Never judge a book by its cover; VTU shows why

Hot on the heels of the plagiarism controversy against the NIT Surathkal director, here is yet another academic controversy brewing in the state. The vice-chancellor of the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) H P Khincha is now in the hot seat for replacing the former V-C K Balaveera Reddy’s name in a new edition of a text book published by the VTU. The problem: the new edition is virtually identical to the earlier one, and the propriety of Khincha claiming editorship over a textbook on which he has no relevant academic qualifications.

The textbook, titled, ‘A Primer on Computer Aided Engineering Drawing’, was first published by VTU in 2006, authored by a nine-member editorial board headed by then V-C Balaveera Reddy.

The second edition was published on September 22 this year, with what appears to be a virtually identical copy of the first one, with only one change: Reddy’s name was dropped and replaced with that of Khincha’s.

A comparison of the two editions, available with Express, shows that both the editions have a total of six chapters and three appendices for a total of 171 pages each. The topics, subtopics and even the preface by former AICTE director A Natarajan which praises Reddy’s contributions, have been retained. The foreword, written by Reddy, however, has been replaced with that of Khincha’s. This ignores the norm of a second edition carrying the preface from the first edition.

A publisher, on condition of anonymity, said, “Second editions are typically issued only when there are substantial changes in the book such as the addition of new chapters, or extending a new chapter.” Moreover, engineering drawing is a subject that comes under mechanical engineering, a subject that Reddy has been teaching for over 40 years. The present V-C, however, has a background in electrical engineering.