The CMJ University affairs have had their ripple effects. The State Police have been on their toes trying to figure out the nature of the scam and the terms of reference on which to follow the case. After all this is the first educational scam in the state. The police find themselves having to scrutinize dozens of seized thesis of scholars who were or are still pursing their PhD. While scholars from Meghalaya and Assam have been able to visit the CMJ premises and enquire about the present state of affairs and to get some answers to their queries, those from different parts of India, some as distant as Kerala or Tamilnadu have been writing to this newspaper to find out the latest about the University as their fates hang in the balance.
Interestingly the main offender and self-styled Chancellor, Chandra Mohan Jha and two other officials required for questioning are absconding. If these persons have been operating in a transparent manner and can defend their actions they should not have taken refuge in the age old tactics used by criminals, which is to hide until a red alert is sounded against them and they are hounded and finally arrested. Another piquant development is that a group of teachers of a particular college have appealed to the Governor (Visitor) on behalf of the Registrar of CMJ who was recently arrested and who was a former colleague of theirs. Their contention is that the Registrar has been co-operating with the law enforcers and should therefore not be unduly harassed because he has a family and children to look after. But as yet no group/organisation or individual has taken up the cause of hundreds of students of CMJ University whose futures are now in limbo.
The fact that thesis and research papers are lying with the police poses one pertinent question. Are the police competent to decide whether the seized thesis have undergone due academic rigour or whether they are copy and paste jobs plagiarized from the internet which most research papers in this country are. Should the Government not form an expert committee of senior academicians to go into these papers and decide which should be trashed and which deserve a PhD degree? The Regulatory Body recently formed to oversee university education in Meghalaya should also consider these matters as they are integral in deciding the case of CMJ and other defaulting universities in Meghalaya.
Whichever way we look at it, Meghalaya is red-faced and the Government cannot defend its actions of allowing unworthy educational factories to operate unhindered here!