Colleagues back sacked Assistant Professor

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The staff of the English Department, University College, have come out in support of their colleague and Assistant Professor Ravichandran, who was suspended for skipping classes and for marking attendance for days when, in fact, he had been absent.Twenty teachers of the department, responding to the July 6 City Express report ‘Asst Professor Suspended for Availing of Leave Without Pay,’ have said in a statement that the action against Ravichandran had been unjust.  They also termed the City Express report "disheartening and baseless.’’Ravichandran was suspended last month on a complaint made by former principal Abdul Rahim.According to the complaint, Ravichandran had fudged the  attendance register. But his colleagues say Ravichandran’s progressive ideas had not gone down well with Abdul Rahim. "Ravichandran, Assistant Professor in the Department, is an eminent scholar and brilliant academician with ten PGs and is the author of four celebrated books. We strongly suspect that Abdul Rahim’s intolerance has found the writer’s progressive ideas grossly indigestible, and the same has triggered the former’s enmity,’’ they said in the joint statement."Throwing all reconciliatory efforts to wind, Prof Abdul Rahim issued a memo in November 2010 alleging that  Ravichandran had ‘fudged’ his signature in June 2010. Ravichandran promptly offered an explanation and submitted leave applications for days of his absence, as instructed by the principal. Ravichandran undertook himself not to repeat such lapses, if any, and, the principal assured the then HoD, that the matter ended there. "In his explanation, Ravichandran gave an exhaustive account of the circumstances in which he could not sign, as he had two consecutive hours in the morning and by then, the attendance register had already been carried to the Principal’s Office,’’ continued the statement.According to the teachers, Abdul Rahim had pursued the matter "hotly and secretly’’ "with a possible sense of vendetta.’’City Express had carried the report after the Director of Collegiate Education K Gopalakrishna Bhatt confirmed the suspension. This is what Bhatt said: "Receiving a handsome amount as salary and then staying aloof from teaching can’t be justified.’’City Express had also spoken to the present Principal Premlal, who said that such acts on the part of a teacher cannot be justified. "But this is an isolated incident,’’ he had said.