The fiercely guarded academic autonomy of these institutions of excellence is anathema to the country’s politicians. Therefore from time to time efforts are made by government to pack their governing boards THE ONLY HIGHER EDUCATION institutions anywhere near global standards established in post-independence India are the country’s Top 8 (out of 16) Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and 13 Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). Sited on sprawling campuses of hundreds of acres, the Central government-promoted IITs and IIMs are superbly equipped with excellent infrastructure, libraries, laboratories and residential accommodation, and globally famous for the high quality of graduates and postgrads they certify. The great reputation of IITs and IIMs is not just the outcome of stiff entrance examinations which enable them to choose the country’s brightest and best higher secondary school-leaving students (IITs) and graduates (IIMs), but also because of the fiercely guarded academic autonomy of these institutions. Naturally, this is anathema to the country’s overweening politicians used to having their way. Therefore from time to time, subtle and not-so-subtle efforts are made by government to control and/or pack the governing boards of these prized institutions. The most blatant attempt to grab control of the IITs and IIMs was made by Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, a former physics professor appointed Union HRD minister of the first BJP-led NDA government, in November 2003. Searching for an excuse to interfere with these inconveniently autonomous institutions, Joshi attempted to ingratiate himself with the middle class by unilaterally slashing the already heavily-subsidised tuition fees to Rs.30,000 per year, to increase their dependence upon ministry grants. Moreover, he decreed that all donations and endowments received by Central government-run education institutions had to be made to a Bharat Shiksha Khoj fund controlled by the HRD ministry, which would allocate them at its discretion. Naturally, some HRD bureaucrats had to be inducted into the governing boards of the institutes to ensure compliance. EducationWorld which unambiguously condemned this backdoor takeover conspiracy in two detailed cover stories described Joshi as the “proverbial bull in a china shop who could wreck Indian education” (EW January & March 2004). Fortunately a few months later, Joshi was banished into political wilderness following the unexpected defeat of the BJP-NDA coalition in General Election 2004. Curiously, Joshi’s abortive IITs and IIMs smash-and-grab attempt which ended in disgrace, didn’t deter Kapil Sibal, another bull-in-china shop Union HRD minister from attempting to fix the IITs which didn’t need fixing. Eight years later in May 2012, “in a burst of nationalist passion”, decreeing “one nation one test”, Sibal abolished the traditional IIT-JEE conducted by the IITs, and introduced a common entrance exam for all Central government-run engineering colleges (including the IITs). The minister’s insistence that the new exam format be introduced with immediate effect without allowing time for careful examination of its full implications, prompted the faculties and alumni of several IITs to raise the banner of revolt. In particular, there was grave concern given that quality of curriculums prescribed by the country’s numerous examination boards is…
