Click to play videoNew Delhi: For freshers at the St Stephen's College in Delhi, it was an unusual first day at college as their teachers decided to boycott the Special Assembly and didn't even assist them in filling up the registration forms.
All the teachers including eight Head of Departments were protesting against a quota for Christians in faculty recruitment.
The decision to create the quota was taken by pro tem administrator MS Frank who has refused to rescind it.
"HoDs went to Dr Frank to plead with him to reconsider his decision. But all those things went in vain as he did not budge," says Ashutosh Mathur, HoD, Sanskrit and Hindi.
The college administration says the decision can only be reviewed after two and half months. Candidates hired under the quota can therefore continue to teach until then.
Faculty members are angered by the arbitrary manner in which the quota was implemented, without the consent of the governing body.
"We must accommodate people from the minority community but the gap between a meritorious candidate and a candidate belonging to a reserved category shouldn't be too big," Mathur says.
Even students are skeptical about teachers chosen on the basis of religion and not merit.
"It should be based on merit. If you have a bad teacher, it will affect students," a student says.
The decision to create a quota for Christians in the college faculty brings to surface a larger dilemma.
By virtue of it being a minority educational institution, can a college disregard academic procedures?
Can it take the liberty of redefining rules by compromising on quality?
Perhaps, what the St Stephen's example illustrates is the urgent need to define the nature of a minority institution and with it the ambit of its powers.
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