Award pe Charcha (Discussion on Awards)

                                             Award pe Charcha (Discussion on Awards)

H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar made news, recently, for suggesting that perhaps Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize winner who stood up for a girl’s right to study and was shot at by the Taliban, did not deserve the award. I could not believe that a widely acclaimed Guru, Sri Sri  would have spoken against a Nobel peace Prize winner especially when his own nomination for such a distinction had not been successful.  This uncharitable remark( and uncalled for, after almost a year)smacks of  a loser’s scorn for such a prestigious award and does not behove of a Guru in a spotless white robe who teaches and practices ‘the Art of Living’. Sri Sri who is revered and venerated as a spiritual Guru offering succour to millions of men and women stressed out by negative feelings has shown himself to be one of them with his negative remark about Malala. In fact recently, during the much vaunted World Culture Festival by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s The Art of Living Foundation, he behaved unlike a Guru when he said he would not pay the fine imposed by the National Green Tribunal and dared the Constitutional body to arrest him. He displayed a spirit of defiance and impetuosity which lent added piquancy to his remark. One does not know whether there had been any damage to the environment at Yamuna floodplain, but Sri Sri’s reaction was bitter and betrayed a sense of hurt that he, SriSri, the great Guru had  been faulted. On both these occasions, he had dropped the mask of imperturbability and shown that he is like anyone of us not insusceptible to criticism. It is unfortunate that one who calls himself a spiritual Guru has shown a weakness for awards and hankers after them. After being bestowed( not clear whether it is a self bestowed one) the highest award of a spiritual Guru, Sri Sri accepts the civilian award of  Padma Vibhushan  which is just a step below the highest civilian award of Bharat Ratna. One wonders if Sri Sri feels the spiritual endorsement is not adequate in comparison with worldly approbation! His proximity to the political leaders currently in power and his earlier open canvassing for BJP and its Prime Minister designate in 2014 clearly demonstrated he was not free from prejudices by favouring one group against another- and thereby not a guru for all humanity. Such spiritual gurus with a weakness for worldly power are legion in our country. Baba Ramdev promoting his Patanjali brand of food and beverages, Dhirendra Brahmachari, the yogic guru of Indira Gandhi,  Asaram Bapu, now in jail for his alleged sexcapade, the controversial Satlok Ashram head Rampal ,also in jail are some names that make us wonder whether there is just a shadow line between the self styled Spiritual Gurus and ordinary mortals who hanker after material power, wealth, status  and recognition through national awards.

If Sri Sri has spoken against the selection of the Nobel committee, it does indicate that all is not well with the award kingdom. Since none of us are Sri Sris, we cannot question the selection for the ‘Padma awards’ notified every year on the Republic Day. It is not that every award is questionable, but some do raise misgivings about the correctness of selection. For example, every year journalists with closeness to the political power of the day are given the ‘Padma’ awards-  a Padma Sri or a Padma Bhushan. I cannot fathom what extraordinary service they have  done except reporting for a news channel or writing a column in the newspaper for which they are paid and if they do well, they receive the Media awards. This is no cavil, but merely an attempt  to understand how even prestigious national  awards are treated as political bonanza at the King’s (in a democracy, political boss’) pleasure.

The manner of selection of awards in a few academic institutions is the most intriguing. In Delhi University Foundation awards for outstanding academics under three categories are given.  They are                           Nishtha Dhritih Satyam Samman
                                 Distinguished Service  Awards  for retired teachers

                                 Excellence Awards for Teachers in Service
Those who think they are eligible must file in their own nomination to be forwarded by the college principal in consultation with a faculty committee to verify all the evidence supplied by individuals seeking such an award. In other words, these academics who have retired / are in service should send their word selfies to the committee. In the case of retired teachers, it is humiliation compounded, as first they have to seek an award for themselves, then their worth will be decided by a committee of teachers who have been their juniors or in some cases who have not even joined the institution when these worthy retired teachers were in service. The second question is how can a retired college teacher be evaluated along with a retired university teacher? Who decides who is worthy and on what basis?

As for the first award, Nishtha Dhritih Satyam Samman, usually bestowed on people for their contribution to the university, is there a mechanism to gauge the quantum of contribution made and is there any way to assess whose contribution is greater? And again unless one looks at the history of the University, ( assuming that everything has been faithfully recorded as to who did what) the present faculty will hardly be able to sit on judgement of those senior worthies. The only short cut is to give the award to the oldest among the applicants who have reduced themselves to beg for the award.

 As for the last category, there is no feedback from the students. No Confidential reports are written for teachers. So on what basis can these teachers be judged?- by hearsay, I suppose. Again there are 79 colleges in DU and even if just 40 colleges ( assuming the other 39 do not have any worthy faculty), were to assess teachers from say ten to fifteen departments, there will be at the least 80-100 outstanding faculty members who deserve to be given the Excellence awards. And these college teachers have to compete with university department teachers. What is the ironical icing on top of thee awards is the nominations with word selfies have to reach the university three days prior to the announcement of the awards.(This year, 26^th April was the last date and May 1 was the Foundation day- which means the decision should have been done at least two days earlier-leaving just  three days to arrive at the list of award winners) The final selection committee members have to be given special awards for doing this massive work in three to four days.

Has there been any award pe charcha among the Delhi University Teachers who have banded themselves into a strong association?  Maybe they think it is wiser to remain silent rather than raise questions and deny them an opportunity to present their word selfies and be included among distinguished awardees!