Bombay: Noted Marathi litterateur and poet, Prof. Keshav T. Meshram, has accused the University of Bombay of practicing casteism’ in selection of candidates to the post of Reader in the prestigious department of Marathi.
Meshram said that upper castes in the University manipulated to keep the Reader’s post, which was reserved for a scheduled caste candidate, vacant despite the fact that he was a qualified backward caste candidate for it.
His candidature was rejected on grounds that he did not have a doctorate degree and that his published works, comprising several novels, short stories and collection of poems, could not be considered as equivalent to one.
Interestingly, the post of Reader was earlier held for eight years by Prof. Gangadhar Patil who was not a person from a backward community who retired in 1989. He did not have a doctorate.
