Cong likens MU raid to dictatorship
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, September 21 2018:
The Congress party has decried that the State Government was behaving like a dictator when it sent police commandos and Central forces to Manipur University and carried out a massive raid and arrested around 90 students and teachers in the dead of the night on September 20.Speaking to media persons at Congress Bhavan here today, ex-Chief Minister and CLP leader Okram Ibobi asserted that imposing one's will against the will of people is unacceptable in a democratic country.
It appears that the BJP-led Government is on the verge of a total premature collapse, he remarked.
The way State Police and Central paramilitary forces unleashed brute force inside MU last night is a matter of grave concern.
Such excesses committed within an educational institution is something unheard of in any part of the planet.
It was something not permissible in a democracy, Ibobi asserted.
Even if there was suspicion that unlawful elements with present inside MU campus, security forces could have surrounded the university and called out the unlawful elements using loudspeakers.
Police could have carried out search operations if the unlawful elements did not come out.
Arresting students and teachers in such a manner is highly condemnable, Ibobi said.
Keeping the academic atmosphere of MU undisturbed is one common wish of Congress party and the public.
The MU crisis could have been resolved without much difficulty had the BJP-led Governments of the Centre and State worked sincerely, he rued.
Pointing out that the State Government was earlier shirking its responsibility on the pretext that MU is a Central university, Ibobi questioned why it ordered a total rampage by sending security forces to MU campus last night if MU is not their responsibility.
The way the State Government has been dealing with the MU crisis reeks of a sinister intention to spoil the career of thousands of students and ultimately abolish the university itself, Ibobi said.
Congress party will not remain silent when the State Government has started acting like a dictator, and this should not be construed as any attempt to take political advantage out of the crisis, said the CLP leader.
The Government should try to understand the wish of the students and the public and act accordingly rather than imposing its diktats forcibly.
CWC Member and ex-Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam remarked that the massive raid carried out by security forces at MU last night was something unprecedented in the State.
The disposition that people should not speak anything against them and all the people should obey their diktats is one brutal face of the Government, Gaikhangam said.
Such excesses is a manifestation of the Government's frustration, disappointment and loss of hope.
Some people have been deliberately working to ignite uproar in MU even after an enquiry has begun against Prof Pandey.
It appears that these people are determined to protect Prof Pandey as if he (Prof Pandey) cannot be touched.
Issuance of a series of orders by a suspended VC and the Government of India's attempt to enforce the same is nothing but a deep-rooted conspiracy.
The students were only saying that orders were unacceptable and they were only demanding establishment of the truth.
There is no harm when students demand the truth, Gaikhangam said.
The BJP-led Government should understand that the people will never tolerate any authoritarian regime, he added.
Meanwhile, the National Students' Union of India (NSUI) has demanded the State Government to stop terrorizing educational institutions and release the arrested students and members of MUSA and MUTA at the earliest.
Addressing a press meet held today at NSUI office at Congress Bhawan, NSUI State president P Bankimchandra Meitei alleged that the BJP Governments at the Centre and State are using every kind of force to saffronise educational institutions in the country, including Manipur.
He went on to allege that the BJP Governments are engaging security forces in trying to suppress those who oppose and stand up against the BJP's consistent endeavor to infuse RSS ideology in educational institutions and saffronise the institutions.
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