JAIPUR, Nov 14: Angry students say he's the man to blame for Nishant Bhardwaj's death. Even Nishant's parents claim that had acting Vice Chancellor V I Rajagopal talked to the protesting students that day, their son wouldn't have died. Rajagopal, who retired as state Home Secretary before he took charge of the Rajasthan University in May 1997, says the rot didn't set in overnight. Excerpts from an exclusive interview to The Indian Express, days after he resigned.Everyone is blaming you.I tried to work honestly to put the University back on the rails. All those people who wanted to ride piggy-back on my shoulders for certain privileges which they had been used toare now trying to paint me black.When you took charge, what was wrong with the University?I came when the University was in the news over the Post-Graduate medical entrance test scandal (where the question papers were allegedly leaked). The then President of the Non-Teaching Employees' Union had been arrested. The Universitywas running an overdraft of Rs 5 crore; this means a quarterly interest burden of Rs 25 lakhs. Funds meant for PF and gratuity had been diverted. Examiners had not been paid money since 1995.As many as 500 assistant professors were working on an ad hoc basis; there were just nine regular professors as against 61 sanctioned posts. The Registrar, the Deputy Registrars, the Assistant Registrar and the Controller of Examinationsall were ad hoc appointees. The problem between the University and the Government was that, for every recruitment, prior sanction was needed, for it had to foot the salary bill.What did you do to set things right?First, I revived the relevance of other University officers. I stopped the previous practice of allowing any teacher-leader, employee-leader or student-leader to barge into the VC's room, intimidate him and get anything done. This, naturally, didn't suit many people. Secondly, I made admissions to all courses, as well as hostels, on merit. This was not a smalljob, considering the way things had been happening earlier. Thirdly, I checked the misuse of University money and displeased many people in the process. Can you imagine, the VC's bi-monthly telephone bill was Rs 6,000, while that of the student union president was Rs 1 lakh. University vehicles were being used by so-called student leaders to go to far-off places, to attend the swearing-in of some vague student union leader. These are the people saying that I have a bureaucratic attitude.Why couldn't you do something about the problems including delayed results?At one level, purely technical, there were many reasons for the delay. The exams were postponed by a fortnight due to many reasons, one of them being the cyclone. This disturbed the whole schedule. Then came the strike of teachers for higher salaries. Then, the non-teaching staff went on strike. Then came examiners who weren't excited at the idea of working without their dues being cleared.Why weren't they paid?One can onlybe a part of a system, not a substitute. The money had to come from somewhere, to pay the examiners. The teachers' or the non-teaching employees' demands could not be met at my level alone.
