By Patricia Mukhim
The CMJ University imbroglio is a self fulfilling prophecy. Most of us would have smirked, “Didn’t we say so?” CMJ University named after its founder Chandra Mohan Jha, a former government contractor but very close to the political honchos of the state made news not because its students excelled in academics but because they were granted degrees and PhDs that had no value. The Government of Meghalaya stands indicted on two counts. First, it passed the Private Universities Act and allowed fly by night operators like those running the shady Mahatma Gandhi University near Jorabat which is separated only by a wall from “Mind Blowing Wine Shop.” Second, it did not do due diligence to activate the regulatory authority the very day the first private university was set up.
Now that CMJ is exposed for what it is, students are moaning their future. But this also raises pertinent questions. Why did the students and parents not check out the antecedents of CMJ University? If a University is granting PhDs on payment of certain sums, is that not, ground enough for suspicion? The problem is that most students today want a degree without any effort. Money is seen as a substitute to effort. A house owner recently told me about two students from Mizoram who had rented rooms from here and were enrolled in CMJ University. She says they hardly ever attended classes.
A good number of such students are seen spending most of their time outside the University campus. Certain localities of Shillong have become the favourite addresses of this student population. Perhaps their parents have no time to come and see how their children/ward live and whether they are really studying or wasting their time until they get their questionable degree. You can’t blame the illiterate parents but the educated ones have to answer for their follies. This newspaper had earlier exposed that the PhD that CM Jha flaunted was actually from a dubious foreign institute. When the North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) which had earlier recognised the CMJ College of Engineering later found that the College did not fulfil the minimum criteria for running such an institute, it de-affiliated the college. CMJ circumvented this problem by getting the state government to push through a Varsity Bill in 2009. This gave CMJ the unfettered right to give degrees without conforming to any academic standards. Could CMJ have done it without the connivance of political stalwarts?
But now that CMJ is caught in a own web of deceit we can hear the chorus, “Crucify all state universities.” This is to throw the baby out with the bath water. We in Meghalaya suffer from familiar predicaments. We are suspicious of each and every initiative; we don’t want to give any new idea a chance to incubate, much less to survive. The examples are legion. But I can name the railway project as one. Having resisted railways for so long the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) has not thought it appropriate to suggest other alternative means of transport that would be cheap, efficient, cut down on fuel consumption and would not entail cutting through verdant forests to make roads and expand them. Those who have a problem with one idea should necessarily come up with a better idea. But no, that is not Meghalaya’s forte and its politicians have danced to the KSU tune for far too long. I am amazed that Mizoram of all states should be asking for railway connectivity. And here we are putting back the clock everyday even while aspiring to go western in our lifestyles.
Coming back to universities, if we don’t have private universities closer home then where do those students who can’t find a place in NEHU go to? Obviously they will enrol in some dubious institutes in some part of this country and their parents will shell out huge sums of money. That would also mean looking out for accommodation in case no hostel seat is available. Most parents would not be able to afford to travel to Bangalore, Delhi or Chennai to monitor what their kids are doing. Hence while some come back with a degree, others live dangerously and quite distantly from studies.
Private universities are without doubt a necessity. And here I would differ with those who despite having themselves studied in private schools and also sent their kids to one would also argue vehemently against the privatisation of higher education. We have to get real. There is only so much that the state can do and there are only so many seats that state-sponsored institutions have. I don’t want to get into the appalling statistics of the huge shortage of institutions in this country with over 1.2 billion population. We know enough to know that Meghalaya needs private universities offering more diversified courses rather than pure academics. And we can argue till the cows come home that a university has a completely different mandate – which is for its scholars to pursue quality research and dissect human problems to find solutions to them; or to produce scholars of eminence. But state and central universities are no longer doing that. Their mass products are mediocre, have no livelihood skills and find no jobs. Also, for many, being a scholar is a luxury they can ill afford. Not especially the mediocre students. At least we have private universities which provide life and livelihood skills! We cannot ignore this truth.
I have in the past defended Martin Luther Christian University (MLCU) in these columns because I find that the University has quietly made great strides in serving the needs of our young students from the region. MLCU offers students wide options in diverse fields and that is why it calls itself a development university. Students of MLCU who take up BSc Medical Laboratory Technology, BSc Medical Imaging Technology, BSc Surgical Technology, BSc Optometry, BSc Physician Assistant etc., and who have done their internship in some of the leading hospitals of this country have been very well credited by the respective institutions. They are offered jobs where they have interned even though they mostly prefer to return home since there are employment opportunities here.
Yet there is no dearth of iconoclasts who want to bring down this University without evaluating the quality work it has done. Every year, religiously, at the time of admissions some Bible thumping pastor will rake up the issue of MLCU’s status. Questions are raised about its connection with the Lutheran church and who put in how much in the kitty as a start-up venture. If some of these pastors would deign to sit across the MLCU Registrar’s table and ask him to explain what exactly happened, there would have been no need to spend reams of paper to answer RTI questions on facetious issues.
The latest is about MLCU diverting Rs 10 lakh to build a wall instead of mentoring aspirants for the civil services. I asked the Vice Chancellor about this and why the MLCU is not giving a public explanation. He says the University’s task is to teach, not to reply to every detractor who makes unsubstantiated allegations. And there are detractors aplenty who would love to see MLCU destroyed or who would wish to take over its administration and turn it into some cloistered sanctuary instead of the openness it now offers.
The problem with all every so-called scam is that it is repeated and gossiped about even before it is understood to be a scam. We all understand how the CMJ University has violated certain non-negotiable norms. And the Governor as its Visitor has rightly called a halt to the continuance of such bad practices. The Governor is also the Visitor to MLCU. The University briefs him of every development and he in turn offers his wise counsel. What I find curious is that the same people who have met with the Chief Minister to bitch about MLCU have never even once visited the University to clarify their doubts. Not even the legislator who went ballistics about the misuse of Rs 10 lakh by the University. When I asked another MLA why the fetish for nailing MLCU, he said that there is a rumour that the VC and Registrar had made off with the money! This self fulfilling prophecy has come in the form of the CMJ University affairs. I wonder why the ‘clean MLA’ never gave a thought to the CMJ affairs.
MLCU’s silence is often misconstrued by a section of philistines (which includes a section of media) as an admission of guilt. It is important for MLCU to clarify doubts and to invite the media to prise open all documents and find out for themselves what the truth really is. That would take the wind off the sails of those who believe they alone enjoy the power of knowledge granted to them by the RTI. It is about time to say ‘Down with Iconoclasts.”
In all these years MLCU has not listed its achievements. It’s smart, no-nonsense faculty are diffident about defending their Institution even if they regularly engage in self-critiquing exercises. It’s time for MLCU to document what it has accomplished in its seven year journey and to put that in the public domain. Normally this is done by the Public Relations Department. But this is the weakest link in the MLCU chain. Dr Glenn Kharkongor has laid a solid foundation for MLCU. Hopefully RG Lyngdoh as the new VC will inject new dynamism into the system!
(The views in these columns are purely personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper)