Govt attempting to take control of Science Congress, claims association

The Indian Science Congress Association has countered the central government’s charges of financial irregularities as “false and baseless” while accusing the Union science ministry of attempting to “take control” of the 110-year-old organisation.

Also responding to the allegation of a “unilateral decision” to shift the venue of the next science congress, the Kolkata-based association said it was always the prerogative of the organiser to decide on the location of the five-day long congress.

“The Department of Science and Technology wants its control on the ISCA,” Arvind Kumar Saxena, general president of ISCA said in a strongly-worded letter to the DST.

The correspondence comes a day after the department on September 25 said it was de-associating from the next session of the congress and instructed the ISCA executive secretary not to spend any government money on organising the next congress scheduled between January 3-7, 2024.

The DST cited “financial irregularities” and “unilateral decision” by a few office-bearers of the ISCA without the government approval to shift the venue of the 2024 session from Lucknow University to Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar as the reasons for dissociating with the next session of the Indian Science Congress.

“Allegations of financial irregularities are absolutely false and baseless. Till date, no financial irregularity has been detected by the audit team and DST. I could corroborate that four audits were carried out this year by DST but they were not able to report any irregularity,” Arvind Kumar Saxena, General President of ISCA wrote.

The ISCA officials observe that as per the extant practice, the selection of a venue for an Indian Science Congress session is always the decision of the general president.

Since Independence, it is the ISCA that has always decided the venue, without any approval from DST or any other competent authority of the government. “For primarily fixing the venue of 109th Indian Science Congress at Lucknow University, the ISCA had not taken any approval from the DST,” Saxena wrote.

“The DST has nominated an executive committee of their own (in place of the duly-elected executive committee) in which no one, barring one, is having a membership of the ISCA — the primary requirement of any registered society to become office-bearer. The DST wants its control on the ISCA and is trying to hamper a century-old legacy unconstitutionally,” Saxena wrote.

The ISCA filed a court case against the department in Calcutta High Court, which asked both parties to resolve the matter and submit affidavits within three weeks.

“It is expected from the DST to maintain the status quo till the final verdict of the high court. But the (de-association) notice will certainly deplete/contempt the solemn mandate of the interim verdict of the court,” he wrote.