In this polluted world, what does one get for being honest, upright, straight forward, sensitive and for being concerned about the larger good of the people? He becomes an outcast! He is sidelined by the people who are corrupt and those who want the status quo to remain.
I was very well aware of this treatment. A few days back I got to experience this, when I went to my college to collect my engineering degree certificate, mark sheets, conduct and transfer certificate.
Throughout the four years that I was in college, I had been a good student. My marks were quite good, though not excellent. I had given due respect to the teaching and non teaching staff in college, though minimal to those who did not deserve it. I had and still have extremely good relations with good people there. I had never indulged in any sort of malpractices, misbehaviour or any other activity which brought my repute, or that of the college in a bad light.
What I did was to raise my voice against the fractured and corrupt system prevailing in my college and against some people who were at the helm of affairs and were responsible to a great extent for creating and maintaining this situation.
My concerns were that my college had not been able to obtain an approval from the All India Council for Technical Education for my course even after five long years after the commencement of the course. It also could not put in place a proper system for helping the students in getting employed after completion of the degree programme. They did not even bother to find out what issues the passed out students are facing (which is imperative because mine was a new course). They did not try to communicate with the passed out students and find out what changes need to be done in the course curriculum to make it better.
I did raise these issues. I mailed the Dean of my college about these, filed a couple of Right To Information petitions and brought out many latent truths about the fractured system in the public domain. Obviously such acts were making the higher authorities in my college furious and irritated. Except for the fact that they did not realize that all what I did was not for my personal gains but for the benefit of the future students and the institution.
When I went to the college to collect my certificates few days back, as expected I was made to wait unnecessarily and was asked to meet the Dean, which I would have done even without their asking me to.
I went inside the Dean's cabin and he was good enough to offer me a seat. May be because I was a pass out now, and not a student. He accused me of having grudge against my alma mater. He did not like me filing RTI petitions. He hated to the core, the fact that I had taken the lead in organizing a one day fast in college to support the Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement. He told me that I was in college to study and that I should have done only that. My reply that academics was just one, but not the only part of college life and that an over all development of an individual happens only when one involves in such social causes, was not acceptable to him. At the end of a candid conversation, he thanked me, sarcastically, for my advice given to him.
Couple of days later I got my conduct certicate, along with other documents, in which I was awarded 'satisfactory' for my conduct. In the mean time I got to know that for all other students, even for those who had been caught for indulging in malpractices and showing misbehaviour were awarded 'good'. Anyways this was not a surprise for me.
I again went to his cabin with these certificates and asked him if 'satisfactory' instead of 'good' in my conduct certificate was for questioning the administration. He told me that my leading the one day fast against corruption spoilt his relationship with the university Vice Chancellor and the Registrar. I am sure that he was exagarrating the situation because I came to know from a very reliable source that the Vice Cahncellor was very happy that the students conducted such an event. Even when I went to the Vice Chancellor to hand over a declaration where many of the students, including me had signed that we shall not indulge in any form of corruption in our lives, he was extremely happy. He even placed the declaration along with many other certificates and photographs in his cabin.
The Dean even accused me of not giving due respect to professors and showed me a photograph of his with his teacher's teacher. He, with pride told me that he felt honoured to have a photograph even with his teacher's teacher. For that, I just told him that some years from now, I would become an IAS officer and may be the Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and that then I would have a photograph clicked with him. I had the last word and I came out of his cabin.
Professors, parents and friends told me that it was too immature and childish for the Dean to write 'satisfactory' in my certificate. I pray that his narrow mind and thinking develop over the years, though it is difficult at his age of 56!
I would like to bring out the fact that had I wanted to save my name, I could have easily sent anonymous mails to the Dean, filed RTI petitions in my school friends' name, etc. Like others, I could have got a 'good' in my certificates. Or even, I could have waited for ten to fifteen days for the new Dean to take charge and get the certificates signed from him and got a 'good' in my certificates. The fact is that I am not bothered if I get a good, satisfactory or even bad in my conduct certificate because it is purely the sole opportunity that I had left open for the Dean to take revenge on me. I had given no room for him to screw me in any other way. At least he is happy that he could do 'something' to me.
This was the first experience I had, fighting against a corrupt system. I am happy that I had a feel of such instances at this early age as my future career in the civil services as a public servant is going to be filled with such incidents.
As long as my conscience asks me to raise my voice and fight against the corrupt, I will keep doing it with pride and confidence, though the prize I may receive may not be in my favour.
Jai Hindustan!
