MU-Cut off from the reality ? Refusing to listen
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 21, 2023 -

It is disturbing and Manipur certainly does not need this.

How can one stay cut off from the reality and maintain such an aloof posture that it refuses to see reasoning, points which are grounded on facts.

Manipur is in flames and it has been like this for over 100 days.

Granted, life has to go on but there is something called adjustments and one can recall how even the National Testing Agency rescheduled the National Eligibility and Entrance Test for aspiring medical students for Manipur due to the ongoing crisis here.

Apart from this, students who appeared for the Common University Entrance Test, again conducted by the National Testing Agency, were given extended time to change the venue of their choice.

Necessary steps taken not to inconvenience the young students.

Unfortunately this does not seem to be the case with the Manipur University Entrance Test (MUET) conducted on August 18, 19 and 20.

One of the rare occasions this is for The Sangai Express to see logic and reason in the protest staged by some students demanding that the said exam be postponed by some few days taking the reality into consideration.

Take the facts into consideration.

Violence erupted on May 3 evening, nearly 200 people have lost their lives in the madness that followed, numerous houses have gone up in flames with some localities razed down the ground, like at the Meitei localities at Churachandpur town, internet has been shutdown since the evening of May 3, followed by the ban on broadband services a few days later, thousands are still languishing in different relief camps opened all over Manipur, curfew continues to be imposed in all the valley districts and free movement has been curtailed to a great extent.

It is against such a reality that students had to fill up their examination forms, get all the needed documents and this include passport size photos, the needed signatures, the original certificates with some documents needed to be counter signed by a gazetted Government official, some have to avail ST, SC, OBC certificates etc.

In short, numerous paper works, all involving physical appearances, thanks to the net shutdown and here is Manipur University refusing to extend the examination date by some more days.

For those who were in a position to submit all the needed certificates and obtain the admit cards, good, but the same cannot be said for all the intending candidates, particularly those who have been displaced as from Torbung or Serou, just to cite two examples.

It is against this reality that some students asked that the exam date be postponed by some few days.

It should also not be forgotten that universities in the North East are exempted from the Common University Entrance Test, just so that the varsities can cater to the local needs and act with a degree of local adjustments.

Obviously the finer meaning of ‘local adjustments’ does not seem to have registered in the consciousness of the people who matter in Manipur University.

This is certainly not what one expects from the highest seat of learning in Manipur and it should not be forgotten that while excellence in academics and all the points associated with grooming young students are important, giving a place of learning a human touch should not harm anyone.

It cannot stay aloof from what is happening in Manipur and demonstrating that it understands the condition of the young students, many of whom have been displaced from their homes was the need of the hour.

Sad that this has remained just that-a wishful line of thought.

A university should not only be about what is being taught in the lecture rooms of its different departments, but should also encompass on how grounded it is to the reality.

The reality is, thousands continue to linger in different shelter homes, with their homes and other belongings having been burnt in the madness that continues to grip Manipur.

And if a university refuses to acknowledge this grim and sorry reality then nothing can be more tragic.