By Lance Alvers
You can’t keep some people out of the picture for long, Mr. Jairam Ramesh our Union Environment Minister is one of them, he has this uncanny knack of shooting into limelight with celerity and he does it with ease. The controversy regarding the faculty at IIM and IIT had not taken the backburner in the Indian media parlance that Jairam once again found himself in the pulp of what could go on to become the next big debate concerning our education system. After criticizing the faculty at these premier Indian institutes he did the unthinkable by showering praise at the faculty of Thapar University.
Paparazzi have it that this is yet another gambit by the university authorities to accelerate the admissions at the once elite academic institute of north India after the farcical claims of linking “The great Indian Feast(sic)” with O.P.Pandey, fell head first. When quizzed on this, a certain ECE student came back with the reply, “this is not at all strange, we aren’t taught anything in class so our mind stays uncluttered and this gives a huge boost to free thinking, you’ve got to give credit to the faculty for this.”
FNT still doesn’t have any information from Mr. Jairam’s end, as to what propelled him to come up with such statement. He is reportedly giving some guest lectures at IIT, Delhi at the moment.
It is ironical that the environment minister could observe the functioning of the faculty at the university but the felling of trees and the depletion of the flora around couldn’t catch his eye. But maybe it is not as insulting as the conduct of hordes of people who always neglect their social responsibilities but are not far to reach for when it calls for jumping the bandwagon for an unrealistic and baseless cause.
