Understanding MU fiasco: Tracing the root cause

Maireiwon Ningshen *

Protest rally to Raj Bhawan against decision of Academic Council of Manipur University :: October 13 2016 :: Pix - Shankar Khangembam

The present crisis of Manipur University unfolds an ugly fiasco between the tribals and non-tribals over the reservation issue in the state of Manipur. While trying to understand it, it is important to locate the reservation history of India. Reservation in India is a positive discrimination which stems from the concept of equality of opportunity that is enshrined in the Constitution of India.

Reservation therefore is the result of laws, guidelines and administrative actions of the government which protects certain categories to promote and preserve social equality and justice in the society. However, it is extremely interesting to see how such laws and guidelines are misrepresented and misinterpreted to legitimize hegemony and dominance over one group or community by the other.

The University Grants Commission popularly refers to as UGC was established in 1956 as a statutory body of the Government of India through an Act of Parliament for the coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of university education in India. It also provides recognition to universities in India, gives grants and funds and in return expects each beneficial university to follow and implements its policies and programmes in letter and spirit.

Manipur University was established as a State University on 5th June 1980. As a State University, it has been following the State Reservation Policy of 31% for ST and 2% for SC for admission into various courses of the University.

However with the implementation of Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006, Manipur University (which then, became a Central University on 13th October 2005 by an Act of Parliament) had to follow All India reservation policy like any other Indian Central Universities which gave 15% for SC, 7.5% for ST and 27% for OBC respectively.

But this CEI Act of 2006 was further amended and soon came to be known as the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Amendment Act, 2012 which accordingly Manipur University calculated the percentage of reservation for different categories as 31% for ST, 2% for SC and 17% for OBC respectively. v This amended Act of 2012 was implemented in the university for the academic session 2015-16. However, a PIL was filed against the decision and accordingly the Hon'ble High Court directed the University to implement immediately the Amendment Act of 2012 in letter and spirit from 2014-15 academic session.

Meanwhile, a UGC letter dated 23rd March 2016 was sent purportedly to the MU Registrar which contains a routine reminder to implement central government reservation norms and consequently the Deans' Committee and followed by Academic Council on 30th May 2016 adopted a resolution to follow All India reservation policy of 15% for SC, 7.5% for ST and 27% for OBC respectively in the line of the said UGC letter.

What surprised many was the inconsistency of UGC guidelines which according to amended CEI Act of 2012, the reservation given for ST is 31% and 2% for SC and therefore tribal student bodies such as MUTSU and ATSUM staged a protest and boycotted the university administration.

The student bodies argued that the letter of UGC is unclear and dubious as UGC cannot have two rules for a particular university. While seeking clarification on the said letter, the UGC on 3rd June 2016 came out with another letter explaining clearly on the reservation policy. This time the letter came as a sharp contradiction with the earlier letter which reads as below…
"University may follow the reservation policy in admissions in all courses as per provisions contained in the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 and as amended in 2012".

It clearly means that Manipur University ought to follow CEI Act of 2012 since the quantum of reservation of the State is clearly expressed in the amended Parliament Act which prescribed 31% for the ST. Acting upon this court order notice, Manipur University convened another Academic Council meeting in which it resolved to send 3 Academic Council members along with the Registrar in-charge to meet the UGC and MHRD officials on 12th September 2016.

Again, an emergent meeting of the Academic Council was convened on 3rd October 2016 and also on 8th October 2016 which reiterated to stick with the CEI Act of 2006 (and not the Amended CEI Act of 2012).

Decrying the decision of the Academic Council to follow 2006 Act, Manipur University Tribal Students' Union (MUTSU) decided to take an extreme step of "Mass Exodus" from the university campus from 10th October 2016 at 2:00 pm onwards and till date they have not returned in the campus.

To mark this historic Exodus, a Mega Rally was organized on 13th October 2016 in Imphal under the aegis of ATSUM along with ANSAM, KSO-GHQ, MUTSU and other district/tribe based Student Organizations. Adding more confusion to the prevailing situation, the Vice Chancellor of the university resigned citing mental and physical pressure. There were some untoward incidents in the campus as well which led to destruction of many properties and university equipments. Thus Manipur University came to a complete standstill very soon.

Therefore, the reservation issue in Manipur University has aroused lot of anxiety and exposed serious concern of law and order in the State. It is observed that the reservation rules in terms of faculty recruitment and admissions have also been violated with impunity. As per data collected by the MUTSU in 2014, there are no STs amongst the 70-odd professors in the University. There are also no Associate Professors from ST out of the 40-odd Associate Professors in the University.

All in all, the Scheduled Tribes from the state occupy just 3.3 percent of faculty positions in the University which is much under represented which only explains its biased intention. This also holds true with inadequate tribal representation in the university AC, EC, University Court, Finance Committee and even in the Selection Committee (both teaching and non-teaching) where one member from the category is mandatory as per the rules.

Thus serious loopholes have also been observed in the university procedurally and structurally. It may also be pointed out that the University has no fully constituted Executive Council (EC) until now. Due to this, the University Authority cannot seek the advice of the Council on crucial issues (such as the present crisis), which further hampers the smooth functioning of the University Administration.

Furthermore, the University Court should have stepped in to give legal advice pertaining to any legal issue/s of the university. Instead the university seems to be writing letter one after the other to the University Visitor (the President of India), HRD Minister, Supreme Court of India etc which is not a good precedent.

It is argued that there is no need for any Academic Council to deliberate on the subject which falls on purely 'administrative'. The Vice Chancellor could have acted on his own and implement the rules instructed by UGC from time to time without even routed through the Academic Council. This is because university is so obliged to follow the rules and guidelines passed by the UGC.

* Reservation in Case of Recruitment in percentile on Local Basis (Sources: DoPT O.M. No. 36011/6/2010- Estt (Res) June 2010)

Therefore, my personal argument has been that university should never be a place of violence or extreme circumstances where students (groups or communities) are left to the streets protesting and fighting for their basic rights. Academic careers of the students are paramount and no issue/excuse of the university is not big enough than student's life and career.

Therefore, university should be more inclusive and all important constituents of the university such as AC, EC, Finance Committee and the University Court should uphold equality, justice and protect all minorities in the campus. It should not fall under any external or internal forces at any circumstances and any given point of time.

University should be a place to mould young minds and nurture new thoughts so that society progress and flourishes. Then only we can claim that we are the responsible stakeholders of the nation building project. Therefore, it is time for the Manipur University authority to act swiftly and bring back normalcy in the campus. Let the university be independent, free and fair from all "isms".