140 police personnel deployed inside campus
SHILLONG, April 29: The state government on Tuesday termed the situation in NEHU as “cool and calm” and urged the students to “snap out of emotions” and let the law take its own course.
Asserting that the current situation in NEHU is “OK”, Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong said, “We appeal to the student communities and everybody else to wait. Don’t be emotional, because the law takes its own course. Allow the investigation to go on and once that is done, then they will be able to know exactly what happened.”
Despite the minister’s assertion, a sense of uneasy tension prevails in the university campus as students protested the arrest of NEHU Students’ Union (NEHUSU) president Sandy Sohtun on Monday in connection with the alleged assault of Dr. Alok Kumar Singh, an Assistant Professor in the university’s Hindi Department, on April 24.
A local court has remanded Sohtun in seven-day judicial custody.
Commenting on the protest against the heavy deployment of as many as 140 police and CRPF personnel in the NEHU campus on Monday, Tynsong said the government acted as per the situation on the ground to prevent any breakdown of law and order.
Talking about the withdrawal of the police and CRPF personnel late Monday evening, he said the decision was taken after a meeting with the in-charge of the NEHU campus.
He refused to comment on the status of the assault case, saying “Let the investigation be completed.”
Police, CRPF deployment ‘unwarranted’: NEHU teachers
The Meghalaya Tribal Teachers’ Association (MeTTA) of NEHU expressed concern over the unwarranted deployment of armed police on the campus on Monday.
MeTTA president, Prof Desmond Kharmawphlang, emphasized the significance of the incident, stating that security personnel were deployed without consulting the university authority or obtaining permission for entry.
“The presence of combat fatigue personnel, who were reportedly moving in various parts of the campus, caused distress and trepidation among the university community, including students, teachers, support staff, and allied service providers…the academic atmosphere of the campus was disturbed, leading to the abandonment of multiple academic and administrative work,” he said.
The MeTTA condemned the “blatant show of force” brought to bear on an unsuspecting academic institution and viewed it as one of the machinations of individuals and parties with vested interests orchestrating divisive and diabolical agendas.
The association said it is committed to the well-being of all university stakeholders, the sustenance of peaceful coexistence, adherence to the Act, statutes, and ordinances of NEHU, and the pursuit of academic excellence.
The association urged adherence of established codes of conduct and protocols that guide the functional relationship between institutional and governmental authorities, and the recognition of autonomy that all universities enjoy as theory and praxis.
No civil war or social unrest in university: NEHUTA
The NEHU Teachers’ Association (NEHUTA) also criticized the heavy deployment of police and CRPF forces on the campus, stating that there is no civil war, social unrest, gang war, or communal clash within the university.
The association rejected the idea of security forces being deployed on campus and cautioned “outsiders” against advocating such designs and to refrain from destabilizing the university for their personal gains.
NEHUTA observed that the unwarranted presence of armed and plain-clothed forces in various parts of the campus, along with all necessary gears and rations, was an unprecedented imposition of high-handed policing on the academic and intellectual space of NEHU.
The association condemned the potentially intimidating mindset behind such a disproportionate readiness to use police in NEHU, arguing that it not only axes grave infringement on the sanctity of an academic space but also as potentially undemocratic and authoritarian acts of oppression and threat.
NEHUTA president Lakhon Kma stated that higher education and its nuances need to be understood in terms of the dynamics of student voices and concerns that teachers are committed to shape up and respond with a great sense of responsibility.
He called for upholding student’s rights without any infringement by police and security agencies that create fear psychosis and insecurity by its very presence.
“The entire episode smacks of an engineered attempt to disrupt the normal functioning of the university by outside forces who do not want normalcy in NEHU and want to use it to spread lies and hatred among stakeholders and the entire NE region,” he said.
Kma said the Post Graduates Students’ Union (PGSU) of Gauhati University and Assam University Students’ Union (AUSU) are welcome to condemn any physical attack on any student or faculty in any university in the country but it does not give them the license to make commentary on the internal affairs of NEHU without knowing anything about it.
Warning PGSU and AUSU against playing with fire, Kma said, “If they hold Prof. Prabha Shankar Shukla in such high esteem, ignoring the dirty games that he has played in three-and-half years in NEHU, they should urge the Assam government to appoint him as the VC of Gauhati University.”