No clarification was given by the University for doing so . Even though it is unspoken , the logic behind this act is nonetheless a crooked attempt to keep the facts of high level of mismatch in secrete from the public domain . The students are denied their right to know how they are evaluated and how much they scored in the different processes of entrance examination . Reflecting upon the past experiences of discrimination in the entrance it can only be understood as a twisted attempt to hide the act of overturning the 70 % marks of written examination with the 30 % of Viva-voce marks . This is what a university does , instead of going to public with the confidence gained through the completion of selection process without any wrongdoing . Unfortunately our universities are lacking that confidence . This single act is enough to understand what is there in the minds of university to address the questions of discrimination in Viva-voce . One of the important characteristics of democracy must be its ability to take public into confidence , keep them away from suspicion and answer the questions with logic . When caste acts as sense , logic goes in rest . Before concluding , let me just draw a personal narrative . I joined for M . phil programme this year in JNU after a gap of two years since I completed my MA in 2014 from the same university . I attended 6 Viva-voce after clearing the written examinations to three different centres of two schools in consecutively three years . Since here I do not intend to make any subjective statements i stay away from explaining what I faced in different interviews . But in three times I was given either 1 or 2 marks in Viva-voce . At least JNU will have to seriously take note on how they prepare their students enrolled in MA for further academic excellence . Dinesh ( name changed at the best interest of the candidate ) enrolled
for M . phil programme in a centre in School of Social Science this year . He appeared 9 times in Viva-voce in JNU in five different centres in last couple of years . Once he was given ‘ Zero ’ marks from one of the centres in school of international studies . He had scored 36 marks in the written examination . The cut off for the admission that time was 37 ..!! We both are coming from socially deprived backgrounds and this is what we faced in one of the premier educational institutions in the country . I ’ m convinced that these are not isolated stories and we are not exceptional cases . But no escape from the thought that how many can keep waiting till their consensus gets satisfied ? How many might have gone back thinking , “ are they worth enough to continue in academics ?, and how many might have thought that it is their problem and their problem and they are always wrong ..!!
Theyyam 35