MU impasses : Getting uglier :: Late but still significant
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 17 2018 -

It is getting ugly.

So far the agitation at Manipur University or any agitation launched in connection with the demand that VC AP Pandey must step down steered clear of any open confrontation between the agitators and the law enforcing agencies, but now this is no longer the case.

It was sheer providence that things did not take an uglier turn with the general secretary of DESAM suffering multiple fractures on the arm and shoulder after going under the wheel of an oil tanker just in front of the State BJP office.

DESAM and its volunteers took to the street as the deadline set earlier to resolve the impasse at MU expired on July 15.

Now with the student organisation setting July 18 as the deadline for the State Government to initiate action against the cops responsible for the young student leader going under the wheels of the oil tanker, things can only get uglier.

No doubt the State Government will act, but the ugly incident would have made the stand of the students all that more rigid.

Or is this what the Government has been waiting for ?

Waiting for things to get uglier so that it can take action to resolve the impasse at MU ?

Nothing could have been more unfortunate than this, but there can be no justification for the State Government to drag its feet on the issue.

Chief Minister N Biren, Rajya MP K Bhabananda and some other BJP leaders are in Delhi meeting officials of the Human Resource Development and the HRD Minister himself, but this is a step which should have been taken up days earlier.

The memorandum submitted by the State Government to Prakash Javadekar today (July 16) is a memorandum that should have been submitted days back.

This is a point which has been repeatedly stressed in this column.

Remember it is not a question of anyone winning or anyone losing, but more a question of thinking about the future of the thousands of students studying at MU and in colleges affiliated to the varsity.

But better late than never and the suggestions put forward by the State Government to the Union HRD Minister seem to be on track.

A high level inquiry committee to probe the allegations raised against Vice Chancellor AP Pandey, directing the VC to go on leave pending the outcome of the inquiry and in the interregnum the Centre may consider appointing a Pro-Vice Chancellor to ensure that the varsity starts functioning.

Difficult to say how the Centre will respond to the suggestions put forward by the State Government but significant to note that it is in line with the stand of MUSU, MUTA and MUSA that the inquiry committee announced by the HRD/UGC earlier was ‘low level’.

The suggestion that the VC be asked to go on leave pending the final outcome of the probe also makes sense and falls in line with the understanding of all inquiry processes.

It is here that the Centre need to come to the point that the situation here is stormy.

It is much more than a group of students and teachers seeking the ouster of the VC from MU and if care is not taken then it may turn into a case of Us Vs Them and this is what is frightening.

To avoid this the Centre should act positively and fast