Professors and scientists at the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, on Monday criticised the Centre’s proposed ISI Bill, alleging that it would dismantle the institute’s democratic governance structure. They spoke on the 133rd birth anniversary of Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, the institute’s founder.
Paramita Das, an assistant professor in ISI’s Theoretical Statistics and Mathematics Unit (TSMU), said the proposed legislation would downsize the institute’s council and vest sweeping powers in a board of governors with members nominated by the ministry.
“Then there would be no representation of the institute’s scientific divisions on the council. Should we still think that the Bill is supposed to usher in academic excellence?” Das said in her address.
She said that if the ministry of statistics and programme implementation was serious about reforming ISI’s governance, it should open a dialogue and invite suggestions from all stakeholders.
Later, speaking to Metro, Das said: “The Bill, once it is passed in Parliament,
will destroy the democratic governance structure of the institute.”
She accused the ministry of “shoving an unplanned, poorly drafted Bill down the throat of an institute” founded by Mahalanobis.
Partha P. Mohanta, an ISI scientist, said the Bill proposes to abolish the society-based structure envisioned by Mahalanobis.
“The Bill seeks to change the status of ISI from a Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis-established registered society to a body corporate. It is tragic that the ISI Society is being abolished when it is close to its centenary,” said Mohanta, who is also president of the Indian Statistical Institute Workers’ Organisation (ISIWO), which organised the Statistics Day programme on Monday.
The proposed revised ISI Bill, introduced last year, triggered protests among a section of teachers, scholars and staff. One objection is that the Bill seeks to repeal the ISI Act, 1959, replace the institute’s autonomous society-based structure with a centralised governing board, and reduce the size of the council.
In late December, the ministry posted a set of frequently asked questions and answers on its website on why it proposed the legislation.
“In September, when the draft ISI Bill was circulated, no discussion was held. Similarly, when the ministry uploaded the revised Bill on November 28 following protests over the draft, no one was consulted. There was no review by any expert committee,” Das said.
She contrasted this with Mahalanobis’s consultative approach while building the institute.
“In 1931, when the idea of starting a Statistical Society was floated, discussions were held... and opinions were invited from people interested in statistics across India... In today’s parlance, it may be an analogue of brainstorming, and the outcome was the birth of an institute,” Das said in her address.
ISI director Amartya Kumar Dutta, in his address, referred to what he described as a perception in Delhi that the institute “is no longer what it used to be”. He then listed ISI’s contributions to fundamental and applied research.
Sources on the campus said the Bill is likely to be tabled during the upcoming monsoon session of
Parliament.