Friday, September 17, 2010

SCARF - Playing with students' emotions to fulfill vested interests???

My friend and colleague Naresh was the reason i applied to NIMHANS in the first place.
The guy has an unparalleled interest in Psychiatry. This unfortunate happened to him recently.
Naresh had applied to Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF), Chennai for DNB primary seat in Psychiatry and attended an interview there in July this year.

After the interview, he was informed that one lady Dr. Varada had been selected for the seat and he was not selected. Naresh had quite forgotten about the interview, and was busy working as a non PG Junior Resident in the department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bangalore.

Naresh received a call on the afternoon of 13th September from Dr.Padma of SCARF informing him that the national board had rejected Dr. Varada's candidature for the DNB seat as it found irregularities in the manner in which the interviews were conducted.
She had told him that according to merit list, he stood second in the interviews. The first place was secured by a candidate from Mumbai and as he had already joined some other institute, gave a NOC (no objection certificate)and that Naresh should take a decision to either join the seat or to let go of it by giving a NOC himself.
Naresh explained to Dr. Padma that he would decide and tell her soon, as he also had to consider the possibility of administrative formalities to quit his current job and shifting to Chennai.

Naresh asked me, and some of our senior colleagues here in NIMHANS about the offer and got a positive response. He wrote an email to Dr. Ramesh Kumar, DNB coordinator of SCARF on the night of 14th September stating his utmost interest in joining the institute and requested for an offer letter, so that he could resign from his current position in NIMHANS.

On 15th of September, Naresh received a call from Dr.Padma who said that he violated protocol for asking an offer letter without confirming that he will join the institute. She then asked him to send an email urgently, addressed to Dr. Ramesh Kumar, that Naresh was confirming that he would be joining the DNB seat on that day, 15th September, within half an hour. She told him that he could just take leave for a day in NIMHANS, visit SCARF and could go back to Bangalore to finish his formalities in NIMHANS there.

Here comes the BIG TWIST in the story!!! Dr. Varada's (the doctor whose candidature was rejected by the national board) husband called up Naresh (GOD KNOWS HOW HE CAME TO KNOW THAT NARESH WAS OFFERED THE SEAT AND HOW HE GOT NARESH'S MOBILE NUMBER....though we can see through a more obvious reason how) and told Naresh that he was planning to file a court case against the National board's decision to reject his wife's candidature and if he wins, Naresh would be at a loss,and "advised" naresh to refrain from joining SCARF.

Naresh called up Dr.Padma about the same and she told him to ignore the call, and stressed that he should immediately send an email that he was joining on the 15th of September. Naresh sent an email at 4:04 pm as per her instructions. He received an email within the next six minutes congratulating him on his joining his institute and the date of joining was 15 September, 2019, along with an attachment - offer letter of joining from SCARF. The offer letter was (deliberately?) dated 14th September 2010. He received another email in four more minutes correcting the date as 15th September,2010 from 15th September,2019.

Naresh informed his superiors at NIMHANS and also his family, who were overjoyed with the news.

Dr Ramesh called up Naresh on 16th September evening and told him that if he wanted to retain his seat, he should be in the institute by 9:30 am on 17th September, and should also pay the fees Rs 40,000 at the same time. A visibly shocked Naresh said ok, explained the situation to his seniors, availed emergency leave, borrowed Rs. 40,000 and decided to board any bus and reach Chennai by morning.
Naresh received an sms from Dr. Ramesh to check his email at around 8:30 pm in the night. Naresh could not believe the email sent to him, which mentioned that as Naresh had neither joined nor paid fees by the 15th of September- the last date of joining as per DNB rules!!!, the offer letter had been withdrawn.

SCARF may say that the institute is legally right in whatever it has done

What made Dr.Ramesh suddenly change his word within hours of asking naresh to come on the 17th of september???
If the plan was always to deny Naresh the seat, and give it to Dr Varada, who was next in line of merit, why was all this dirty business played??? Wouldn't it be face saving for the institute to request naresh for an NOC so that they could give the seat to whomever they want???
How did Dr. Varada's Husband get to know Naresh's name and mobile number???
Does the Management of SCARF know about all this? or will it too feign ignorance like it has been happening from time immemorial???
When was Dr.Varada's candidature rejected? and why did SCARF wait till 2 days before the last date to inform Dr Naresh???
What answer does SCARF management give to Dr. Naresh, his family and to themselves? being in such a noble profession, how do they justify their conscience ???



I did not expect a reputed institute like Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF), Chennai to have acted in this way!!!