Imphal, January 18: The weak response of the teachers of Manipur University to the various issues or crises confronting the State today has given an impression to the people of a futureless society in the State, Dr Bimol Akoijam of Centre for the Studies of Developing Societies, New Delhi has stated.

Delivering a lecture on 'National character and Manipur's response to crisis' organised by the Centre at the lecture hall of Economics Department of Manipur University here today, Dr Akoijam observed that the response of the teachers of Manipur University to the crises in the past as well as in the present in Manipur is very low.

Speaking on the National character of the Manipuris, Dr Akoijam said that as a result of the prevailing crisis, the Manipuris seem to be living in a state of compromise and working only for some temporal solution which would be detrimental to the society in the long run.

In such a situation, they cannot think that they would be able to survive, he said, adding that lack of vision and respect for one another and the desire to dominate each other is what is being witnessed everywhere today.

Maintaining that the same character is also being noticed among the teachers of Manipur University, Dr Akoijam said that as a consequence, the response of the teachers in this higher institution of learning is very low whether it be in the crisis related to the defeat of Manipur at the hands of the British in 1891, alleged annexation of Manipur by India in 1949, the issue of territorial integrity in 2001, the Manorama incident of 2004 or the ongoing crisis over prolonged imposition of AFSPA.

It has also been observed that the historians of Manipur seem to forget the connection between the past crisis of Manipur with the present crisis and they sometime speak thus, Dr Akoijam said.

While pointing out that lack or complete absence of basic infrastructures and amenities like road or bridges, electricity, safe drinking water, etc are some of the problems that are lying in front of the people today as a direct fallout of the deteriorating National character of the Manipuri people, Dr Akoijam appealed to the teachers of Manipur University to contribute their mite in highlighting the problems of the people and showing a vision to them through various medium.

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