Sandeep Pandey (born 22 July 1965) is an Indian social activist and the present General Secretary of the

Socialist Party (India) The Socialist Party was an Indian political party. It won 12 seats at the 1951 Indian general election, coming third. Despite Jayaprakash Narayan's personal popularity, its electoral fortunes did not improve. It merged with the Kisan Mazd ...

. He co-founded Asha for Education with Dr. Deepak Gupta (presently Professor at IIT Kanpur) and V.J.P Srivastava while working on his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. He has taught as a visiting professor at

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM Bangalore or IIMB) is a reputed business school and an Institute of National Importance located in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Founded in 1973, it was chronologically the third in the first gener ...

, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad,

Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (also known as IIT Gandhinagar or IITGN) is a Public university, public technical university located in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. It has been declared to be an Institute of National Importance by th ...

, NALSAR University of Law and Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi.

Early life

Pandey is an alumnus of the Institute of Technology,

Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU), formerly Benares Hindu University, is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916. The university incorporated the Central Hindu College, ...

(now Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi). Thereafter he did his Master's in manufacturing and computer science from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

, followed by a doctorate in control theory at the

, which he completed in 1992.

Career

After completing his education, he moved back to India and started teaching at the

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT- Kanpur or IIT-K) is a public institute of technology located in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. As an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), it was declared an Institute of National Importance by ...

in 1992 and later founded a registered organisation named Asha Trust which currently has several centres/chapters across India. His team has launched a people's group named Asha Parivar in 2008 that focuses on strengthening democracy at the

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or continent movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from volunteers at the local level to imp ...

in Hardoi district of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

. Pandey's work at Asha Parivar is focused on Right to Information and other forms of citizen participation in removing corruption and improving the efficiency of governance. He leads the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), the largest network of grassroots people's movements in India. He was awarded the

Ramon Magsaysay Award The Ramon Magsaysay Award (Filipino language, Filipino: ''Gawad Ramon Magsaysay'') is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in governance, courageous service to the people, ...

(often termed the 'Asian Nobel prize') in 2002 for the emergent leadership category. Pandey led an Indo-Pakistan peace march from New Delhi to Multan in 2005. He has served as an adviser to the Indian government's Central Advisory Board for Education (CABE). His idea of education is based on empowerment by imbibing the spirit of co-operation instead of competition. Sandeep Pandey's contract as a visiting faculty in the Chemical Engineering department at Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi was prematurely terminated in January, 2016. Statement issued by Sandeep Pandey after being sacked from IIT-BHU Later in April 2016, the

Allahabad High Court Allahabad High Court, officially known as High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, is the high court based in the city of Prayagraj, formerly known as Allahabad, that has jurisdiction over the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It was established o ...

quashed the decision citing the violation of principal of natural justice. In April, 2019 he launched his book titled "Mujhe Kashi Hindu Vishwavidyalaya Se Kyun Nikala Gaya" at New Delhi, Lucknow and Varanasi. This book throws light on the work he did during his stint as professor at IIT (BHU), the reasons and events leading to his expulsion and the elaborate Allahabad High Court judgement clearing him of all the false accusations resulting in his expulsion.

Controversies

In 2002, he attended the opening session of a conference organised by the Communist Party of India, Marxist Leninist Liberation, (CPI-MLL). Several prominent social activists, environmentalists, and writers-turned-activists like Mahashweta Devi, Arundhati Roy, Sandeep Pandey, Rajinder Sachar, Praful Bidwai, and Anand Patwardhan attended only the opening session of the six-day congress. Sandeep Pandey and other social activists did not attend the closing session in which the kin of about 1000 Naxalites who were killed in police action in Bihar were reportedly honoured. Upon receiving the Ramon Magsaysay Award, he returned the cash portion of the award on being challenged to do so by a Philippine newspaper for his earlier remarks describing America as "the biggest terrorist state in the world." Pandey later clarified that he had never meant to criticise the people of the United States but its government. In 2010, he visited Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh for a Jan Sunvayi (people's hearing) on atrocities by the local government. His visit was seemingly opposed by some members of local tribal community, where some local tribals were shown to be protesting against him and his team. It was said by Medha Patkar, that the protest was "stage managed" by the district administration officials themselves and the government was rousing the locals rural folk against the civil rights workers. Patkar also added that their team is not in favour of government responding to the violence perpetrated by

Maoists Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China and later the People's Re ...

by further violence by the state. She referred to Salwa Judum as an example of excesses by the state.

Personal life

Sandeep is the eldest of the three children of Sri U S Pandey who was an engineer in Railways and retired as member Railway Board. His younger brother Rahul who is an IIT Kanpur and IIM Ahmedabad alumnus lives in Bengaluru. His sister Priyanka lives in USA. Pandey lives in Indira Nagar,

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

, Uttar Pradesh. He is married to Arundhati Dhuru and has two children,Anandi Pandey and Chaitanya Pandey. He is a vegan and thus resents the consumption of milk and other dairy products.

References

External links