PRIME MINISTER MAY LAY NISc FOUNDATION, BUT THE VICTORY WILL BE OF ORIYA NATION

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is slated to lay foundation of National Institute of Science (NISc) at Bhubaneswar.

He is in politics, he is in power and he is the Prime Minister of India. If he wants, he can lay foundation of any Government Institute he likes. So he will lay the foundation of NISc by virtue of the position he is holding. Any body else in his position could have done it. But any body else in his position could not have done the damage he has done to Orissa in the matter of Science education.

He is a man, who for his position had filed a false affidavit showing himself as a permanent resident of Assam. He is a man, who for earning American favor had sabotaged our Constitution by subjugating our resolved economic priority to WTO/GATT behind back of our nation. He is the man, who after submitting his resignation from Finance Minister post on being found by the Joint Parliamentary Committee as involved in stock-scam, had organized so much pressure on Prime Minister Rao that he did not dare to accept the so-called resignation. So, he is a man who can play any trick to grab and stay in power.

We cannot forget that he is the man, who in order to please the Communists on whom he is dependant to save his position, had sided with Bengali parochialism and cultivated machinations to shift Orissa’s NISc to West Bengal.

To us, Oriyas, laying of foundation of the NISc by Prmie Minister Man Mohan Singh is not important. Important is his honoring our victory.

I am sure; he shall come, lay foundation and as is politicians’ wont, declare that it is his sincere desire to see Orissa in the high sphere of science.

But we cannot forget that he is the man who had done everything to obliterate Orissa from the NISc scheme. He had butchered the University Grants Commission (UGC) decision to establish the NISc in Bhubaneswar in the realm of his kitchen coterie and gifted away the same to the Bengalis in a new form styled as Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in blatant contravention of existing Laws and in naked display of disregard to national integration.

So the NISc is not a gift from Manmohan Singh to Orissa. It is the insuppressible outcome of the principled and relentless struggle of we Oriyas, specifically our senior citizens and netizens; it is our victory. We Oriyas have compelled him to withdraw the hurdles he had put on our way to have the NISc that the University grants Commission (UGC) had declared in our favor in 2003.

An international seminar on science education held in 1996 under auspices of UNESCO had stressed on building up of institutes of sciences of international standard with emphasis on their balance distribution within respective geographical limits of the participating countries. India being a signatory to this resolution, in normal course of administration, decided to establish four National Institutes of Sciences in four parts of the country including one at Bhubaneswar in Orissa. Records show that there was stiff objection to put one of the said NIScs at Bhubaneswar. The Bengali lobby, as is its wont, had whipped up this controversy. But the UGC had rejected the Bengali pressure and declared that when expansion of such institutes would be taken up in course of time, the demand for one at Kolkata might be considered. (Para 3.5 of Chapter-1, Detailed Project Report on NISc, Feb.2004.)

Then the proposal got stashed. Vajpayee administration was made to sleep over the issue. After Singh became Prime Minister and West Bengal Communists grabbed power from behind, the conspiracy to kidnap Orissa’s NISc started with new vigor. And, in the process, tactics of changing the name of the Institute from NISc to IISER was adopted. This tactics came out bare when moving the Supreme Court against the injunction issued by Orissa High Court on establishment of IISER in Kolkata Mr. Singh’s government asserted that “No decision was finally taken to set up IISER at Bhubaneswar”.

We in these pages reacted as here below:

In a bid to justify the change, the Central government has said, “The Scientific Advisory Council (SAC) to the Prime Minister, comprising of eminent experts from concerned fields having expertise examined with regard to the matter to set up IISER and advised / recommended on what decision should be taken”.
If it is a fact then Man Mohan Singh is doing a great damage to the nation. Like the Kalapahada of historical legends that had destroyed the places of worship, Singh is playing havoc with education system.
The Laws of the land do not have any provision for the Prime Minister to super-impose a SAC on the University Grants Commission (UGC) and to work according to the advice of the former to the nullification of the later.
Under Chapter III of the UGC Act, 1956, institutes like IISER (NISc) are to be established only by the UGC, which is the only legal body to “advise” the Central Government in this regard. At Clause (ccc) it is stipulated that the UGC will “establish, in accordance with the regulations made under this Act, Institutions for providing common facilities, services and programs for a group of Universities or for the Universities in general and maintain such Institutions or provide for their maintenance by allocating and, disbursing out of the Fund of the Commission such grants as the Commission may deem necessary”.

This gives glimpses of how Prime Minister Singh had sabotaged the orissa cause in order only to please the Bengalis on whom he is depending for survival. The Bengali motive was bare in the parliament when the injustice done to Orissa rocked the House. PM Singh was unable to defend himself.

To our satisfaction we had exposed the foul play of Prime Minister Singh in this matter in its entirety.

To us, the NISc at Bhubaneswar is symbol of Oriya solidarity in cause of its national interest. Therefore we will remember the day on which its foundation shall be laid but not for by whom it shall be laid.