A month after announcing that it would host the 109th edition of the Indian Science Congress, the Jalandhar-based Lovely Professional University (LPU) has backed out, The Hindu has reliably learnt. This makes it unlikely that the annual three-day event — traditionally inaugurated by the Prime Minister and with a history stretching back to pre-Independent India — can be held as usual in the first week of January, according to functionaries associated with the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA), the Kolkata-based organiser of the Congress.
This comes after the Department of Science and Technology (DST) — which funds the Science Congress and pays for much of ISCA’s budget — alleged that the decision to hold the event at LPU was one of several “unilateral” decisions taken by a “few members” of ISCA.
“Unforeseen challenges have arisen, making it unfeasable [sic] for Lovely Professional [University] to fulfill its hosting responsibilities,” said an email dated December 17, sent from LPU registrar Monica Gulati to ISCA general president Arvind Saxena.
Last-minute withdrawal
Mr. Saxena told The Hindu that he was sent the email without warning and was “surprised” by LPU’s decision. “The programme schedules have been drawn, speakers invited... The last-minute withdrawal means that it is unlikely we can go ahead in January,” he said in a phone conversation.
Ironically, LPU’s sudden withdrawal comes after it had, of its own accord, offered to host the event, after the original host chosen by the ISCA – the University of Lucknow – rescinded its offer. The LPU had previously hosted the Science Congress in 2019.
Platforming pseudo-science
Once the only event of its kind, where India’s pre-eminent scientists and technologists — as well as the occasional foreign Nobel Laureate — converged to discuss scientific updates, give public lectures, and interact with school and college-going students from across the country, the Science Congress has had multiple trysts with controversy over the last decade.
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This has ranged from scientists decrying it as irrelevant to the times, as having lost its purpose of promoting science and, more recently, for platforming discourse that promotes pseudo-science. The 2015 edition had a speaker holding forth on “Vedic aircraft”. In 2019, former Andhra University vice-chancellor G. Nageshwar Rao claimed that the “Kauravas [of the Mahabharat] were born of stem cell technology”. In 2016, India-born Nobel Laureate Venky Ramakrishnan described the ISC itself as a “circus.”
Autonomous body
While these have been issues that occurred during the ISC, the last few months have seen a new challenge emerge for the ISCA in the form of a deteriorating relationship with its chief benefactor, the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The ISCA, with its membership of nearly 60,000, is an “autonomous body” affiliated to the DST, meaning that it gets public funds from the latter.
Being an organisation that predates the formation of the DST, the ISCA is a registered society and has a mandate of communicating and popularising science across India. Nearly 90% of its annual budget of ₹5 crore, Mr. Saxena said, is spent on salaries for its 20 full-time employees. The organisation is best known, however, as the convenor of the annual Indian Science Congress, which, in a tradition established by Jawaharlal Nehru, has the country’s Prime Minister at its inaugural event.
New executive committee
For years, the organisation has conducted its activities and elected its members independently, said Ashok Kumar Saxena, an ISCA member and former president, noting that the DST’s involvement has been limited to a representative sitting in on key meetings and being kept apprised of how its budget was spent. This year, however, the DST insisted on some significant changes: first, an alteration in ISCA’s member-selection criteria; and second, a new DST-constituted committee, called the Executive Committee, to take charge of reviewing and selecting the papers and presentations to be presented at the forthcoming edition of the Science Congress.
“The new committee had only the president, executive secretary and one member from ISCA. How can an unelected committee replace an elected committee? It’s against the bye-laws of the ISCA,” said Mr. Ashok Saxena, the former ISCA chief. “The DST said that it would not fund the Science Congress if the bye-laws weren’t implemented.” DST grants funds to organise the Science Congress directly to the hosting university; the money is not routed through the ISCA.
DST’s allegations
On September 25, the DST issued an order levelling serious allegations regarding the functioning of ISCA and charging that a “few members” had been making “unilateral decisions”, including the ISCA’s decision to hold the Science Congress at LPU. On its part, the ISCA filed a writ petition in the Calcutta High Court challenging the DST order. At the hearing, the court asked both parties to resolve the issue via discussions.
The DST order followed LPU’s offer to host the ISC. “Never has the DST interfered with the choice of venue for a Congress. It is working to delegitimise the ISCA,” said Mr. Arvind Saxena, the current ISCA head. “However, without their support, I don’t know how ISCA will run beyond next March.”
The Hindu reached out to DST Secretary Abhay Karandikar and Ms. Gulati, the LPU registrar, but had not received any response until the time this report was filed.
“It’s high time that there are changes to how the Science Congress is organised. It cannot be just about having an inaugural and having the Hon. Prime Minister attend,” said Shekhar Mande, former head of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and a member of the DST-constituted Executive Committee. “We have discussed this with the leadership of the ISCA but things have not progressed,” he added.
