Storm in science body saddens top scientists
Bengaluru, April 28: The Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA), headquartered in Kolkata, has dragged itself into a fresh controversy that may further ruin the image of this 103-year-old organization, say top scientists upset about the new development. In the latest move, unprecedented in its long history, ISCA has expelled its own past president from the primary membership of the Association and ordered that his me be “not printed in any ISCA publication”.
The extraordiry action against Sarjerao Nimse, a renowned mathematician and vice chancellor of the University of Lucknow - who was president of ISCA during 2014-15 - has prompted strong condemtion by top scientists including C.N.R. Rao, a recipient of the Bharat Rat, India’s highest civilian honour.
“I do not know the details but ISCA cannot do this to its past president,” Rao, who himself was a former president of the science body and science adviser to the prime minister, told IANS on the telephone. Other past ISCA presidents - Shri Krish Joshi, who once headed the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and U.R.Rao, who headed the Department of Space - are equally upset. “This action will be a bad precedent for ISCA,” said the space scientist in an email.
“ISCA has now an advanced stage of cancer and I am not sure if it can be resurrected,” Joshi told IANS in an email. “This cancer is growing rapidly and I feel helpless. Since it acts in such a disgusting manner (like removing its past president from its primary membership), I keep as far off from the Science Congress as possible.”
Nimse, whose term ended in March 2015, received the expulsion order this February during the reign of his successor Ashok Saxe, former dean at Kanpur’s C.S.J.M. University. “I am pained that some people succeeded in punishing me despite my best efforts in serving ISCA as its president,” Nimse said in a telephone interview. “It is not only an insult against me but for Indian science as well,” he said hinting that he might go to court if ISCA failed to revoke its “illegal, immoral, undemocratic and most deplorable” decision.
Stalwarts like C.V.Raman, S.N. Bose and Mehd Saha had presided over ISCA in the past. Successive prime ministers have been iugurating its annual affairs — the Science Congress — that bring together hundreds of scientists from India and abroad. Nimse presided over the Science Congress held in Mumbai in January 2015.
Funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), ISCA was created in 1914 “to advance and promote the cause of science in India.” Instead, of late, it has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Only two years ago, ISCA courted controversy over alleged irregularities in electing members to its two decision-making bodies — the Executive Committee and the Executive Council. “Now, the expulsion of its past president has dealt a further blow to ISCA’s already sagging image,” said Satyesh Pakrashi who presided over ISCA in 1995. (IANS)
