I am writing to draw public attention to the manner in which walk-in interviews were recently conducted at Jawaharlal Nehru College, Pasighat, for the post of assistant professor across multiple departments – Hindi, English, history, political science, and sociology – on 31 July, 2025.
The college fixed interviews for all these subjects on the same day, despite receiving more than ten candidates per department, with sociology alone registering over twenty candidates. Naturally, the interview board could not complete the process for all departments within the day, leading to a sudden and unplanned extension to the next day for sociology.
This caused serious inconvenience to several candidates who had travelled from distant places, many of whom had no arrangement to stay overnight, or had already booked their return tickets. Such poor planning and lack of logistical foresight is deeply concerning. Were the authorities unaware of the number of applicants? Or worse, were they indifferent?
Even more troubling is the fact that the college ultimately selected its existing guest faculty members. This raises a critical and uncomfortable question: Why conduct a public walk-in interview if the intention was merely to select existing staff? This process has not only wasted the time, money, and energy of many candidates but has also severely undermined the credibility and transparency of academic recruitment.
The situation could have been handled more efficiently – interviews could have been limited to 5-7 minutes per candidate, or multiple panels could have been constituted, perhaps chaired by both the principal and vice principal. Unfortunately, none of this was considered.
In a state already grappling with rising unemployment, this careless and opaque recruitment process is a mockery of the aspirations of educated youths. Therefore, I earnestly request the chief minister and the higher education authorities concerned to take serious note of this issue and ensure fairness and transparency in all future recruitment processes.
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