Ranked 320 in the country : Can MU afford this ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 14 2018 -

With a rank of 320 in the country, can Manipur University really afford this ?

For days, the university has remained paralysed and there just does not seem to be a meeting point where the differences or rather the angst of the students, under the Manipur University Students’ Union, can be addressed to satisfactorily.

Granted things are yet to reach the height of what happened some time back, when student organisations were pitched against each other on the reservation issue, but there is no guarantee that the past will not be repeated if the situation is allowed to persists.

This happening at a time when excellence is the password to success and students across the country are engaged in experiments, healthy debates on issues which are of importance to the Nation and the respective State, libraries and the different campus societies.

The main grouse of the students is simple. They do not want a part time Vice Chancellor.

It is this which the authority concerned should take note of.

Why is the present VC rarely at his place of posting is a question that needs to be raised.

Or is this nothing much more than a rider ?

Does the demand to remove the VC run deeper than the ‘rarely at his place of posting’ stand ?

If this is the case, then let it be spelt out, but the stand off cannot be allowed to continue like this, for what one is talking about here is the fate of thousands of students who have come to MU to pursue their higher education.

This is not how a university should be run and managed.

Those who studied at Delhi University during the stormy days of the Mandal Commission will surely remember how the days of lock out and protest greatly affected their academic pursuit and Manipur certainly cannot afford such a stand off.

The VC too should understand that he is not here on paid leave.

He has a duty to perform towards the students and the university and the job of a VC cannot and should not be taken as a part time vocation.

How about the teachers of the university ? What is their stand on the issue ?

If this is what is happening at the highest seat of learning in the State, then one may well imagine how it must be like at the lower level.

Little wonder then that thousands of students from the State move outside to pursue their higher education once they cross Class XII.

Far from attracting students of Manipur, MU has never been the chosen destination of students from other States of the North East, forget about the rest of the country.

This is not what a place of learning should be about.

A Central university MU is and this is the reason why the HRD Ministry need to see if it should step in and see how to settle things. Settle the issue.

Talk with the agitating students.

Listen to their grievances and see what steps may be taken up so that MU may function normally.

Let the VC also come to the point that he has a job to do and the first step towards this is to stay at his station and see how to improve things.

The job of a VC should not be seen only through the prism of being posted at a university, for it entails running a breathing, living entity.

This is what makes a university search for growth and move towards excellence.

Stagnation is a sure shot formula to write the epitaph of a varsity but here in MU the situation is today more like moving backward.