Readers may want to see my recent post on another blog: SSSIHL/SSSU (Sathya Sai University) ID cards with face blurred (Ravi S. Iyer), https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2018/12/sssihlsssu-sathya-sai-university-id.html, 30th Dec. 2018
Sunday, December 30, 2018
Referral: Documenting my part auto bio with pics - school and college education certificates and marksheets
Readers may want to see my recent post on another blog: Documenting my part auto bio with pics - school and college education certificates and marksheets, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2018/12/documenting-my-part-auto-bio-with-pics_28.html, 28th Dec. 2018
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Referral: Documenting my part auto bio with pics - computer software industry appreciation and experience letters
Readers may want to see my recent post on another blog: Documenting my part auto bio with pics - computer software industry appreciation and experience letters, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2018/12/documenting-my-part-auto-bio-with-pics_27.html, 27th Dec. 2018
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Will Cambridge University do a thorough investigation of its academic Aleksandr Kogan's role in massive abuse of around 50 million American Facebook users' data for PSYOPS in USA elections? OR will it do a cover-up to protect its image?
Note that this post is copy-pasted from https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2018/03/will-cambridge-university-do-thorough.html.
The Guardian article: Facebook gave data about 57bn friendships to academic, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/22/facebook-gave-data-about-57bn-friendships-to-academic-aleksandr-kogan, 22nd March 2018, states:
On Friday 16 March, in anticipation of the Observer’s reporting that Kogan had improperly harvested and shared the data of more than 50 million Americans, Facebook suspended Kogan from the platform, issued a statement saying that he “lied” to the company, and characterised his activities as “a scam – and a fraud”.
--- end small extract from Guardian article ---
This is the referenced Facebook company statement: https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/03/suspending-cambridge-analytica/, dated 16th March 2018 and updated on 17th March 2018. Some extracts from it are given below:
In 2015, we learned that a psychology professor at the University of Cambridge named Dr. Aleksandr Kogan lied to us and violated our Platform Policies by passing data from an app that was using Facebook Login to SCL/Cambridge Analytica, a firm that does political, government and military work around the globe. He also passed that data to Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, Inc.
Like all app developers, Kogan requested and gained access to information from people after they chose to download his app. His app, “thisisyourdigitallife,” offered a personality prediction, and billed itself on Facebook as “a research app used by psychologists.” Approximately 270,000 people downloaded the app. In so doing, they gave their consent for Kogan to access information such as the city they set on their profile, or content they had liked, as well as more limited information about friends who had their privacy settings set to allow it.
Although Kogan gained access to this information in a legitimate way and through the proper channels that governed all developers on Facebook at that time, he did not subsequently abide by our rules. By passing information on to a third party, including SCL/Cambridge Analytica and Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, he violated our platform policies. When we learned of this violation in 2015, we removed his app from Facebook and demanded certifications from Kogan and all parties he had given data to that the information had been destroyed. Cambridge Analytica, Kogan and Wylie all certified to us that they destroyed the data.
Breaking the Rules Leads to Suspension
Several days ago, we received reports that, contrary to the certifications we were given, not all data was deleted. We are moving aggressively to determine the accuracy of these claims. If true, this is another unacceptable violation of trust and the commitments they made. We are suspending SCL/Cambridge Analytica, Wylie and Kogan from Facebook, pending further information.
--- end extract from Facebook statement ---
Ravi: So Facebook is clearly stating that Aleksandr Kogan of Cambridge University (an Assistant Professor there and not a full Professor) passed "information" (Facebook users' data) to a third party including Cambridge Analytica by which act Kogan "violated" Facebook's "platform policies".
The above Guardian article mentions that Kogan formed a company called Global Science Research (GSR) in May 2014 along with another Cambridge University researcher. The article mentions an email from Kogan to Cambridge (University) colleagues where Kogan said that he created the Facebook App for academic purposes in 2013. After GSR was founded (in May 2014) he transferred the App to GSR (commercial company) changing its logo and stating that it was being used for commercial purposes. Kogan seems to put the blame on Facebook for not raising issues then, and claims that Facebook is (unfairly) blaming him (Kogan) for this massive abuse of Facebook users' data.
I would love to see a full and thorough investigation by Cambridge University along with any required assistance from UK government authorities into the role of Aleksandr Kogan, Asst. Prof (Lecturer) of Cambridge University in this matter of abuse of 50 million American Facebook users' data. Did Kogan make inappropriate use of his Cambridge University academic status to do bad things and get away with it? That seems like a real possibility to me.
The unfortunate truth of life today is that there are many unethical academics, especially those that run or are associated with commercial enterprises (with permission from their academic authorities like it seems to be in the case of Kogan). My experience in Indian academia showed me that many academics get jealous (sorry I am being brutally frank) of the money made by people in industry, including their own former students, while they (academics) remain stuck, typically, on some govt. scale fixed salaries. So some Indian academics jump at opportunities to make better money through a business venture than they make from their academic salary alone.
But academics are usually not well versed with commercial law, commercial aspects of agreements, legal ramifications if the agreements are not adhered to etc. They are treated with kid gloves by the world in general which is deferential to them because of their once-noble calling of teaching, and they think that companies will also treat them that way.
However, once they form their own company, and are into making money there, they no longer have any basis to request the world to handle them with kid-gloves, since they are not academics only now but academic-cum-business persons.
The age when academics could be trusted to lead a higher and nobler life, are over, especially in Indian academia. There are some very good guys in Indian academia and then there are some very unethical fellows who will stoop to all kinds of nasty corruption and nasty poisonous politics to improve their career and to harm their peers' or juniors' career, with some such peers and juniors being viewed as opponents of theirs. And there are many academics in between.
In Aleksandr Kogan's case I would like a Cambridge University investigation to aggressively see if Kogan behaved ethically and if not, to record his unethical behaviour, share it with the university community and the public, and come up with steps to prevent recurrence of such behaviour from Cambridge University academics. That's the way to keep ethical standards high in such cases.
But will Cambridge University and the UK authorities whose assistance it may seek, have the time and inclination to do such an investigation which will be expensive in time and money? My experience in Indian academia, and later as a blogger on Indian Computer Science and Information Technology academic reform activism, https://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/, is that the first response of the top people like vice-chancellor and trustees/board of management of the university is to try to cover things up, and dismiss the matter as a minor mistake. The government prefers not to get involved in such university matters unless it is a big scandal and the media forces them to interfere. Many times, the Indian academic or academic administrator gets away with grossly unethical behaviour, sometimes criminal behaviour, due to this cover-up approach. That then leaves the concerned Indian academic institution in an ethically tainted state which people come to know about from informal sources even if no formal acknowledgement is made of the grossly unethical or sometimes even criminal behaviour of the concerned academic(s) and/or academic administrator(s). Recovering from that ethically tainted culture then becomes a difficult and long effort for the concerned academic institution and its academic and non-teaching staff.
Indian society finds it very difficult to handle unpleasant truths about teachers as the culture over millennia is to revere the teacher. That age-old reverence of Indian society towards teachers is unfortunately exploited in terrible ways by quite a few Indian teachers and academics, many times due to greed for money or sometimes, nowadays, sexual desire towards their students.
I do hope and pray that Cambridge University will keep its high reputation intact by doing a proper and fair investigation into Aleksandr Kogan's role in this massive abuse of Facebook user data of over 50 million Americans which was used to influence the 2016 USA elections. If Kogan is found to have been ethical then Cambridge University should say so publicly thereby clearing his name from the cloud it has come under now. But on the other hand, if Kogan did behave in an unethical manner, that should also be shared with the public and Kogan should be penalized in a suitable and proportionate manner.
=====================================================================
Given below is part of my response (slightly edited) to a mail correspondent who responded to above post contents sent to him over mail (his response is private and so not shared here):
It is teaching institutions including top research institutions that also teach students (like Cambridge University), that have to keep ethical standards high. If they fail then society at large gets threatened of being infested with the rot of poor ethical standards, which can degrade society at the least, and at worst, can destroy society.
-------
Some relevant articles provided by a couple of correspondents:
1) Cambridge Analytica academic's work upset university colleagues; Emails reveal rows over Aleksandr Kogan’s ‘get rich quick scheme’ with Facebook data, https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/mar/24/cambridge-analytica-academics-work-upset-university-colleagues, 24th March 2018
2) Cambridge University asks Facebook for evidence about role of academic, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/20/cambridge-university-asks-facebook-for-evidence-about-role-of-academic-alex-kogan, 20th March 2018
----
A couple of relevant audios/videos:
3) Aleksandr Kogan - Interview BBC Radio 4 - March 21, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvtCNPnQtnY, around 18 mins.
4) Scientist: Didn't know data used to target voters, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APqU_EJ5d3U, 2 min. 23 secs., by CNN published on 20th March 2018.
I went through both the articles and the two audios/videos above.
Some points that emerge are (I may have made slight errors in some points below as I am writing them down from my memory of having viewed/heard the audios/videos only once; Don't have time right now to view/hear them again to confirm whether my points below are accurate):
a) Some other academics, including senior academics, of his psychology dept. at Cambridge University were unhappy with the manner in which Kogan was negotiating with SCL, parent company of Cambridge Analytica, about payment to be made to him (Kogan) and two other colleagues. Kogan was accused of taking a 'get rich quick' approach, which accusation Kogan refuted in strong terms.
b) Kogan created a commercial company with another colleague - Global Science Research (GSR). But claims that he was guided on legalities by others (SCL or Cambridge Analytica, if I recall correctly) and so was not able to answer authoritatively on whether he had breached his agreement with Facebook! Kogan tried to say he is just an (psychology) academic, implying that he cannot be expected to be knowledgeable on legalities and all that!
c) Kogan's company, GSR, was paid around 800,000 dollars by Cambridge Analytica but Kogan says that most of the money went towards paying those who participated in surveys (and things like that). Kogan says that he did not make money out of the Cambridge Analytica association with his company, GSR!
d) Cambridge University has not yet made a clear statement on this matter. It has sought information from Facebook.
e) Kogan claims that he had no idea that his App would be used to try to influence people in the 2016 USA elections. Kogan tries to give the impression that he is a researcher who is trying to do good for the world and that he is not in favour of his work being used to influence any election campaign in the manner in which Cambridge Analytica is alleged to have done in the 2016 USA elections.
--------
[I thank theguardian.com and fb.com, and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extracts from their websites (short extract from theguardian.com) on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
Last updated on 24th March 2018
The Guardian article: Facebook gave data about 57bn friendships to academic, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/22/facebook-gave-data-about-57bn-friendships-to-academic-aleksandr-kogan, 22nd March 2018, states:
On Friday 16 March, in anticipation of the Observer’s reporting that Kogan had improperly harvested and shared the data of more than 50 million Americans, Facebook suspended Kogan from the platform, issued a statement saying that he “lied” to the company, and characterised his activities as “a scam – and a fraud”.
--- end small extract from Guardian article ---
This is the referenced Facebook company statement: https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/03/suspending-cambridge-analytica/, dated 16th March 2018 and updated on 17th March 2018. Some extracts from it are given below:
In 2015, we learned that a psychology professor at the University of Cambridge named Dr. Aleksandr Kogan lied to us and violated our Platform Policies by passing data from an app that was using Facebook Login to SCL/Cambridge Analytica, a firm that does political, government and military work around the globe. He also passed that data to Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, Inc.
Like all app developers, Kogan requested and gained access to information from people after they chose to download his app. His app, “thisisyourdigitallife,” offered a personality prediction, and billed itself on Facebook as “a research app used by psychologists.” Approximately 270,000 people downloaded the app. In so doing, they gave their consent for Kogan to access information such as the city they set on their profile, or content they had liked, as well as more limited information about friends who had their privacy settings set to allow it.
Although Kogan gained access to this information in a legitimate way and through the proper channels that governed all developers on Facebook at that time, he did not subsequently abide by our rules. By passing information on to a third party, including SCL/Cambridge Analytica and Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, he violated our platform policies. When we learned of this violation in 2015, we removed his app from Facebook and demanded certifications from Kogan and all parties he had given data to that the information had been destroyed. Cambridge Analytica, Kogan and Wylie all certified to us that they destroyed the data.
Breaking the Rules Leads to Suspension
Several days ago, we received reports that, contrary to the certifications we were given, not all data was deleted. We are moving aggressively to determine the accuracy of these claims. If true, this is another unacceptable violation of trust and the commitments they made. We are suspending SCL/Cambridge Analytica, Wylie and Kogan from Facebook, pending further information.
--- end extract from Facebook statement ---
Ravi: So Facebook is clearly stating that Aleksandr Kogan of Cambridge University (an Assistant Professor there and not a full Professor) passed "information" (Facebook users' data) to a third party including Cambridge Analytica by which act Kogan "violated" Facebook's "platform policies".
The above Guardian article mentions that Kogan formed a company called Global Science Research (GSR) in May 2014 along with another Cambridge University researcher. The article mentions an email from Kogan to Cambridge (University) colleagues where Kogan said that he created the Facebook App for academic purposes in 2013. After GSR was founded (in May 2014) he transferred the App to GSR (commercial company) changing its logo and stating that it was being used for commercial purposes. Kogan seems to put the blame on Facebook for not raising issues then, and claims that Facebook is (unfairly) blaming him (Kogan) for this massive abuse of Facebook users' data.
I would love to see a full and thorough investigation by Cambridge University along with any required assistance from UK government authorities into the role of Aleksandr Kogan, Asst. Prof (Lecturer) of Cambridge University in this matter of abuse of 50 million American Facebook users' data. Did Kogan make inappropriate use of his Cambridge University academic status to do bad things and get away with it? That seems like a real possibility to me.
The unfortunate truth of life today is that there are many unethical academics, especially those that run or are associated with commercial enterprises (with permission from their academic authorities like it seems to be in the case of Kogan). My experience in Indian academia showed me that many academics get jealous (sorry I am being brutally frank) of the money made by people in industry, including their own former students, while they (academics) remain stuck, typically, on some govt. scale fixed salaries. So some Indian academics jump at opportunities to make better money through a business venture than they make from their academic salary alone.
But academics are usually not well versed with commercial law, commercial aspects of agreements, legal ramifications if the agreements are not adhered to etc. They are treated with kid gloves by the world in general which is deferential to them because of their once-noble calling of teaching, and they think that companies will also treat them that way.
However, once they form their own company, and are into making money there, they no longer have any basis to request the world to handle them with kid-gloves, since they are not academics only now but academic-cum-business persons.
The age when academics could be trusted to lead a higher and nobler life, are over, especially in Indian academia. There are some very good guys in Indian academia and then there are some very unethical fellows who will stoop to all kinds of nasty corruption and nasty poisonous politics to improve their career and to harm their peers' or juniors' career, with some such peers and juniors being viewed as opponents of theirs. And there are many academics in between.
In Aleksandr Kogan's case I would like a Cambridge University investigation to aggressively see if Kogan behaved ethically and if not, to record his unethical behaviour, share it with the university community and the public, and come up with steps to prevent recurrence of such behaviour from Cambridge University academics. That's the way to keep ethical standards high in such cases.
But will Cambridge University and the UK authorities whose assistance it may seek, have the time and inclination to do such an investigation which will be expensive in time and money? My experience in Indian academia, and later as a blogger on Indian Computer Science and Information Technology academic reform activism, https://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/, is that the first response of the top people like vice-chancellor and trustees/board of management of the university is to try to cover things up, and dismiss the matter as a minor mistake. The government prefers not to get involved in such university matters unless it is a big scandal and the media forces them to interfere. Many times, the Indian academic or academic administrator gets away with grossly unethical behaviour, sometimes criminal behaviour, due to this cover-up approach. That then leaves the concerned Indian academic institution in an ethically tainted state which people come to know about from informal sources even if no formal acknowledgement is made of the grossly unethical or sometimes even criminal behaviour of the concerned academic(s) and/or academic administrator(s). Recovering from that ethically tainted culture then becomes a difficult and long effort for the concerned academic institution and its academic and non-teaching staff.
Indian society finds it very difficult to handle unpleasant truths about teachers as the culture over millennia is to revere the teacher. That age-old reverence of Indian society towards teachers is unfortunately exploited in terrible ways by quite a few Indian teachers and academics, many times due to greed for money or sometimes, nowadays, sexual desire towards their students.
I do hope and pray that Cambridge University will keep its high reputation intact by doing a proper and fair investigation into Aleksandr Kogan's role in this massive abuse of Facebook user data of over 50 million Americans which was used to influence the 2016 USA elections. If Kogan is found to have been ethical then Cambridge University should say so publicly thereby clearing his name from the cloud it has come under now. But on the other hand, if Kogan did behave in an unethical manner, that should also be shared with the public and Kogan should be penalized in a suitable and proportionate manner.
=====================================================================
Given below is part of my response (slightly edited) to a mail correspondent who responded to above post contents sent to him over mail (his response is private and so not shared here):
It is teaching institutions including top research institutions that also teach students (like Cambridge University), that have to keep ethical standards high. If they fail then society at large gets threatened of being infested with the rot of poor ethical standards, which can degrade society at the least, and at worst, can destroy society.
-------
Some relevant articles provided by a couple of correspondents:
1) Cambridge Analytica academic's work upset university colleagues; Emails reveal rows over Aleksandr Kogan’s ‘get rich quick scheme’ with Facebook data, https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/mar/24/cambridge-analytica-academics-work-upset-university-colleagues, 24th March 2018
2) Cambridge University asks Facebook for evidence about role of academic, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/20/cambridge-university-asks-facebook-for-evidence-about-role-of-academic-alex-kogan, 20th March 2018
----
A couple of relevant audios/videos:
3) Aleksandr Kogan - Interview BBC Radio 4 - March 21, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvtCNPnQtnY, around 18 mins.
4) Scientist: Didn't know data used to target voters, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APqU_EJ5d3U, 2 min. 23 secs., by CNN published on 20th March 2018.
I went through both the articles and the two audios/videos above.
Some points that emerge are (I may have made slight errors in some points below as I am writing them down from my memory of having viewed/heard the audios/videos only once; Don't have time right now to view/hear them again to confirm whether my points below are accurate):
a) Some other academics, including senior academics, of his psychology dept. at Cambridge University were unhappy with the manner in which Kogan was negotiating with SCL, parent company of Cambridge Analytica, about payment to be made to him (Kogan) and two other colleagues. Kogan was accused of taking a 'get rich quick' approach, which accusation Kogan refuted in strong terms.
b) Kogan created a commercial company with another colleague - Global Science Research (GSR). But claims that he was guided on legalities by others (SCL or Cambridge Analytica, if I recall correctly) and so was not able to answer authoritatively on whether he had breached his agreement with Facebook! Kogan tried to say he is just an (psychology) academic, implying that he cannot be expected to be knowledgeable on legalities and all that!
c) Kogan's company, GSR, was paid around 800,000 dollars by Cambridge Analytica but Kogan says that most of the money went towards paying those who participated in surveys (and things like that). Kogan says that he did not make money out of the Cambridge Analytica association with his company, GSR!
d) Cambridge University has not yet made a clear statement on this matter. It has sought information from Facebook.
e) Kogan claims that he had no idea that his App would be used to try to influence people in the 2016 USA elections. Kogan tries to give the impression that he is a researcher who is trying to do good for the world and that he is not in favour of his work being used to influence any election campaign in the manner in which Cambridge Analytica is alleged to have done in the 2016 USA elections.
--------
[I thank theguardian.com and fb.com, and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extracts from their websites (short extract from theguardian.com) on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Top Indian scientist reportedly dismissed after his research institute upheld charges of sexual harassment against him by junior colleague; Scientist to go to court to challenge it
Note: This post is copy-pasted from https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2018/02/top-indian-scientist-reportedly.html.
Today's (11th Feb. 2018) The Hindu newspaper carried this article on its front page: Scientist dismissed for sexual harassment of colleague, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/scientist-dismissed-for-sexual-harassment-of-colleague/article22716197.ece, 10th Feb. 2018.
It says that a junior woman staffer alleged sexual harassment by this 59 years old top scientist who seems to have held a powerful administrative position (head of a scientific lab). The allegations included an incident of alleged sexual molestation in March 2015 in a hotel room. That was in the context of an academic conference they were attending.
The charges were investigated by a committee constituted by the research institute. The article quotes the executive director of the institute as saying (slightly edited), "The governing board has ratified the decision to terminate --Name-snipped--’s services".."It is his decision whether he wants to further pursue the matter in court. From our side, the process has been completed." [I decided not to name the top Indian scientist in this post as I do not want to contribute to Google search results on his name showing up the matter via this post.]
The top scientist (who was dismissed) told The Hindu that he would "contest the decision in court".
Hmm. How good will scientists be as investigators and judges of a charge of sexual harassment! I have a very poor opinion of the Sathya Dharma (truth and ethics) standards of Indian scientists and academics. I have personally experienced Asathya-Adharma (untruthful and unethical) crook Indian academic administrators some of whom are Professors of science and so are scientists.
Through my own experience and through following mainstream media reports about Indian academia for some years, I have found that most Indian academics and scientists are very poor in knowledge about current day professional techniques and standards in managing staff and administering staff. They are trained mainly in academic research and teaching due to which most of them are UTTER NOVICES in management and administration. Many of them indulge in favouritism, nasty revenge, and sometimes poisonous behaviour towards juniors and sometimes even peers that they don't like including those that refuse to become obedient sycophants (yes-men) to them. Many Indian academic and scientific administrators are known to have indulged in even record-tampering, malicious defamation and identity-theft which are criminal offences under the Indian Penal Code. It is a crazy environment with significant amount of nasty abuse of power and sometimes money corruption and sexual favour related ethical corruption. Of course, there are good people too but somehow Indian academic administration posts seem to be such that even good people become ethically corrupt once they occupy administrative power posts.
I have zero faith in the ability of Indian academic or scientific committees to fairly judge a very serious, career-threatening and reputation-threatening matter like a sexual harassment charge. They may very well use the opportunity to ***fix*** a colleague of whom they have become jealous or have some other issue with, and unfairly judge him guilty which leads to a career-threatening and reputation-threatening outcome for the colleague. And similarly they may unfairly judge a colleague whom they support for some reasons like fear of that colleague's power to hurt them and monetary corruption reasons, as innocent of such sexual harassment charges even if the charges have strong evidence to back them!
I think it should be the court of law in India or suitable bodies appointed by the court which have people trained in Indian jurisprudence (lawyers and judges) who investigate and examine such sexual harassment charges in Indian academic and scientific institutions. If it is a court of law then judicial process would be followed and so any injustice concerns would be similar to how it is for any other court case.
But the court process in India may take years to arrive at a judgement. The concerned academic or scientific institution would want a quicker interim decision. The court could appoint suitable bodies as mentioned above staffed with persons trained in Indian jurisprudence. That body should produce a document on the lines of a judgement document though not as exhaustive as a regular court's judgement document, which explains the evidence and eyewitness testimony that is examined and how the conclusion of prima facie (at first view) guilt of sexual harassment or no such prima facie guilt, is arrived at. Based on this document's view which would have the stamp of people trained in Indian jurisprudence backing it, action or no action could be taken against the accused academic or scientist by the academic/scientific institution.
Of course, both the accuser and the accused would have the liberty of challenging the prima facie guilt/innocence decision, in a regular court of law. Note that some cases of sexual harassment like physical sexual molestation seems to be a criminal offence in India meaning that if the accused (top Indian scientist in this case) is proved guilty, he, in all probability, would have to serve a jail sentence. I mean, he would become a convicted criminal!
While I have not followed such cases in detail in the past, it seems to me that if the top scientist in this case who has been dismissed from employment by the Indian scientific institute, goes to an Indian court of law, seeking suspension of dismissal pending a proper court of law deciding his guilt/innocence in this matter, the Indian court of law may suspend the dismissal and the Indian scientific institute will have to put him back on the rolls! However, if the top scientist really did indulge in sexual harassment then he would fear going to court as the court would in all probability order the sexual harassment case to be heard in a trial criminal court. This court's wheels of justice may grind slowly but steadily and may eventually deliver a guilty verdict if the hearing produces strong evidence and/or strong eyewitness testimony supporting the sexual harassment/molestation charge. That would mean the top Indian scientist may go to jail as a convicted criminal!
Hmm. What a terrible dilemma to be in! Recently I informed an Indian Professor of Computer Science (male) about such matters becoming a great issue in India nowadays and advised him to ensure that he is never alone in a room/cabin with a female colleague or female student. Even a false complaint made by a female colleague or female student who is angry with him for some academic grade/examination result related matter could be enough to land the Indian Professor into unnecessary trouble! Further, the female colleague or female student can simply threaten to make the complaint if they had been together in some room without anybody else, to ensure that the Professor does their bidding (say, passes a female student in her Ph.D. examination).
I am not letting my imagination run riot. Indian academic system is rotten now with so many reports of police cases being filed against Indian academic administrators. This is the reality of Indian academic system today. There are lots of bad people in Indian academic administration and so the good people in Indian academia have to be very careful not to get trapped by these bad people using false charges or false statements.
Today's (11th Feb. 2018) The Hindu newspaper carried this article on its front page: Scientist dismissed for sexual harassment of colleague, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/scientist-dismissed-for-sexual-harassment-of-colleague/article22716197.ece, 10th Feb. 2018.
It says that a junior woman staffer alleged sexual harassment by this 59 years old top scientist who seems to have held a powerful administrative position (head of a scientific lab). The allegations included an incident of alleged sexual molestation in March 2015 in a hotel room. That was in the context of an academic conference they were attending.
The charges were investigated by a committee constituted by the research institute. The article quotes the executive director of the institute as saying (slightly edited), "The governing board has ratified the decision to terminate --Name-snipped--’s services".."It is his decision whether he wants to further pursue the matter in court. From our side, the process has been completed." [I decided not to name the top Indian scientist in this post as I do not want to contribute to Google search results on his name showing up the matter via this post.]
The top scientist (who was dismissed) told The Hindu that he would "contest the decision in court".
Hmm. How good will scientists be as investigators and judges of a charge of sexual harassment! I have a very poor opinion of the Sathya Dharma (truth and ethics) standards of Indian scientists and academics. I have personally experienced Asathya-Adharma (untruthful and unethical) crook Indian academic administrators some of whom are Professors of science and so are scientists.
Through my own experience and through following mainstream media reports about Indian academia for some years, I have found that most Indian academics and scientists are very poor in knowledge about current day professional techniques and standards in managing staff and administering staff. They are trained mainly in academic research and teaching due to which most of them are UTTER NOVICES in management and administration. Many of them indulge in favouritism, nasty revenge, and sometimes poisonous behaviour towards juniors and sometimes even peers that they don't like including those that refuse to become obedient sycophants (yes-men) to them. Many Indian academic and scientific administrators are known to have indulged in even record-tampering, malicious defamation and identity-theft which are criminal offences under the Indian Penal Code. It is a crazy environment with significant amount of nasty abuse of power and sometimes money corruption and sexual favour related ethical corruption. Of course, there are good people too but somehow Indian academic administration posts seem to be such that even good people become ethically corrupt once they occupy administrative power posts.
I have zero faith in the ability of Indian academic or scientific committees to fairly judge a very serious, career-threatening and reputation-threatening matter like a sexual harassment charge. They may very well use the opportunity to ***fix*** a colleague of whom they have become jealous or have some other issue with, and unfairly judge him guilty which leads to a career-threatening and reputation-threatening outcome for the colleague. And similarly they may unfairly judge a colleague whom they support for some reasons like fear of that colleague's power to hurt them and monetary corruption reasons, as innocent of such sexual harassment charges even if the charges have strong evidence to back them!
I think it should be the court of law in India or suitable bodies appointed by the court which have people trained in Indian jurisprudence (lawyers and judges) who investigate and examine such sexual harassment charges in Indian academic and scientific institutions. If it is a court of law then judicial process would be followed and so any injustice concerns would be similar to how it is for any other court case.
But the court process in India may take years to arrive at a judgement. The concerned academic or scientific institution would want a quicker interim decision. The court could appoint suitable bodies as mentioned above staffed with persons trained in Indian jurisprudence. That body should produce a document on the lines of a judgement document though not as exhaustive as a regular court's judgement document, which explains the evidence and eyewitness testimony that is examined and how the conclusion of prima facie (at first view) guilt of sexual harassment or no such prima facie guilt, is arrived at. Based on this document's view which would have the stamp of people trained in Indian jurisprudence backing it, action or no action could be taken against the accused academic or scientist by the academic/scientific institution.
Of course, both the accuser and the accused would have the liberty of challenging the prima facie guilt/innocence decision, in a regular court of law. Note that some cases of sexual harassment like physical sexual molestation seems to be a criminal offence in India meaning that if the accused (top Indian scientist in this case) is proved guilty, he, in all probability, would have to serve a jail sentence. I mean, he would become a convicted criminal!
While I have not followed such cases in detail in the past, it seems to me that if the top scientist in this case who has been dismissed from employment by the Indian scientific institute, goes to an Indian court of law, seeking suspension of dismissal pending a proper court of law deciding his guilt/innocence in this matter, the Indian court of law may suspend the dismissal and the Indian scientific institute will have to put him back on the rolls! However, if the top scientist really did indulge in sexual harassment then he would fear going to court as the court would in all probability order the sexual harassment case to be heard in a trial criminal court. This court's wheels of justice may grind slowly but steadily and may eventually deliver a guilty verdict if the hearing produces strong evidence and/or strong eyewitness testimony supporting the sexual harassment/molestation charge. That would mean the top Indian scientist may go to jail as a convicted criminal!
Hmm. What a terrible dilemma to be in! Recently I informed an Indian Professor of Computer Science (male) about such matters becoming a great issue in India nowadays and advised him to ensure that he is never alone in a room/cabin with a female colleague or female student. Even a false complaint made by a female colleague or female student who is angry with him for some academic grade/examination result related matter could be enough to land the Indian Professor into unnecessary trouble! Further, the female colleague or female student can simply threaten to make the complaint if they had been together in some room without anybody else, to ensure that the Professor does their bidding (say, passes a female student in her Ph.D. examination).
I am not letting my imagination run riot. Indian academic system is rotten now with so many reports of police cases being filed against Indian academic administrators. This is the reality of Indian academic system today. There are lots of bad people in Indian academic administration and so the good people in Indian academia have to be very careful not to get trapped by these bad people using false charges or false statements.
Monday, February 5, 2018
Two recent money corruption and sexual harassment (ethical corruption) police cases against senior Indian academics of South India show how rotten Indian academia has become
Note: This post is copy-pasted from my blog post here: https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2018/02/two-recent-money-corruption-and-sexual.html.
Here is an article that appeared in 4th Feb. 2018 newspapers: Coimbatore: Bharathiar University VC arrested for taking Rs 30 lakh bribe, https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/040218/bharathiar-university-vc-takes-rs-30-lakh-bribe-arrested.html.
The article states that the vice-chancellor of this university in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu demanded Rs. 30 Lakh (Rs. 3 million or about USD 46,773 at current exchange rate of Rs. 64.14 for 1 U.S. Dollar) from an Assistant Professor who was on probation, to get confirmed in his job as Assistant Professor. The Asst. Professor approached the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption people (police department) who laid a trap and caught the vice-chancellor red-handed with currency notes marked with invisible ink (according to this report: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/bharathiar-university-v-c-arrested-on-graft-charge/article22642800.ece).
When the top academic administrator of a university (which is the vice-chancellor) indulges in such money corruption, one can well imagine how lower ranked academics and administrators of the university would behave. I am quite sure at least some of the lower ranked academics and administrators of this university would be corrupt as well. This kind of behaviour poisons academic institutions from the top. When the top is rotten the whole academic institution becomes vulnerable to becoming rotten like the top academic administrator.
A few days back there were reports of a Computer Science/Information Technology professor in JNTU Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh) sexually harassing female students who he called individually for a viva voce test that he was conducting as an external examiner.
Here are the related articles:
a) Andhra police arrest JNTU Kakinada professor for alleged sexual harassment, https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/andhra-police-arrest-jntu-kakinada-professor-alleged-sexual-harassment-75754, 2nd Feb. 2018
b) Sexual harassment: Prof. removed as Director, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/sexual-harassment-professor-removed-from-post-of-director/article22581072.ece, 30th Jan. 2018
The students' agitation saw to it that the matter could not be suppressed. A member of the State women's commission also spoke to the alleged victims. I read in some other article about the state education minister also calling up the vice-chancellor about this matter. I think all this pressure resulted in an investigation by the university following which a police complaint was recorded against the Computer Science/Information Technology professor who also was a Director of some department/institute, and the professor was arrested by the police.
We have not heard the professor's side of the story in the media. Perhaps he has some defense. But multiple girls complaining about sexual harassment would be treated seriously by an Indian court of law, unless their complaints are shown to be false. As the letter complaint to the Registrar was made by 20 girl students, I find the complaints to be credible. I mean, I find it hard to believe that 20 girl students in Andhra Pradesh would conspire to make a false complaint of sexual harassment against the professor.
Still, the accused professor has to be proved guilty of these charges in a court of law. Till then, I will view it as an accusation only. Unfortunately, there is no CCTV kind of evidence to prove the case.
But can an Indian Computer Science/Information Technology professor sink to such depths of sexual harassment of his students? Well, my own experience of Indian academia in South India is that it is rotten. There are some good people. But many people in academic positions of power abuse their power in horrible ways. I personally experienced Shakuni poison kind of academic administrators including a vice-chancellor, registrar, director of campus and Head of Maths & Computer Science department in a deemed university in Andhra Pradesh. By default, I am deeply suspicious from ethics point of view of any Indian senior academic and any Indian academic administrator. I think the Indian academic system has become so rotten now that it poisons the ethics of any person who gets associated with it for long in positions of power.
Of course, there are academic institutions of high academic calibre (different from ethical standards) which may not be so poisonous in terms of their ethics, and there are good ethical senior academics even in lesser known Indian academic institutions. But, overall, the system has become rotten. Perhaps the reason is the lack of accountability that Indian academic system has. The perception is that nobody can question them. Therefore they get away with poisonous behaviour that in other walks of life in India (like private companies) would have put them behind bars (in jail) or at least be dismissed from employment.
When Indian academic administrators and senior academics have become so rotten in money corruption and ethical corruption including sexual harassment, what can we expect from the students they teach and mentor? It is very depressing to know about such things.
I think Indian academics should be subject to accountability like people from other walks of life. That will put some fear in them and stop them from money corruption and ethical corruption like sexual harassment and mental harassment of juniors, or at least reduce the number of such incidents.
Here is an article that appeared in 4th Feb. 2018 newspapers: Coimbatore: Bharathiar University VC arrested for taking Rs 30 lakh bribe, https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/040218/bharathiar-university-vc-takes-rs-30-lakh-bribe-arrested.html.
The article states that the vice-chancellor of this university in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu demanded Rs. 30 Lakh (Rs. 3 million or about USD 46,773 at current exchange rate of Rs. 64.14 for 1 U.S. Dollar) from an Assistant Professor who was on probation, to get confirmed in his job as Assistant Professor. The Asst. Professor approached the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption people (police department) who laid a trap and caught the vice-chancellor red-handed with currency notes marked with invisible ink (according to this report: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/bharathiar-university-v-c-arrested-on-graft-charge/article22642800.ece).
When the top academic administrator of a university (which is the vice-chancellor) indulges in such money corruption, one can well imagine how lower ranked academics and administrators of the university would behave. I am quite sure at least some of the lower ranked academics and administrators of this university would be corrupt as well. This kind of behaviour poisons academic institutions from the top. When the top is rotten the whole academic institution becomes vulnerable to becoming rotten like the top academic administrator.
A few days back there were reports of a Computer Science/Information Technology professor in JNTU Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh) sexually harassing female students who he called individually for a viva voce test that he was conducting as an external examiner.
Here are the related articles:
a) Andhra police arrest JNTU Kakinada professor for alleged sexual harassment, https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/andhra-police-arrest-jntu-kakinada-professor-alleged-sexual-harassment-75754, 2nd Feb. 2018
b) Sexual harassment: Prof. removed as Director, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/sexual-harassment-professor-removed-from-post-of-director/article22581072.ece, 30th Jan. 2018
The students' agitation saw to it that the matter could not be suppressed. A member of the State women's commission also spoke to the alleged victims. I read in some other article about the state education minister also calling up the vice-chancellor about this matter. I think all this pressure resulted in an investigation by the university following which a police complaint was recorded against the Computer Science/Information Technology professor who also was a Director of some department/institute, and the professor was arrested by the police.
We have not heard the professor's side of the story in the media. Perhaps he has some defense. But multiple girls complaining about sexual harassment would be treated seriously by an Indian court of law, unless their complaints are shown to be false. As the letter complaint to the Registrar was made by 20 girl students, I find the complaints to be credible. I mean, I find it hard to believe that 20 girl students in Andhra Pradesh would conspire to make a false complaint of sexual harassment against the professor.
Still, the accused professor has to be proved guilty of these charges in a court of law. Till then, I will view it as an accusation only. Unfortunately, there is no CCTV kind of evidence to prove the case.
But can an Indian Computer Science/Information Technology professor sink to such depths of sexual harassment of his students? Well, my own experience of Indian academia in South India is that it is rotten. There are some good people. But many people in academic positions of power abuse their power in horrible ways. I personally experienced Shakuni poison kind of academic administrators including a vice-chancellor, registrar, director of campus and Head of Maths & Computer Science department in a deemed university in Andhra Pradesh. By default, I am deeply suspicious from ethics point of view of any Indian senior academic and any Indian academic administrator. I think the Indian academic system has become so rotten now that it poisons the ethics of any person who gets associated with it for long in positions of power.
Of course, there are academic institutions of high academic calibre (different from ethical standards) which may not be so poisonous in terms of their ethics, and there are good ethical senior academics even in lesser known Indian academic institutions. But, overall, the system has become rotten. Perhaps the reason is the lack of accountability that Indian academic system has. The perception is that nobody can question them. Therefore they get away with poisonous behaviour that in other walks of life in India (like private companies) would have put them behind bars (in jail) or at least be dismissed from employment.
When Indian academic administrators and senior academics have become so rotten in money corruption and ethical corruption including sexual harassment, what can we expect from the students they teach and mentor? It is very depressing to know about such things.
I think Indian academics should be subject to accountability like people from other walks of life. That will put some fear in them and stop them from money corruption and ethical corruption like sexual harassment and mental harassment of juniors, or at least reduce the number of such incidents.
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