Prof M. L Bhan
The soul of above mentioned founder members of HESH (Hindu Education Society Kashmir) must be grieving with angst on seeing the doings of their community brothers here (on earth), bringing college to such a pass where it faced forced retirement from community fold, with almost no scope for retrieve.
GM College, Srinagar, needs no introduction to Kashmiris especially to Kashmiri Pandits, for whom it was started by HESK in 1944 as an intermediate Arts College, which gradually grew to a full fledged degree college, with Arts and Science faculties, besides B.Ed Section. The development of college was slow and steady, within limits of space and resources till 1974, when a senior member of staff, D.N Madan was given charge of the college. He brought a sea change in development and reputation of college. The college constructed its own building, added commerce and electronics up to degree level and increased intake capacity of students considerably . For the first time, the college availed of UGC plan aid funds and utilised fully G.I.A from the State Government. The libraries and laboratories were updated fully both in Main College and B.Ed section. Employees were given greater security in services by enhancing age of retirement with GP Fund benefits, in lieu of pension, available in government. The reputation of college was growing steadily till January 1990, when its file got almost cut short along with KP community, as a result of community’s most unfortunate migration from its native place. The college was on winter vacation till first March and the office had to remain open for admissions and other student related works. Myself being incharge admissions had to attend college occasionally, but I also left late February after being certain of uncertainty all around. Principal however stayed to keep college open in the interests of students admitted and the employees attending college. All this apart, there was instant danger of losing B.Ed session for the year as the admission to that class was falling nearer. This was however saved by appealing to authorities for permission to start class at Jammu, in the best interests of non-state students of B.Ed. This effort also took more time and delayed Madan’s departure from Srinagar, causing a lot of panic and resentment among employees, who had settled at Jammu. Their resentment was genuine, in atmosphere of uncertainty with no hope of settlement on any side and with no trace of management available to guide or share their despondency. Madan was the only hope and on coming to Jammu, became the target of their reaction and resentment. To his great misfortune, the reaction of employees was ugly, abnormal and unexpected ( for Madan) so much so that on leaving Jammu for Delhi, he had to be quickly hospitalised as he was in severe shock. It was during this treatment that management thought of handing over the charge to Prof. V.Kak, next senior staff member, which resulted in Madan’s detachment from college, marking an end of his era in college and beginning of a new era.
The era started with many problems for new Principal, V. Kak of fractured college (partly at Jammu and partly at Srinagar). President MC’s vacant seat was filled by Gen B.N Dhar, and Secretary R.C Bhat was replaced by Dr. M.K Raina. There were many problems of settlement facing employees at Jammu and of administration facing employees at Srinagar. The problems at Jammu were severe, as that of salaries; at Srinagar, these were mainly of administrative nature as GIA was available there and thus there was no salary problem. This era of Gen Dhar lasted for about a decade, and these were some distinct features of this period which I wish to mention succinctly, as under.
1) A campus of about 15 kanals of land was purchased away from the city at Raipur for running B.Ed class and housing college office and MC office.
2) All the migrant employees of college decided to share amongst themselves the income from B.Ed and other lower classes ( to be started), to tide over the difficulties faced by them due to absence of salaries. It was a praiseworthy gesture of B.Ed employees, who otherwise could have claimed full salaries for teaching B.Ed.
3) The staff filed a case against the government for its discriminating act of releasing GIA to migrant employees of Islamia College of Srinagar, while denying the same to us. The case got spread over, almost a decade and was finally won.
4) These goodfeatures got simultaneously eclipsed by light hearted and faulty manner of running college, both at Jammu and Srinagar, unbecoming of MC of a degree college. There were growing complaints of dissatisfaction among employees at both Jammu and Srinagar places.
At Srinagar, the employees had complaints against internal administration and were feeling more and more frustrated and depressed. At Jammu, the level of dissatisfaction with management was growing higher and higher, till it became impossible for the principal to face staff in college and consequently, he went on leave.The result was further chaos. Being next senior staff member I was approached to face the burden. Knowing the working of MC, I was reluctant to accept, but under pressure from staff, I yielded. I was lucky to have the confidence of staff at Jammu and in due course, I attempted and succeeded in earning the confidence of staff at Srinagar who had been almost alienaled from us for all these years. In meantime, we won the case against the government and were fast moving to happier days of life again, after a decade of struggle in despondency.
Encouraged by growing favourable atmosphere at Jammu, I decided to move to Srinagar to be conversant with conditions there, due to which they were also feelingdespondent and downhearted. I stayed at Srinagar for three weeks and could to my great satisfaction win over their confidence and trust, which had been shaken off the roots, mainly due to internal administration.
(To be continued)