‘Are they in their senses?’

The Higher and Technical Education Department of Maharashtra have shown their worth by discontinuing Dr Santosh Kshirsagar from the post of In-charge Dean of JJ Institute of Applied Art. From where do they learn such insubordination? Starting today, we are going to publish an article series by Satish Naik, the editor of ‘Chinha’, which sheds light on this. Today’s is the first article in that series…

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In 1980, I joined the Indian Express Group’s ‘Lokprabha’ weekly as sub-editor while I was studying Advance program at JJ. I spent almost seven years of my life in the scenic campus of JJ. So ever since then, I have had a constant fascination with JJ. It was that drive that drove me to report on JJ from time to time. It’s been almost four decades since I left JJ but the same affectionate feeling still continues.

Soon I will enter my seventies, but I still have the same fondness for JJ, the same passion for the campus. And that’s why I keep writing about JJ. And am willingly accepting the rage of many people and facing many storms even at this age. Even at this age, I am running a pricey website with great vigour. What is this for? Since the time when the newspapers started avoiding printing the news related to JJ, I was forced to take such an expensive decision. Now I am no longer connected with the newspaper industry even indirectly. The generation has also changed since the time I was in that field. So now there is no contact with anyone in the newspaper industry. Suppose if I call and give a news, it is not certain if anyone will print it. In fact, I noticed that some newspapers deliberately and repeatedly published misleading news about JJ. I wondered how the newspapers which were calling us even at odd late night hours to get news from us about JJ, suddenly started giving such anti-news about the JJ reform movement that we were involved in. When I probed deeper in that regard, it turned out that it was nothing but ‘paid news’. Oh Goodness! I said, the paid news has entered this field too! and started preparing to fight with them too. For now, it will suffice to mention that all this filth which has reached here has originated at Pune. When the right time comes, I will not hesitate to lower their veils and tear them down – even by mentioning their names.

You may wonder why I am writing all this today.

The reason for this is a terrible decision taken by the Department of Higher and Technical Education recently. With this one decision, may it be the struggle for JJ which I faced for so many years or the battle fought by all of us JJ alumni for the past couple of years or may it be the sincere efforts, by four – five senior teachers in JJ campus have done their academic duty perfectly – as per the Govt resolution – regardless the corona lockdown for the last five years, and toiled day and night to prepare for the Denovo process – everything seems to have gone in vain.

After reading all this, no wonder if you ask, ‘Have the officials of the Higher and Technical Education department lost their minds?’ This is such a decision that can boil anyone’s blood. Higher and Technical Education department officials have come together to quash the In-Charge Dean of JJ Institute of Applied Art Dr Santosh Kshirsagar, just as the Mumbai Police had slayed Mumbai’s notorious gangsters two decades ago. Later the same cops in their collusion slayed each other. A similar episode has now happened in JJ (not the hospital – school of art) campus.

All the officers from the top to the bottom in Maharashtra’s Higher and Technical Education Department came together and slayed Dr Santosh Kshirsagar, who has been keeping the JJ Institute of Applied Art away from all controversies for the past seven-eight years as the in-charge Dean. Overnight, they turned Dr. Santosh Kshirsagar’s condition and made him fall down like a player of snakes and ladders game after being swallowed by a snake. He was brought back to his original post of Professor and is replaced by a Professor from Nagpur named Mr. Giri. (This gentleman is due for retirement in just a few months. He was basically working in the Government Art College, Aurangabad {working means, he was constantly on leave, Chinha was the first one to cover this matter in a caustic news coverage} But as his father is suffering from cancer, he recently moved to his native town, using the rules and regulations to take care of his father, that is on the basis of mercy and compassionate grounds and by using the rule that a government employee can apply for a transfer to his native village or a nearby place in the last two years of service, he had got a transfer to Nagpur.) Officials of Higher and Technical Education Department have brought him in place of Dr Kshirsagar. It is nothing else but just a one for one replacement. Nothing much to talk about. It is only to say, ‘Don’t you listen to us? Why do you defame the government (who exactly?) by providing news leads to Satish Naik?’ I hear that they have put such (unwritten) charges on Dr Kshirsagar. I am going to cover that whole matter in detail in my next article. Not going to spare anything.

Please do read! Don’t just read, but join our movement to save JJ!

Satish Naik

Editor, Chinha Art News