Quarantine isolation beds Mahalaxmi Racecourse<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe letter doesn\u2019t explain how the questions about 1918 are to be answered. The institutions are to form dedicated teams for the study and send the reports to the commission by June 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rajib Ray, president of the Federation of Central Universities Teachers Associations, slammed the diktat in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe comparison with the Spanish flu of 1918 is the most moronic idea to be imagined! India was under a colonial government which treated the Indian masses as cannon fodder to die in the pandemic,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf the current government wants to compare its achievements as better than the Montague-Chelmsford rule (of) 1918, the only response which can go is that of utter ridicule.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He continued: \u201cAfter 102 years and 72 years of Independence with unprecedented development in medical science to boot, if the 1918 Spanish flu still becomes a benchmark to work on, one does not know whether to laugh or cry!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMoreover the 1918 Spanish flu was not tackled by (Jawaharlal) Nehru, hence I\u2019m not sure what sort of brownie points the current government intends to score vis-a-vis others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPart of this is to create the narrative that the government has managed rural areas better. If correct data is not available for the cities and currently one is seeing exodus to the countryside, then sooner or later we will not even know how many are dying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An IIT Bombay teacher, requesting anonymity, said the government was trying to build the narrative that it had handled the situation well although the \u201creverse\u201d was true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat such a parallel study needs to be conducted shows the utter bankruptcy of ideas in the government. Who is living now to explain their experience of the 1918 pandemic?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rajesh Jha, a member of Delhi University\u2019s (DU) executive council, said it\u2019s the universities that should design their studies instead of having the formats and methodologies imposed from the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The regulator has in recent years been repeatedly accused of exceeding its brief to foist on institutions directives that further the Narendra Modi government\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For instance, it has asked campuses to celebrate September 29 as \u201cSurgical Strike Day\u201d to commemorate the 2016 attacks on cross-border terror launch pads, and to build \u201cwalls of heroes\u201d with the pictures of Param Vir Chakra awardees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A DU teacher who is a member of the BJP-backed National Democratic Teachers Front too opposed the UGC prod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see any merit in comparing (the handling of Covid-19 with) how the British had managed the Spanish flu,\u201d the teacher said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor objectivity, a comparison should be made with the management of any crisis from the post-Independence period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Santosh Kumar Rai, associate professor of history at DU, said a comparison of the management of the Covid-19 crisis with that of the 1918 Spanish flu could not be faulted on methodological grounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, undertaking such comparative studies in the middle of the crisis, when the extent of the damage caused by the coronavirus remains unclear, is empirically indefensible, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know the full (dimensions) of the Covid-19 crisis. How the economy will be affected, nobody knows. The timing of the study is misplaced. This is going to be a self-defeating exercise,\u201d Rai said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
June 13, 2020: The University Grants Commission has asked campuses to do comparative studies of India\u2019s handling of the Covid-19 and Spanish flu pandemics, triggering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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