About 3 weeks into their dispute with the administration, faculty members of Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law (RGNUL), Patiala say nothing has changed.
The dispute began on August 10, when RGNUL faculty gave the University a 48-hour notice. They alleged misconduct by Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof (Dr) Jai S Singh and sought the Chancellor's intervention. Faculty had alleged irregularities in promotions, interference in the curriculum, an opaque functioning of the VC's office and questionable appointments that bypassed the Registrar and Deans.
Non-teaching staff followed with their own 48-hour notice the next day, over unresolved promotions and other service grievances. On August 12, the Vice-Chancellor issued a notice directing an end to the strike and withdrew the disputed promotion at the centre of the faculty's complaint. But faculty said at the time that he had taken no real steps to resolve the underlying issues and that a pen-down strike went ahead regardless.
On August 27, the faculty wrote to the VC again asking what he was doing to resolve the situation. He gave no clear answer, they said. He then called a meeting on August 31. According to faculty, his only agenda item was to organise a guest lecture and call it a "National Conference", to which all faculty objected.
At the same meeting, the faculty said, the VC stated that he was not interested in a second term at RGNUL and planned to join his parent institution to claim his retirement benefits. With no real agenda set, the faculty said that they raised their concerns directly. The VC then had the meeting's proceedings formally recorded, a first according to faculty.
However, he then allegedly had photographs of the meeting taken despite objections by the faculty. Faculty members claim that the VC routinely circulates such material over WhatsApp within his circle. They feared he could also send the photographs to higher University authorities to project that he was in control of the situation and that faculty had been calmed down.
The teachers also said that the VC spent much of the meeting on a discussion about changing the nature of certain University offices. This, they said, was aimed at placing "cronies" in important posts to protect his own position. The meeting ignored their priority concerns, they said. It showed that the VC's approach was "arbitrary and rudderless" once again, they added.