Hopes to highlight the issues of research scholars

A research scholar — after spending months cajoling India’s scientific establishment to hike research stipends — has decided to take the plunge into politics.

Nikhil Gupta, 26, says he hopes to bring better visibility to issues facing research scholars and unorganised teaching staff in scientific establishments.

Mr. Gupta, a researcher at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, who coordinated national protests much of last year as part of a motley coalition of research scholars from several institutions across the country, called the Research Scholars of India (RSI), told The Hindu that he’s contesting the Lok Sabha elections this time as an independent candidate from the city’s South Delhi constituency.

“We’d raised issues in 2014 too but many of our demands were unmet this year too… several of us felt that a political platform would be effective,” said Mr. Gupta.

“I do realise that this decision has come late but it’s a start.”

During 2018, the RSI had demanded that the government raise research stipends for scholars, who were beneficiaries of the JRF and SRF (Junior and Senior Research Fellowships), by at least 50%.

On January 30, the Union government has hiked this by 25%. It also committed to putting in place a committee that would periodically revise the scholarships as well as put in place a system to ensure that research monies were disbursed on time — another major peeve highlighted by the RSI.

The scholarship fees were last revised in 2014. About 1.25 lakh research scholars are beneficiaries of the fellowships and in percentage terms, this year saw the lowest increase in fellowships since 2010.

Mr. Gupta, a post-graduate alumnus from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, said he hadn’t solicited funds and was planning to pool money from friends, family and well-wishers for his campaign.

He said he would be articulating a common set of concerns voiced by unions at other Indian Institutes of Technology, National Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Science and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

These included “…ensuring fellowships were regularly disbursed, ending harassment of scholars, highlighting concerns of non-permanent teaching staff such as the non-implementation of honorarium for guest faculty, their regularisation and improving the conduct of eligibility tests for government scholarships and jobs..”

Mr. Gupta’s mother, Usha Gupta, is a member of the Bharatiya Janta Party.