#stopfundingJNU

Dear friends,

I present a business case to stop wasting tax-payers' money on JNU and use it better elsewhere, in this resource-deprived over-populated country. Any organisation with the resources of JNU should be able to generate at the very least 1,000 crores per year as profit and help fund other educational initiatives in this country. After nearly 50 years, JNU should not siphon away 200-250 crores per year of tax payers money.

This is not a nationalist and anti-nationalist position. Simply a statement of facts and realities, where we waste money on 5000 students where as we could use it better on perhaps 500,000 children to make them literate.

Kindly support this petition. But most importantly, PLEASE HAVE AT LEAST 10 OF YOUR FRIENDS petition. This is the key.

1. JNU was founded in the late 1960s when quality education was unavailable anywhere in the country. We were in a closed economy and in license raj. Education as a business did not exist. Subsidies were necessary to help create individuals that can help in taking India to the next level. It was a socialist move to create cadres to serve the country.

2. Around 200-250 crores is being spend on JNU EVERY YEAR !! In the last 5 years alone around 1,200 crores was allocated to JNU. Over 47 years a perhaps over ten thousand crores have been pumped into JNU.

3. Reason # 1 to stop funding: JNU IS A THIRD RATE ACADEMIC INSTITUTION BY GLOBAL STANDARDS. JNU does not find any mention in the top 700 universities by the QS World University Rankings 2015/2016. 10 other Indian institutions like IISc have made the cut in this list. JNU has not. Simply put, JNU has failed its mission. Lets just put the onus on the University to claw its way back to fulfil the ONE OBJECTIVE for which it was formed: provide world-class education option to the people of this country. Stop throwing good money after bad. Let JNU get its priorities right - focus on quality education, research, etc. and become a beacon of academic excellence for which it was created.

4. Reason # 2 to stop funding: WITH ITS ENORMOUS ASSET BASE, JNU SHOULD BE A PROFIT CENTER GENERATING 1,000 CRORES PER YEAR. JNU sits on a real estate pool of over 1000 acres, right in the middle of the Delhi!! This real estate pool of JNU alone with worth over 4 lakh crores!! Then there are buildings and infrastructure paid for already. Can you imagine any institution that is worth 4 lakh crores asking for 200 crore annual funding! In private sector one would be fired for incompetence. At even 2% Return on Assets, JNU should generate 10,000 crores annually and support other academic institutions. At the very least 1000 crores. What in the world are we doing ? Is this how we run this country ?

5. Reason # 3 to stop funding: THERE ARE SEVERAL EXCELLENT ACADEMIC ALTERNATIVES AVAILABLE TODAY. If JNU can't survive by itself, let it die a natural death. World class educational options are available today across Indian cities. When rickshaw-pullers son cracks Civil services without government support so can anyone else. Subsidized education accessible through back-channel access is not a service to this country anymore. A few scholarships are always a possibility, but whole-sale subsidy to 5000 students ? And don't we know the back-channel bribery that accompanies such admissions for free education? Socialism in education has proven to be a corrupt, non-scalable idea that degenerates into a cess-pool of politics.

6. Reason # 4 to stop funding : GET BETTER BANG-FOR-BUCK FOR 250 CRORES, ELSEWHERE IN EDUCATION: This money spent in other ways, can provide staggering results. For instance, if this money were spent on primary education through Sarva Shiksha Abhayan, 5,00,000 more children can be provided elementary education. Why are we creating irresponsible anti-establishment characters, while condemning children to ignorance ?

7. Reason # 5: THERE IS NO OTHER JUSTIFICATION FOR SUBSIDIZING JNU IN 2016. 47 YEARS IS ENOUGH!! It is time to take India forward and do serious course correction in every sphere. In the legal system 200-year old laws are being tossed into a dustbin today. LPG subsidy that has been so common for middle class families is being withdrawn. 400+ artists who had become parasites in Delhi are being evicted, some after 20+ years of illegal occupation of houses. This is a good time to extend this spring-cleaning to education and the patronage networks that have been pampered for decades. Examine every funded University and see make every University self-funded through fees and other income. Let students pay for what they get.

References :

Univ Rankings: http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings...

JNU budget: http://www.jnu.ac.in/MHRDUGC/MHRD_UniversityProfil...

Sarva Shiksha Abhyan: http://www.accountabilityindia.in/sites/default/fi...