Some time in 1962, when Prof. A.L. Narayana was the Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University, the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Neelam Sanjiva Reddy paid a flying visit to Visakhapatnam.
To meet the then CM, the Vice-Chancellor after much persuasion from his junior staff members had gone to the airport, then a small airstrip. On seeing the V-C approaching him, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy got up from his chair and hurriedly walked up to the professor and stopped him midway.
Sample this conversation
The conversation was unique, recalled Prasanna Kumar, the former Rector of the AU:
CM: Why have you come to meet me professor?
V-C: My staff wanted me to pay you a visit,
CM: Sir you should not have come… it is against the protocol. To meet you, I have to take the permission of the Chancellor or the Governor.
In another incident, the then CM of the state Kasu Brahmananda Reddy had personally sent an invitation to, noted writer and thinker, Prof. K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar to take up the mantle of V-C of Andhra University. And justifying Prof. Iyengar’s appointment, Mr. Brahmanand Reddy had said in an open meeting that the university needs to be headed by a man of academic repute and the appointment was purely based on academic excellence and beyond the boundaries of caste, religion or political affinity.
Academicians
Well, those were days when, politicians were statesmen and vice-chancellors were academicians of international repute.
The 90-year-old university has seen some of the finest vice-chancellors such as Sir C.R. Reddy, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, V.S. Krishna, A. Sambasiva Rao and K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar, walk the academic corridors of the university. In those days academic temper was given top priority and politicians and politics were kept at a dignified distance, said Prof. Prasanna Kumar.
It was Sarvepalli who invited stalwarts such as L.M. Chawla (mathematician) from Lahore, Ludwig Wolfe (Chemistry) from Germany, T.R. Seshadri (Science), Mokshagundam Visweswarayya (Technology), C.V. Raman (Physics), Hiren Mukherjee (History and politics), V.K.R.V. Rao (Social Sciences) and Humayun Kabir, to teach in the university.
But the hoary past, appears to have faded to create an unfathomable void. Post the retirement of the last Vice-Chancellor, it is learnt that 182 professors had applied for the post. And 95 per cent of them are banking on political recommendations and caste-based equations.
Today, the selection of vice-chancellors is not based on academic credentials or vision of the leader that can uplift the university. But it is the caste equations and political affiliation that comes into play and politicians play the role of middlemen, said a former Registrar of the university.
