Page 43 - EducationWorld Oct 2021

Dr. Chockalingam & Dr. Vijayalakshmi with Raj (left) & Ravi Kumar Raj Kumar (left) with legal eagle Ram Jethmalani (2000)
higher education,” says Raj Kumar. ment to the Act. We are proud that a mari, Delhi, Vellore and Chennai until
R AJAN GUPTA, IAS WHO was established in Haryana in record VII of St. Bede’s Anglo-Indian Higher
globally respected private university
1985, when he was admitted into class
Secondary School, Chennai, where
time and since then, 26 excellent pri-
served as principal sec-
retary (education) in the
in the state. Undoubtedly the major
higher secondary education.
Haryana government vate universities have been promoted he remained until he completed his
(2007-10) witnessed the “extraordi- share of credit for executing the JGU “We lived a frugal, lower middle
nary energy, enthusiasm and proj- project accrues to Dr. Raj Kumar who class life in a two-bedroom home
ect execution capabilities” that Raj was undefeatable, and met every chal- where my parents drilled the impor-
Kumar invested in getting Haryana lenge with a smile. He is an education tance of education and integrity into
state’s first private university up and visionary who is certain to lead JGU to my younger brother and me. My father
running in record time. Gupta recalls great heights,” predicts Gupta, a law was the privileged owner of a Bajaj
that when Raj Kumar and his team and business management alumnus scooter on which all four of us piled
met with him in 2008, he (Gupta) of Panjab and Wollongong (Australia) on for family outings. Moreover in St.
stipulated two pre-conditions for universities who was inducted into the Bede’s, I was exposed to the ethnic di-
clearing the project expeditiously, IAS in 1983. versity and linguistic and cultural plu-
viz, that JGU should have academic The evolution of a small town boy rality of India for the first time, and I
collaboration agreements with top- born in Nagercoil in Kanyakumari fell in love with it. And this love affair
ranked international universities, and district (Tamil Nadu) — the elder with multi-culturally diverse India
that the students admissions process of two sons of Dr. Chockalingam, a continued during my undergraduate
should be transparent and entirely criminologist, who retired as the vice commerce education in Loyola Col-
merit-based, i.e, “no management chancellor of Manonmaniam Sundar- lege, and at Delhi University, and
quota”. anar University in Tamil Nadu and his persists to this day,” says Raj Kumar.
“A month later Dr. Raj Kumar met mother Dr. Vijayalakshmi, a medical After making the unconventional
me again with letters of collaboration practitioner who served for over 30 choice of enrolling for a commerce
and support from Harvard, Yale and years in public service with the Tamil degree programme at Loyola College,
New York universities and affirmed Nadu government — into a globally Chennai in 1994, the young graduate
that there would be no discretion- admired education entrepreneur be- continued to shock his friends and
ary admissions quota reserved for fore he turned 40, is an inspiring Dick relatives further by opting to study law
the management as was the practice Whittington/Barack Obama genre at Delhi University. “The established
in private higher education at the narrative of seizing rare opportunities convention in south Indian middle
time. Once these conditions were and making the most of them. class families for top-ranked school-
complied with, the state government In pre-liberalisation India of the leavers and graduates was to study
which had enacted the Haryana Pri- 1980s, even professionally qualified medicine, engineering and chartered
vate Universities Act, 2006 precisely government employees were modestly accountancy in that order. My deci-
for the purpose of establishing glob- remunerated and subject to frequent sion to study law caused great dismay
ally benchmarked private universities transfers. Therefore, Raj Kumar’s pre- within my wider family and friends
in Haryana, gave this project its full school education was in Nagercoil, circles. Fortunately, my parents sup-
support including making an amend- and primary education in Kanyaku- ported my decision,” recalls Raj Ku-

OCTOBER 2021 EDUCATIONWORLD 43