Analyzing student friendliness of Suresh Raj Sharma

Suresh Raj Sharma, VC of KU, has always claimed that in a university, the first priority must be given to the students. Whenever teachers and staffs demanded some facilities, Suresh Raj has tried to counter the teachers and staffs by bringing in the name of the students. This way he tried to achieve two things- firstly to make sure that he is considered pro-student and secondly ingratiate with the students to jeopardize possible alliance between students, teachers and staffs. Like all the proponents of private universities, Suresh Raj has always exploited both the name and money of the students. They take everything from the students but in return the students even do not get the so-called quality education generally trumpeted by these champions of the privatized or privately managed universities. In American Universities, necessity to have world-class research eats up the tuition fee paid by the students without providing them good teachers. And in Nepal, the universities have turned into certificate churning centers only, neither a teaching institute nor a researching university. If one follows the “University Secrets:Your Guide to Surviving a University Education” by Robert D. Honigman, a good comparison can be made between our Nepalis universities and the American universities. However, the objective of this blog is not to make this distinction but to expose the façade of the student friendliness of Suresh Raj Sharma. The above mentioned point was necessary to show that Suresh Raj, because of his association and his position, can never be friendly towards any tuition fee paying university student. Rather Suresh Raj has taken the exploitative nature of the American Universities to a new level in Nepal. 

1) What makes one student friendly?

This is a very difficult question to answer. The difficulty lies in the complexity with which present days’ students are made of. Students now operate under much higher pressure and demands. Competition, study, sports, music, socializing, partying, blogs, fraternity, activism, and many more avenues are where present days students need to partition their 24 hours. Because of pulls and pressures of various interest areas, students generally want to enroll in colleges/universities where academic guidance and tuition are better. In KU also, many students flock in believing in availability of better academic environment. And KU is made for this very purpose only. 

Notwithstanding the tall claims of Suresh Raj, now the time has come for everyone to stand up and realize how friendly KU is towards the students? This is an interesting area to explore into. But, before we go into this, why should not we go into student friendliness of Suresh Raj? Suresh Raj has time and again claimed that he is the most student friendly VC. So, what should be the role of a student friendly VC in present day situation? Should not present days’ VC ensure proper classes, schedule examination, sanctity of examination and expulsion of erring teachers? These are just normal functions of a university, which the VC is supposed to provide to the students. Additional responsibilities like in-university guardianship, crisis manager, rescuer and justice provider are yet to be discussed. And in these normal responsibilities also, Suresh Raj has failed. Imposition of useless teachers like Manish, Brijesh, Daniel and Bhola Thapa in KU’s academia by VC Suresh Raj has already tom-tomed part of his claims of being pro-student VC. Still, we all believed that there could have been some soft corners in VC Suresh Raj’s heart for tuition-fee paying students of KU. So, in situations where the VC needed to act as a guardian, or a crisis manager or a rescuer or a justice provider, what Suresh Raj did? Let us just go back in time and assess his student friendliness. 

2) Case 1: Action taken in “Bus pass scam”

The already dislodged student friendly mask of Suresh Raj was fully uncovered in the sensational “Bus pass scam” of KU. The “Bus pass scam” report has mentioned in detail the full statements of the main accused Mr. Madhusudan Shrestha as well as three other students. Similarly, this report mentions the statement of some other employees of KU. Amongst these employees, blood relatives and bootlickers of Suresh Raj and Sitaram as usual form majority. The beautiful point in this report is that it has categorically claimed that there is a gross mistake on the part of the officers belonging to “Property department” of KU. In addition, even though not allowed to encompass Chief Administrative Officer’s role in the investigation, some prominent members successfully outsmarted registrar Sitaram’s move of sanitizing the report. So, there is a clear mention in the report of Chief Administrative Officer bringing Mr. Madhusudan Shrestha on his written order to work for preparation of bus pass in the “Property Deaprtment.” To sum it up, the report clearly depicts that it is a partial report, which warrants further probe, investigation into role of some prominent KU authorities. 

So, it is still desirable if the report is made a basis for a further detailed investigation into the role of Sitaram and Mukunda in milking KU’s bus facilities. This is warranted now because of their prearranged job for Mr. Madhusudan Shrestha in Kathmandu college of Management, which came to light only after finalization of the report. 

Now, let me delve into some other details. Let me go into how the KU authorities took action based on this report. 

Name                     mention in report      Action taken by KU authorities

1) Madhusudan Shrestha  termination of job         switching of jobs

2) Tanka Bdr. Khadka       negligence                        promotion

3) Mukunda Upadhyaya   unqualified job assignment promotion

4) Property Department   negligence                       no action

The report indicted Mr. Madhusudan Shrestha, so KU authorities switched his job from KU central library to a library of an affiliated college. Property department chief Mr. Tanka Bahadur was held directly responsible for negligence, but KU authorities never took action against him. Rather he was promoted and given incentives. The report clearly mentioned that on the written order of Chief Administrative Officer, Mr. Madhusudan Shrestha came to the Property department, it is doubtful that Mr. Mukunda would ever be asked for such “small” mistakes. In lump sum, in this whole case, KU authorities did not take action against anybody. But, they heavily fined the students who accepted of having procured the buss passes through Mr. Madhusudan Shrestha. 

Mr. Himal Shakya, Mr. Nipun Raj Tamrakar and Mr. Ashish Shakya, all the three students, who voluntarily accepted their mistakes of being misled by a KU employee, suffered a heavy financial penalty as set by KU’s disciplinary committee. These three students, who were much less immature than Mr. Madhusudan, Mr. Tanka Bahadur and Mr. Mukunda, were the only ones who were considered main criminal in this bus pass scam. And this happened not in a university in Bihar, but in a university where Suresh Raj has been functioning as a students’ friendly VC for last 16 years. The action taken by KU authorities after finalizing bus pass scam clearly shows that no where in the whole world there is a university which is as exploitative of students as KU. The people, who led the immature students into wrong directions, were either protected or promoted. But, the hapless students were made to pay dearly for their foibles which are generally pardonable. 

This “Bus Pass Scam” of KU clearly shows that in KU, where Suresh Raj is functioning as a VC, the price of corruption by the relatives of Suresh Raj and Sitaram needs to be borne in by the students only. Does not this prove that Suresh Raj is not friendly towards the students?

3) Case 2: Imprisonment of a KU student in Dhulikhel police station on false charges. 

3.1) Thrashing of Bivek Baral by Biswa Hamal

In 2001, an incident occurred in KU premise in Dhulikhel. Reportedly, one student Mr. Biswa Hamal belonging to B. Pharamacy, final year, came to KU with his friends and attacked the lecturer Bivek Baral in front of the Yamaji block inside the university premise itself. After attacking Mr. Baral, the assailants including Mr. Biswa Hamal fled from KU campus. After a short while, three youths were captured by Dhulikhel police and one of them was KU’s regular student Mr. Biswa Hamal. Mr. Biswa Hamal was reportedly thrashed like a dog in the police cell for 12 days. In those days of police barbarian, many feared that these guys might be killed in the name of the Maoists. So, students from KU made a petition in Dhulikhel Administration to take action according to rule of law. By that time, the parents of Mr. Biswa Hamal, too, filed one Habeas corpus in the Supreme court and then forced the Dhulikhel Administration to proceed according to the rule of law. 

For an incident of beating a teacher, which has taken place inside KU’s own premise, a KU student spent 12 horrible days inside those cells. If the student were the guilty one and having committed a crime, then there might not be any problem. Still, students would have lobbied for mercy or early release. But, what would you say if the student in question was not the guilty one and had to spend those dreadful days in Dhulikhel because of inefficiency of Suresh Raj? 

What should Suresh Raj do with an innocent student who is trapped in certain mysterious power play? 

Should not Suresh Raj try to save that student? Or Should Suresh Raj try to throw the student away like a fly from the milk?

12 days in police cell along with an expulsion from the university for a mistake, which was not verified by anyone. The accused was ascribed certain motives by the concerned teacher. All the teachers believed the teacher in question. At that moment, our student friendly Suresh Raj, too, openly sided with the teachers by blindly endorsing the recommendation of the KU’s disciplinary committee. 

3.2) Legal battle

The Supreme Court of Nepal declared the expulsion of Mr. Biswa Hamal null and void in want of lack of evidence. The Supreme Court Judgement thundered that nowhere in KU, it was established that Mr. Biswa Hamal ever attacked Mr. Bivek Baral. It appeared that Mr. Biswa Hamal was made a kind of scapegoat to fulfill certain mysterious sadistic thought process of some of the people in KU. From Pushpa Raj Adhikary, Sitaram Adhikary, Bhadrman Tuladhar, Mukunda Prasad Upadhyaya to VC Suresh Raj, everybody conspired against a hapless student who came to KU to study on his own money. This is what the judgment of Supreme Court meant and translated. The whole machinery of KU was defeated in Supreme Court and Supreme Court at that time clearly proved that for a tuition fee-paying student, KU is a real dangerous institute. With Suresh Raj as a VC, any student can be sent to torture room of Dhulikhel police station and locked up for 12 days along with expulsion from the University. 

3.3) Aftermath

After Supreme Court verdict, KU had to facilitate the graduation of the student Biswa Hamal. Mr. Hamal came to KU and attended his lectures and the next year he graduated from KU. Similarly, all other officials of KU, too, remained in their own position without any remorse and heartburn. Neither they questioned the capability of KU lawyers on preventing defeat of KU nor they questioned Mr. Bivek Baral’s claim that he was actually beaten by Mr. Biswa Hamal. Moreover, Mr. Bivek Baral, too, came back to KU after completing his Masters in the University of Tokyo and then got promoted as Asst. Professor. In the whole episode, KU lost a court battle, KU attorneys smilingly accepted their defeat in Supreme Court, and entire KU functionaries were indirectly rebuked for a gross injustice against a tuition fee-paying student. To top it all, the person who was in the center of controversy, Mr. Bivek Baral, was also given promotion after a couple of years. 

If one goes by the supreme court judgment, it is an established fact that KU authorities beginning from KU’s disciplinary committee upto the Executive council had directly colluded with a teacher and forced a student to undergo an indescribable amount of personal indignation, physical torture, societal derision and loss of time and money. And if one goes by the KU’s own record, the same university has accorded a timely promotion to the teacher on whose complaint the student was meted out such a sad treatment. 

What does this double standard mean? 

Is it becoming of a VC who consider himself to be friendly towards students to give undue promotion to a teacher who, by the Supreme Court verdict, wrongly implicated a student? 

Now, given the truth established by the Supreme Court, there is not an iota of doubt that the teacher in question, Mr. Bivek Baral, had mercilessly attacked the dignity of a tuition fee paying student by subjecting him to 12 days’ long torturous treatment as well as many additional losses. 

Can Suresh Raj ever deny this in court of law? 

This is our challenge to Suresh Raj and all other people consider Mr. Bivek Baral has not committed a gross mistake. 

Based on Supreme court verdict, which this blogger considers far more representative and legally binding truth than some rumors and gossips in Kathmandu, Dhulikhel, Tokyo, Auckland, South Korea and cities of US, we can clearly pinpoint that Suresh Raj is presiding over an institute which is extremely abusive of the tuition fee paying student. 

4) Conclusions:

(1) Suresh Raj Sharma of KU is not as student friendly as he claims. His claims are bundle of lies. He has been exploiting the students since the beginning of his teaching career. 

(2) Suresh Raj Sharma has devised such a corrupt system that he can not take action against even low level officers for their negligence as they know his corruption and misdeeds very well. Otherwise, Suresh Raj Sharma and Sitaram Adhikary must have taken action against Tanka Bahadur Khadaka also. They did not do it. Rather, they vented their ire on some students who were considered whistleblower in letting people know corruption in KU facilities.

(3) Suresh Raj thinks that most of the students enrolled in KU can be charged as much fine/monetary punishments as he wishes. He just needs some excuse to charge heavy fines from students.

(4) Suresh Raj has no sense of legality. He has shielded some people who knowingly harassed a student and put him into jail on some charges which was ultimately proven to be a false charge by the Supreme court. By this Supreme court verdict against high handedness of KU, everyone is now convinced that Suresh Raj can employ legal, illegal and extra-legal means to harass and torture people. 

(5) With continuation of Suresh Raj, safety of students, teachers and staffs are in peril. Anyone with blessings from Suresh Raj can attack students, teachers and staffs or implicate in false charges and ruin career, heap societal disrepute and face enormous mental torture. 

(6) Suresh Raj uses his talks only to fool people. His actions, deeds and behaviour have consistently proved that he is against students, faculties and staffs. As a politician, he is using one group against another to stick to chair and enjoy fruits of office.