The on-going impasse in Manipur University gained more strength on Friday with the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JHUTA) expressing solidarity to Manipur University terming its predicament as ‘erosion of critical cultures on their university’s campus by an obdurate administration’.
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A statement issued by JNUTA said that universities across the country are resounding with shocking instances of ‘ideological minions propped up as senior officers in administration, especially to positions such as vice-chancellors’.
In addition to financial mismanagement, these officers who should act as guardians of central universities are politically undermining the important role of universities in delivering social justice, the JNUA had alleged.
‘Browbeating students and teachers into following illogical and whimsical functioning has unfortunately become a norm’, it added.
Asserting that protesting against social injustice is a basic right of citizens, the state further said ‘Manipur University students and teachers have shown with their inspiring struggle that institutional impropriety must not be borne in silence. They have shown that it cannot be business as usual in the face of rules and norms being flouted by those in power’.
Public discourse: Meanwhile, a public discourse organized on ‘The present crisis in Manipur University and its possible solution’ has resolved to intensify agitations until vice-chancellor, Adya Prasad Pandey is removed from his post.
The discourse organized by All India Students’ Federation (AISF), Manipur state council at Manipur Press Club in Imphal on Friday, also resolved that the organization representing the people of Manipur, would stage protest in Delhi.
The discourse was also attended by Manipur University Teachers’ Association, Manipur University Students’ Union and Manipur University Staff Union.