Varanasi institute set up by his mentor rots, Mulayam looks away

In 2002, Kedia was dismissed from service for non-performance and misbehaviour by the GIS Board (she was suspended twice before in 1993-94 and 1999-2000). Joshi not only wanted her reinstated but also hand charge of the GIS to her, and thus began a drama of needless harassment and violence.

Says Prof Dipak Malik, Director and head of the GIS, “First, ICSSR, the nodal institute, stopped funds to the institute in 1999, under written orders by the HRD Ministry, on the basis of fabricated charges of financial irregularity (it was later cleared by an audit team in Joshi’s time itself). Then came charges of maladministration filed in a PIL by Kedia’s friends in the Allahabad High Court; and in 2000, the re-registration of the GIS came up (in UP, all institutes have to seek re-registration every five years) but was summarily rejected by the Asst Registrar of Varanasi. The fate of the institute lay in the hands of petty politicians to petty officials.”

However, after the Congress-led UPA government came to power in 2004, matters began to look up with HRD Minister Arjun Singh’s ‘de-toxification’ drive. The corrective measures included restoration of ICSSR funds to the GIS, sending a letter to the District Magistrate clarifying the ICSSR had never appointed Kedia as acting Director, and that the ICSSR has no claims on the 13-acre property in the heart of Varanasi. “The institute was funded by the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, collected by Jayaprakash Narayan himself, and the land is leased by the Sarva Seva Sangh, all Gandhian bodies, and no one else owns it,” says Malik.

However, if the Registrar of Companies in Varanasi continued rejecting its renewal applications (when it came up in 2000, it was rejected several times, in 2001, 02, and finally accepted in 2003, w.e.f 2000 to 2005), there was another devious takeover attempt, this time by the Socialists. A year after Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav took over in September 2003, the Jayaprakash Narayan Smarak Pratishtan headed by former prime minister Chandrashekhar was appointed receiver of the GIS by the administration. It took a determined GIS Board to challenge the order in the Allahabad HC to stay the order, and it still stands today.

So, how does Mulayam’s administration continue to shackle the GIS even today? The institute’s application for renewal of registration filed in December 2006 (there is a grace period of one year after five years are over) in the Registrar’s office was summarily rejected on the ground that there is a pending case for dissolution (since 2002, first filed in Joshi’s time) in the local court. There is no verdict as yet. The state government has also not given its share of annual funds for the running of the institute (it is supposed to match the ICSSR funds) nor has it directed the administration to take cognizance of the dozens of complaints of violence in the campus.

“The local police station has refused to register a single FIR against gun-toting miscreants who beat up our guards and threaten us from time to time. The administration also does not evict the illegal occupants like Kedia and her colleagues, who have occupied seven other residences despite an order from the ICSSR. The main building which houses the library has been locked, all this despite letters sent by leading academicians and Gandhians like Surendra Mohan, Prabhat Joshi, DL Sheth and others,” says the harried Director.