While the board of the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), which met in the city on Tuesday, discussed the controversy surrounding blocking of emails of some academics, a fresh controversy now surrounds it.
The Hindu accessed a copy of an anonymous letter claiming to have been written by “aggrieved faculty and students of ISEC”. The letter alleged 18 “anomalies” in the institution’s functioning, which was submitted to the Governor’s office as well as sent to some board members.
The letter alleged that the institute is “going through serious turmoil as the academic standards have gone down significantly.” It went on to list several reasons which included corruption and nepotism, and sought intervention from the Governor, who is the president of the institute, to set things in order.
One of the board members The Hindu spoke to, on condition of anonymity, admitted that he had received the letter and it was “disturbing”. Another said that he had personally not received it but was “aware of it” through other members. Yet another board member said that there was an instruction not to speak to the media.
However, the Director of the ISEC, Binay Kumar Pattnaik, dismissed the allegations as “unfounded” and having “no authenticity”. He said that it was a “mischief campaign to malign the institute” by a few people and amounted to “blackmail”.
Email issueOn the issue of blocking of emails, which was discussed at the board meeting, Prof. Pattnaik said that “no final decision taken”.
An informed source, however, said, “It was made clear by a large number of board members that it was completely incorrect to block email in an academic institution, which is almost a right.” The source said that it was “unheard of unless there was criminal act involved”. They had shot down a proposal to set up a committee to look into the issue. “Unhappiness on this was expressed in very clear terms,” said the source.