TR Pachamuthu, chancellor of SRM University was arrested recently. SRM University, Tamil Nadu advertises in all leading national publications about the standard of education provided in their institutions and students from all over India try to get admitted in these institutions. Madhan, a film producer whose current whereabouts are not known had written a note before his ‘disappearance’. It is not known whether he is in hiding or was abducted.
So, none knows whether he is still alive or not also. In his note he alleged that he had collected money from parents of students aspiring to be doctors, to secure admission in SRM group of institutions. Sixteen parents also complained the crime branch about the money given to Madhan. As per the news report in ‘The Hindu‘, wife of Madhan complained to the police about his disappearance, his mother filed a habeas corpus petition in the Madras High Court. Police find prima-facie evidence for cheating students to the tune of Rs 75 crores.
Meanwhile, TR Pachamuthu filed a counter affidavit claiming Madhan had ‘illegally’ collected Rs. 50 Lacs from over 110 parents promising them MBBS seats.
The link between film stars and politicians in Tamil Nadu is well known. Also famous are the politicians who are education barons. Seems all dots are connected in the present case, as movie producer and politician are partners in doing the business of education. One point that has a political dimension is that Pachamuthu is the head of ‘Indhiya Jananayaga Katchi (IJK) that contested 2014 elections in alliance with BJP. Of course, money has no parties and so despite complaints from Madhan’s mother and wife, police had not acted on him, till the court warned them of handing the investigation to an ‘independent’ agency!
As with other frauds who duped many students since independence, nothing is going to happen to TR Pachamuthu. At the most he will be in jail for some days, protected by the police. As soon as another Rajnikant’s film released people in the state of Tamil Nadu will forget about TR Pachamuthu. And our national media considers only Mumbai, Delhi and few central states as India. In the last few years Tamil Nadu was in the national news only Chennai was submerged. No minorities are involved so no opposition leaders will visit the state and demand action.
For the centre, it is a state subject and the state government says the matter is sub judice. Madhan will never appear to give evidence, even if he is alive. Pachamuthu may have to pay some hundreds of crores to the ruling party before he is released from the jail and acquitted by the court. Fathers of students, who paid money worry for a week before realising that they will not get it back. They will be back at earning money with more vigour, for the amount they paid must have never been accounted for to the tax authorities. Once the issue is off-radar, TR Pachamuthu will again start selling MBBS seats for double rates. Another set of parents will pay and we get new batches of doctors ‘created’ from this ‘world class’ facility.
The story goes on.
Ever anyone wondered why the doctors refuse to work in rural areas; despite the health related parameters in rural India are comparable to those of the least developed countries? Why would a doctor who ‘invested’ huge money to become a doctor is going to work in a PHC for few thousand rupees, when he could do MS or MD and earn few lacs in urban places? Can we blame them really? I don’t think so.
They have every right to practice in the super-speciality hospitals to recover their investment. At the most, we can ask those doctors, who completed their education with the money spent by the government. Then, their numbers are increasingly less with the increasing rate of population. Even if some of them oblige and practice in government run hospitals, most of them tend to practice in private to supplement their income. Frankly, the society is not in a position to demand these doctors to serve people in rural areas, because the same yardstick need to be applied to other professions also.
The growth of private colleges in the fields of engineering and medicine, despite being helpful in providing education to the masses, have reduced the quality of professionals created in those institutions and commercialised these institutions that are supposed to impart knowledge. It was debated some years ago that a diploma course should be introduced in the field of medicine so that the diploma holders could take care of routine cases and provide general treatment, especially in rural India. So far, nothing concrete happened in this direction.
The way politicians became barons of education in the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu raises a fundamental question – whether politicians should be allowed to indulge in doing business?
Though UP had ventured into the education business, the growth of engineering colleges in that state was phenomenal.
The government that failed to introduce diploma in medicine, which could decrease number of deaths in rural India continue to support studies in African studies and other nonsense, creating Kanhaiyya Kumar type of dimwit students who continue to remain students at the age of twenty seven or thirty, while their parents remain daily wage labours.
It is high time for the government to ensure sufficient doctors or diploma doctors are available for the rural masses, for they also have a right to get medical treatment. The case of a man carrying the dead body of his wife for many kilometres in Odisha, for there was no mortuary van available shows the wrong priorities set and practised by all governments. If such a person abhors the human society that discriminated against him denying minimum dignity to his wife, even after death, one cannot blame that person.
With the growth of private institutions, most of the government colleges failed to retain good faculty. The fact that students are increasingly shunning government colleges in southern states should have been sensed by the governments and acted upon. But, if the private college is run by the same man who runs the government, will he be able to take a judicious decision in favour of the government run colleges? The answer is No. Big NO.
It is high time to bring all educational institutions run by the government under one umbrella that should be presided over by a constitutional authority and not a political appointee or an IAS officer. IAS officers are good for policy framing and general administration, but not in places where expertise is needed. Air India is a glaring example of limits to using IAS officers at every place. The onus is only on the government, for even a civil movement may successfully be hijacked by another Kejriwal and NGOs with foreign funds are interested only in ‘advocating’ their opinions.
BJP tying with IJK in Tamil Nadu only shows the values being practised are different from the preached ones. If they ally with anyone for short term goals, better they change their name to Congress. Seems BJP failed to learn any lessons from the Vyapam episode.
With Madhan gone and TR Pachamuthu in jail, Tamil Nadu educational institutions are in the limelight for all wrong reasons. The fact that TR Pachamuthu is the chancellor of a prestigious university simply throws light onto other institutions in the state. Of course, from AP to UP, situation of educational institutions is bad, but it appears their condition in Tamil Nadu is worse.
Will the nation want to know how many students graduated from the SRM college of medicine have ‘bought’ their seats? Will those who cry about ‘reservations killing merit’ take a stand against this practice of ‘bought out’ education and shout ‘commercialization also kills merit’? May not be, for the society is full of hypocrites.