Mumbai: Noted economist Ajit Ranade has moved the Bombay high court against his removal as vice chancellor of the venerable Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE) Pune.
On Saturday, the 94-year-old institution stunned academia by announcing the termination of Ranade’s tenure over two years after his appointment on the ground that he did not meet the guidelines of the University Grants Commission (UGC).
A fact-finding committee appointed by chancellor Bibek Debroy found that Ranade did not meet an UGC stipulation that the vice-chancellor should have a minimum of ten years experience in a research organisation of repute or an academic organisation with proven academic leadership. It is a big mystery why Ranade was appointed in the first place if he did not meet the requirements.
According to reports, he was perceived to be a left-liberal who was critical of the economic policies of the government. However, it is well known that Ranade, who is an alumni of IIT, Bombay, IIM, Ahmedabad and Brown University, had attended RSS functions and had even invited members of the RSS think tank like Ram Madhav and Vinay Sahasrabudhe to the campus.
Meanwhile, the Congress on Wednesday slammed the government over the dismissal of Ranade. Party general secretary and communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh said it was “a sad commentary on how institutional decay is taking place in an increasingly illiberal atmosphere.”
He noted that Ranade gets appointed in February 2022 and in September 2024, he gets sacked on the grounds that he does not have 10 years teaching experience as per UGC rules. “Isn’t this strange? Surely, this information was available to the appointing authorities two years back,” Ramesh said in a post on X.
He observed that Ranade, who was earlier the chief economic adviser to the Aditya Birla Group, had impeccable credentials as an independent professional known for his integrity.
Ranade had said his removal was “truly unfortunate and shocking.” “For the past two-and-half years, I have been working diligently and to the best of my ability, contributing to positive developments in the institute. These results seem to have been completely ignored,” he added. A section of the faculty, it is learnt, was unhappy with his alleged failure to do widespread consultation before taking major decisions like fee hike.
