorised universities and educational Boards. Since the qualified faculty are not available in the required numbers there has been a relaxation given by the regulatory bodies which is further diluted by the managements by way of recruiting under qualified inexperienced faculty and staff with the result that the quality of teaching, handling practice sessions and the administrative set up is suffering in almost all the institutions. The transparency of administration, glorification of objectives of each institution remains only in the ‘vision and mission’ statements. Competent and qualified faculty though mentioned in every institution’s advertisement, as their strengths is seldom to be seen as existing in any institution.
Much is said about the promoters in the advertisements with conspicuously missing mentioning the name of the Principal for the reason that they may not be available and even if available they may not be conforming to the qualifications stipulated by the regulators. Many institutions employ less knowledgeable and less qualified staff. Faculty and staff on getting their appointment instead of making efforts for improving their skills in teaching, resort to the ‘blame game’ and adopt unethical controls and practices on their students to cover up their deficiencies. It is reported that some of the teachers/staff collect monies from students for doing them favour of giving attendance, session marks, high marks for the project work, getting scholarships, manipulation of records etc. These core groups of the institutions have learnt the art of managing their bosses and the students without making efforts to improve their performance in teaching, handling practical sessions and doing administrative work. Some of them are acting as agents to the managements in the irregular practices by way of participating in corrupt practices breaking all moral and ethical values. People who are supposed to be the role models and the mentors for nurturing high value education are in fact found to be the source of promoting corruption and malpractices.
THE STUDENTS AND THEIR PARENTS: The sad part of the story is the way the corrupt practices in the regulatory mechanism is being taken advantage of by the main stakeholders ‘students and their parents’. Instead of combating the corrupt practices and resisting the malpractices that are affecting them, they are stooping down to any level in making use of them with selfish motives. Getting a seat and completing the course is the only task before them without an iota of concern for the ways and means they adopt to achieve it. Those students who fail to get good ranks to fetch them seats in courses and colleges of their choice start pressurising their parents particularly their mothers to go for alternative means including the payment of donations (off the record), misusing the provisions of minority quota of seats by producing fake certificates, resorting to malpractices of getting false caste certificates through bribing the officials, producing false sports and other certificates etc. The parents are directly or indirectly succumbing to corrupt and unethical practices for turning their wards into professionals who are in great demand in the fast growing economy giving a go-by to their wisdom and values.
Students having secured seats by paying huge amounts of money are found to be developing a negative mind set of taking things light and sizable number of them are found to be falling into a wrong track adopting unethical practices at all levels during their studies. Some of them are found to be threatening and blackmailing their parents making them dole out huge amounts of monies on the pretext of taking tuitions, paying bribes or penalties imposed by the managements for overcoming their academic deficiencies. Being nurtured in corrupt environment with free flow of extorted money some of them are getting addicted to drug and pub culture taking their education very casually and in a callous manner. The passiveness of the parents expressing their helplessness in combating with corruption and protecting their children from the evil side effects of corruption is badly affecting the functioning of the institutions in imparting quality education.
THE SOCIETY: The society as an important stake holder by virtue of its contribution of public funds through taxes will also get affected by corruption in the educational sector and has significant role to play in fighting and in preventing the corrupt practices. It is the responsibility of the society to put the systems both public and private on right tracks all the time. Unfortunately the society got thoroughly demoralised with the fading away of the Gandhian era of principled politics. Corruption has entered into the spirit and ethos of the society through cultural moorings and manifestations with unfortunately negative impact as a reflection of the corrupt at various levels.
The people in the society under the influence of corruption have accepted corruption as part of their life instead of making efforts to combat it with courage and confidence. Their mindsets are so much changed that they (sizable number) consider that jumping the traffic lights or a queue or getting benefits not due to them are the heroic deeds and smart ways of living in this world. People though debate and discuss in public places and seminars, the ways and means to root out corruption, show awe and respect to the corrupt in their real life. Corrupt persons are accorded respectful, if not higher, status as that given to the persons of excellence. They get elected repeatedly or get appointed to positions of power enabling them to go on distributing the spoils of office to their near and dear ones.
Corrupt whether be in politics or in regulatory administration are the creations of public and are concrete manifestations of psychologically corrupt people in the streets. The scenes of huge crowd of people gathered at road shows, yatras or fasts undertaken by the corrupt or suspected to be corrupt, is a clear indication of the acceptance and approval of people to make the corrupt to flourish with impunity. The way the erring and corrupt political leaders walk majestically to courts and acknowledge the greetings of their supporters as if they are receiving awards for the public service is a discouraging phenomenon. Mobilising the public in the form of yatras, protest fasts, dharnas, taking shelter under the caste and religious lines with an intention of putting pressure on the Government, the investigating authorities and judiciary and also to dilute the issue/(s) as defence mechanism or as pressure tactics used by the corrupt is a common and routine chorus that is happening every day. The prevailing situation supports ‘yadha praja thadha nayaka (as are the people so are their leaders)’. If this trend is not arrested immediately, it will cause turbulence in the entire society shaking all the systems making them dysfunctional.
The alarming observations made by our Supreme Court stating “Corruption is like Cancer sure to malign the polity leading to disastrous consequences; it is like Plague which is not only contagious but spreads like wildfire in a jungle; it is a virus compared with HIV leading to AIDS which is incurable; it is a royal thievery. The socio-political system/(s) exposed to such dreadful and communicable diseases are definite to crumble the entire society under its weight”. Hence the need to combat the corruption at all levels particularly in the higher education’s regulatory bodies in order to make the country march towards its cherished goal on becoming a ‘super power’ on the path of progress in a healthy, wealthy, effective and vibrant manner and style.
COMBATING CORRUPTION OF REGULATORS AND REGULATORY MECHANISM: The recent scams and scandals in the country brought shame to all of us, as the people accused of corruption are those who were given respectful position/(s) by the people with faith and trust that they will provide right directions to the systems that were entrusted to them. The breach of trust is what is evident throughout the country. The list of corrupt in the country include former Prime Ministers/Chief Ministers/Governors/Ministers, Judges, Parliamentarians, Vice Chancellors, Principals/Professors, IAS/ IPS officers, Sports Authorities, Religious heads etc., indicating that from the fountain head of political leadership the corruption has flown in various streams to every nook and corner of our social system. Grown from the grass root levels of regional, caste, religion, the system/(s) have brought unhealthy transformation in the society with amoral politics, self aggrandisement, disregard to constitutional norms, misuse of power and authority etc. The political leadership and the bureaucracy of the country which is bestowed with all the power is failing to function with accountability and responsibility, thereby loosing its respectability. Their indulgence and support is found in almost all the episodes of corruption including the current corruption in our Regulating Bodies. Starting from the period of Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister, protection of corrupt has become a common phenomenon with most of our politicians. Protection extended by Nehru to his corrupt colleagues then, did not benefit him in any way but caused immense damage to the country later. His legitimised graft at higher places has undermined the rule of the law and the moral basis of the polity and has sown the seeds of corruption at places of regulatory authorities. The Regulators of systems having close nexus with politicians and bureaucrats have worked with diligence in creating regulations that served the interests of the corrupt in the garb of improving the quality of education bringing the reforms to square one.
SOME SUGGESTIONS: Time is now ripe for the society and the country to act in unison in making successful efforts to combat corruption at the level of Regulators so as to provide trickling down effect that benefit every one. Our efforts need to be realistic and realisable.
Following are some suggestions for fighting the corruption at the Regulatory bodies and for consideration of the elite of the society.
• Combating corruption should be taken up with all the seriousness as an essential and developmental issue of higher and professional education.
• Indian experience with corruption has shown that laws, rules, regulations, procedures and methods of transactions, however sound and excellent they be, cannot be effective and transparent in administering the regulations until and unless the selection of the regulators is made totally based on moral and ethical values keeping integrity and commitment as the main criteria. Hence, persons of impeccable character and integrity be chosen and kept as Regulators of the coveted apex bodies keeping aside the caste, religion, regional and other vicious considerations.
• Creating awareness and awakening through public education and prevention of corruption is the most important intervention that is required to be taken up with missionary zeal and enthusiasm. Civil society, Senior Citizens, Opinion makers, Print and Electronic media etc., have a greater and critical role to play in improving the process of education and working out strategies and methods in curbing the corrupt practices at regulatory levels.
• With consideration of corruption as a complex phenomenon involving all, care has to be taken in identifying and isolating the private edu-entrepreneurs, who are self centric, profit-oriented with ‘give less and take more’ attitude. They need to be tackled with different approach and strategy. We can eliminate corruption by changing the mindset of our people by providing them with psychological confidence to fight corruption instead of making them accept cynically with a defeatist attitude.
• Prevention of persons with questionable past to sneak into these vital positions, and to create an environment that make such an infiltration almost impossible is the prime requirement on which every one has to focus their attention on.
• Formation of ‘All India Collegium for Higher Education (AICHE)’ as a non-profit association of senior academics, philanthropists and eminent members of the community, dedicated to improving the standards of higher education in India with a mission to encourage the pursuit for excellence in education delivery throughout the country. The objectives of this body are to ensure implementation of world class standards of education with vigourous monitoring and accountability in Higher Education.
• A well-orchestrated campaign at the national level to build a consensus among people, all political parties, and societies of concern can make a difference in building a strong public opinion against the corruption and the corrupt. Campaigns need to cover both the ‘bribe taker and the bribe giver’ as the culprits with messages to both to put an end to corrupt practices.
• Promoters of the educational institutions must be given an orientation programme on the need and necessity of establishing quality educational institutions providing them with all the guidance at the initiating, developing and sustaining stages of the institutions, making them to see the situation with clarity and understanding. They need to be told about various methods and strategies to overcome the problems they encounter without any corruption in establishing the quality institutions. We need to drill in them that things can be got done without bribes and bribing makes the things difficult for them in pursuing their project further. The scope and prospects of establishing institutions with high standards in the light of scarcity of institutions and the educational services in the professional education sector with a global perspective be emphasised at every stage.
• Training institutions at national, state and university levels will have to take up programmes on ‘building corrupt free institutions’ as their Quality Improvement Programmes.
• Vigorous campaigning by all the TV Channels to muster the support of all sections of people to fight corruption in higher education exposing on continuous basis about the corrupt practices of all the stake holders and the regulatory bodies at University, State Govt., MHRD, Ministry of Medical Sciences and Health Care etc., on the lines of ‘Save Tirumala’ initiated by a TV Channel in Andhra Pradesh. As higher education is a subject of common interest to everybody in the society, a consortium of all TV channels may be formed with the purpose of completely rooting out corruption in the higher education sector.
• Framing the guidelines and making the regulations simple without red tape and complicated rules and procedures may help in eradicating corrupt practices.
• Legal cushions of safety for the corrupt under the healthy principle that everyone is innocent till proved guilty be removed by replacing them with quick remedial enquiry and judicial systems for all the issues of expansion, inclusion and excellence pertaining to professional education. We should rework the punishment regimen and our legal system to ensure speedy punishment to the corrupt and the guilty on the principle of ‘punishing the guilty and saving the innocent’. The laws dealing with corruption are to be made very stringent so that the properties of the corrupt are confiscated to ensure that the corrupt do not enjoy the benefits of their ill-gotten gains.
• Break the barriers of tribalism or biradari among the corrupt that protect one another by building up a strong society of values and honesty. Cultural change of combating corruption instead of idolising it has to be brought in to every educational set up.
• Provide transparency in the enforcement of Regulations on the principles of Accountability with Responsibility putting the onerous responsibility of compliance of Regulations on the Stake Holders (Managements, Faculty and Staff, Parents and Students, Alumni, Civil Society around etc.)
• Empowering the public and bringing in greater transparency with regard to checking corruption. Efforts have to be made in nurturing a culture that is wedded to the cause of rooting out corruption at each level in the regulatory mechanism that governs the functioning of the institutions by developing groups/clubs that promote right ‘human values’ through development of individual values thereby shaping of social values in our students, faculty and staff. Rabindra Nath Tagore once observed; ‘every time a child is born it shows that God has not lost faith in humanity’. The youth still carry a spark of idealism.
• It may be worthwhile to start anti-corruption clubs in all colleges and educational institutions. These could be patronised by the CVC so that they have a right to expose corrupt practices at various stages in the institutions. This would give them a sense of involvement in cleansing the rot in our society in general and institutions in particular.
• As suggested by our former President A P J Abdul Kalam, a strong youth movement in the country has to be brought in to remove and finally eradicate corruption in each of the institutions. It is the duty of the youth to curb corruption in their homes first. A ‘top-down’ approach to eradicating corruption is not sufficient change at the individual level has to coincide for it to work for the society.
• Since tight regulatory controls have led to a web of corruption, from inspection teams demanding cash from institutions to brokers approaching institutions to set up ‘meetings’ with senior officials where money changes hands they need to be changed with faith in the managements of institutions. Regulatory Bodies will have to play a facilitating role instead of controlling role putting the entire responsibility of, making the institution run as per the formulated guide lines and norms, on the Stake holders viz; Managements, Faculty and Staff, Parents and Students, Alumni and the Civil Society. De-regulation or Self-Regulation with responsibility and accountability may help the entire system inculcating in them a sense of ethics and corporate integrity. This will enhance the capabilities of the institutions enabling and empowering each of them to work either with the spirit of competition or with the spirit of cooperation.
• Higher education’s regulatory body may allow institutions to start without any interference. Regulation should be demand-driven and decentralised with accountable autonomy setting up benchmarks and targets on quality and excellence for institutes to meet with.
• Total Quality Management principles are to be followed in the enforcement functions of the regulatory bodies with continuous improvement of the institutions with corrective intervention in an ‘institution friendly’ environment may be tried first sparing the punitive actions as the last resort.
• The multiplicity of controls such as Universities, State Government departments, Regulatory Bodies appointed by the Ministries be totally dispensed, as they are both cause and consequence of crisis of governance as they subvert each other in interpreting the formulated guidelines. Setting up of the ‘National Council for Higher Education and Research (NCHER)’, a single agency on the observations of Sam Pitodra’s NKC Report and the Yashpal Committee Report is a welcome phenomenon but it needs to be strengthened with an agency at the state level. All the members appointed in the council should exercise equal powers
• Information technology as a tool may be used to contain corruption at the institutional as well as regulatory levels as a path-breaking strategy and approach with quick sharing of information useful to combat corruption at all levels. It will fulfill citizens’ aspirations for participation in the progressive developmental activities of the institutions by rendering their timely advice reducing the discretion of public servants in regulating the system and to help them in greater measure.
• Measures are to be taken to prevent the formation of a mafia that controls the sacred higher education system as a whole and professional education in specific.
Recognising the impact of corruption at the level of Regulators of the Apex bodies constituted at the National level as consequence of corrupt conscience and behaviour a need has now arisen to protect our higher education system/(s) from the evil effects of Corruption by way of setting the things right as a collective effort.
CONCLUSIONS: Having come to know of the corrupt practices adopted by the top authorities of the Regulatory Bodies the best solution appears to be practicing what the Taitreya Upanishad preaches as stated by our former Chief Vigilance Commissioner; “Let us come together, let us act together, let our strengths of knowledge come together, let there be light, let there be no poison of misunderstanding or hatred” in our efforts in combating the corruption and its evil effects. Then we will achieve success and progress in our professional education even without Regulators. Distorted and unreasonable perceptions and practices in the minds of the common people with regard to corruption should be transformed into effective right actions with a positive and determined will for its total eradication.
(The author is a former Professor & Head, National Institute of Technical Teachers’ Training & Research, Extension Centre,
Hyderabad and worked as Principal in Private Engineering Colleges in Andhra Pradesh)