New JNU VC's appointment 'mediocre', says Varun Gandhi

BJP MP Varun Gandhi on Tuesday slammed the choice of Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit as JNU vice-chancellor, saying that “such mediocre appointments serve to damage our human capital and our youth’s future”.

“This press release from the new JNU VC is an exhibition of illiteracy, littered with grammatical mistakes (would strive vs will strive;students friendly vs student-friendly;excellences vs excellence),” Gandhi tweeted, attaching Pandit’s statement after she was selected as the JNU VC.

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Pandit’s appointment has led the focus to her tweets where she is using slurs like “jihad” and “ricebag convert” on Left liberals and Christians.

Gandhi said with few higher education institutions at par with global standards, India needs to have the right leaders to shape the journey for universities likely to succeed. “Appointing someone with little to offer in academic vision, credentials or even the ability to communicate, is a path to mediocrity and long-term illiteracy for our human capital,” Gandhi said.

He said that leaders with the right values and discipline is what India needs.

“Not those who cannot do basic due diligence on their first press release with regards to their appointment. A great institution like JNU needs empathy, sensitivity and careful steering, not a loudmouth, with little verbal control. Academic credentials and past experience, not retweets, should be the criteria for selection,” Gandhi said.

Several academicians and leaders echoed Gandhi’s comments.

American writer and journalist Sadhanand Dhume asked whether someone who lacks English skills should be appointed to the JNU top post.

“Should someone who lacks proficiency in English head a university with English as the medium of instruction … If you think they should (I don’t), then they should communicate in their native language. Better to write clearly in Tamil/Hindi than to spout gibberish in English,” Dhume tweeted.

Congress leader Nikhil Alva said that this is the next way to kill an institution. “The best way to kill an institution is to hire a mediocre, sycophantic adminstrator. This press release from the new JNU VC tells us all we need to know about the quality of this appointment. If you can’t build institutions, at least don’t destroy those built by others,” Alva tweeted.

Yogendra Yadav drew attention to the findings of the Justice JA Patil inquiry report on the PIO seat scam which found Patil was guilty of misconduct.

“She is guilty of "misconduct and moral terpitude". Her statement "stinks of dishonesty". Her misconduct was "deliberate and intentional". Worse, MoE knew about this when appointing her,” read Yadav’s tweet.

Ashok Swain, professor at the Department of Peace and Conflict at Sweden’s Uppsala University said that he was surprised at the grammatical mistakes of Pandit’s statements. “Hearing about her appointment as JNU VC for a week now - Strange that in all these days, she couldn't prepare a grammatically correct press release. She even doesn't come from a village school,” Swain tweeted.

Pandit took over as the 13th VC from Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, who has been appointed as the chairperson of the University Grants Commission (UGC). Pandit was a professor in the politics and public administration department at the Savitri Bhai Phule Pune University.

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