Opposition parties lambast police crackdown on MU
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, September 23 2018: The Committee of Political Parties, which comprises of several Opposition parties, has lambasted the massive raid carried out by police inside MU and the arrest of a large number of teachers and students as an act of dictatorship.

Speaking to media persons at Congress Bhavan here today, retired Manipur University VC and member of the committee Dr Ng Bijoy said that barging into the hostel rooms of students by armed police in the dead of the night when the students were preparing for examinations is highly condemnable.

If any security force must enter Manipur University, the State's highest seat of learning, they must first obtain permission from the VC and they may enter the hostels only in the company of the respective wardens, Dr Bijoy said.

If security forces were suspicious about presence of anti-social elements in the hostels, they should surround and search the hostels in the company of wardens concerned during day time, he asserted.

Prof AP Pandey cannot assume his office until the ongoing enquiry is completed and action is taken based on it.

He never thought for the welfare of MU as exemplified by his failure to appoint regular Registrar, Librarian and Controller of Examinations, said the former VC.

CPI's Dr M Nara, another member of the committee, said that the midnight operation carried out by security forces at MU has deeply hurt all the people of Manipur.

September 20 will go down the history of Manipur as a black day.

Dr Nara expressed surprise over the concurrence given by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to orders issued by Prof Pandey after he was already given forced leave, particularly the one which appointed a Pro-VC.

The way MHRD has been dealing with the MU crisis with a determination to keep their chosen man as VC is amazing, Dr Nara said.

He went on to ask if it is not the Central Government which is defending Prof Pandey.

He also expressed strong suspicion that the Central Government and the State Government have been conspiring to invalidate the ongoing enquiry against Prof Pandey.

It looked like the massive raid was planned to exonerate Prof Pandey.

RK Anand, the committee's convenor, asserted that Manipur University landed in fresh turmoil as a result of the forced attempt of the Pro-VC and other officials appointed through alleged invalid orders issued by Prof Pandey to take charge of their respective offices.

The raid was too much and uncalled for, he said.

He also expressed strong disapproval of the State Government's decision to shut down mobile data services for five days.

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