The traumatic experience of MPSC Asst Prof recruitment, 2014

Khelsoril Wanbe *

Manipur Public Service Commission (MPSC) Building in Imphal in March 2013 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

It is quite unfortunate that the recruitment process of Assistant Professors of government colleges advertised by MPSC in September, 2014 has been dragging on till today without being able to see the light of dawn as it got caught up in a yearlong court case. Although rays of hope of declaration of the results now seem to be appearing .

The interviews for the recruitment were thought to have been completed in January, 2016, about one year and nine months ago, but that actually turned out to be not the case as following the Manipur High Court verdict that was given in January 2017 curtailing the reservation for ST, SC and OBC to 50%, considerably altering the original advertisement in which the total reservation for ST alone was in excess of 65% as out of the total advertised posts of 280, 185 posts were reserved solely for the ST.

It is surprising and amazing how the original advertisement was made in a legally very vulnerable style. For the candidates who have been waiting for the results, it must have been an extremely harrowing experience of a life time. I would like all the readers of this article to put themselves in the shoes of the interview appeared candidates and try to imagine a vicarious experience.

Now, several alterations have been effected and the prospective interview faced candidates are highly apprehensive as to whether they are going to experience one of the worst nightmares of their life.

Here, I should say, I’m not trying to criticise the MPSC or the previous or present governments; but I just want to express my wish and I feel it may not be an exaggeration to say that it would have been good and nice if things had been done in a more serious and thoughtful way right from the conception of the recruitment process.

The present recruitment has not failed to evoke in the candidates fluctuating experiences of high hopes and low despairs; the uncertainty attached with this recruitment is simply tormenting. Apart from the changing moods and emotions of all the candidates vis-à-vis the recruitment process that has undergone several modifications is the question as to how the huge reservation was formulated for the ST and how it becomes legally necessary to make corrections in the course of this long recruitment process even with the involvement of High Court intervention.

To whom should the credit go for the advertisement of a recruitment that was going to require several gradual refinements over and over on its way to its eventual declaration?

Now, there is the wonderment as to whether some of those who were the hopefuls in the first round going to be losers?

It should have been very fortunate for all the candidates who applied for the recruitment if optimum care had been taken prior to the publication of the advertisement for the long awaited recruitment.

Now the hapless as well as the hopeful candidates seem to brook some doubts in their minds as to whether the inordinately long recruitment process is going to prove to be a perfectly fair one. It, I think, is the prayer of all the candidates that the final results will be the outcome of fair, transparent, sincere and, of course, painful efforts of all the concerned officials and officers who have been working hard to turn the recruitment into a grand success without violating the high court verdict.

It, I think, also is the hope and wishes of one and all that such apparently faulty style of recruitment which is extremely vulnerable and susceptible to interferences from different quarters do not recur again in the future. Proper advanced care or precaution needs to have been taken to avoid such major flaws vulnerable to legal entanglement.

Getting selected or not is another matter but recruitments should be conducted with utmost seriousness. It needs to be taken into consideration how much time and energy of the candidates are expended in preparing for the submission of application forms, preparation for the written tests, preparation for the interviews and waiting for the interview results; and the opening of the sealed envelopes, containing the results of interviews, for the purpose of modification before the final declaration too seems to be somewhat painful especially for those that are going to be adversely affected although it may come as a boon for some others.

All these reversals in the course of recruitment process could have been avoided if maximum care and caution had been taken before the publication of the recruitment advertisement.

With regard to the selection mode, I would like to share a thought or two. When I look at advertisement of Assistant Professor Jobs at colleges under Delhi University and other universities in India, I came to learn that a maximum of 25 points out of hundred are allotted for academic performance at graduation and post-graduation levels; a good percentage of points are given for Research degrees like MPhil and PhD, research publications, paper presentations at seminars and teaching experience.

This, unfortunately, had not been followed in the present recruitment as a maximum of 50 (fifty) points have been allotted for academic performance in the graduation and post-graduation exams. It needs to be understood that there are gulf of differences in awarding of marks and grades from one university to another and from one period to another.

For instance, in our days of doing masters in the late 1990s and early 2000s, there was a good amount of grudge in awarding of marks unlike now when we see comparatively much larger generosity and liberalism in this regard.

Putting aside everything, let the long awaited results be declared. It is the high hopes of the candidates and people of Manipur that the recruitment results will come out unscathed by any form of corruption, nepotism and unfairness.