Bangalore University (BU) Academic Council member and Task Force on Teacher Education Chairman H Karan Kumar has reacted to Minister for Higher Education R V Deshpande’s refusal to accept the task force’s final report by calling him ‘ignorant.’ Kumar, who was turned away by Deshpande on Tuesday when he approached him with a copy of the report at Vidhana Soudha, said the Minister was ‘unaware of the Task Force submitting its final report to the BU VC a day before and the minister ‘was in no mood to listen to what he was saying.’
“Unfortunately, the Minister’s unawareness made the Task Force chief to digest the embarrassment for no fault of his. Further, the point to be noted is, almost all universities are functioning under the purview of Karnataka State Universities (KSU) Act, 2000, and only they have only academic autonomy and not administrative autonomy. But the minister being ignorant of this fact is highly unfortunate,” he said.
The Task Force has recommended disaffiliation of 43 BEd colleges for academic and administrative irregularities. However, the university has decided to give affiliation to these colleges ‘in the interest of students’.
On Deshpande’s remark that the Task Force was breaching procedure by approaching him directly, Kumar said:“There is no procedural lapse.... it may not be proper to comment on the height of ignorance and arrogance shown by the Minister,” he said and added Tuesday’s incident was only a reaction of the Minister, ‘not a pro-chancellor.’