It is never a good look to have masses of uniformed police personnel on the campus of a university.
Universities are meant to be places where ideas are challenged, thought reigns free and discussions and debates are held as part of the academic ecosystem.
In India, however, this is the ideal but not the reality, especially not in our government-run universities, such as NEHU. Part of what has landed this varsity in the mess that it is in is the interference of the central government, especially in the appointment of an unpopular Vice-Chancellor.
Intense and sustained protests against the incumbent VC have plunged NEHU into a crisis the likes of which it has not seen in its history. Last week things got worse with an apparent case of physical assault against a member of the teaching staff in the Hindi Department.
It has been said that this particular staff member has close ties with a Hindutva organisation and had provoked his alleged attackers to the point where they assaulted him. All of this has yet to be examined by a court of law, so is still largely conjecture. However, if it is true that the NEHU Students Union president (currently under arrest) took a leading part in this assault, then it is a sad day for education in Meghalaya. For even if he were provoked, surely a university student should have been able to use words and not violence in response?
NEHUSU was meant to be different from some of the other students’ unions in the state, which appear to be more interested in goondaism than education. This makes such an assault more condemnable and it is right and proper that the law be applied against the guilty.
However, the authorities quickly lost the moral high ground when they inexplicably sent over 100 uniformed police onto the campus on Monday. Were they there to provide security, make arrests or what? Some students and staff pointed out that the police had no right to be on campus if they were not sent for by the Acting VC or other responsible official. On Tuesday the Deputy Chief Minister clarified that the police require no such permission but they were being withdrawn from the campus in any event.
Students were spooked, there seems to be no doubt about that. Coincidentally, we are just a few days away from the 55th anniversary of the Kent State massacre, which took place during protests by university students against the expansion of the Vietnam War in Ohio, USA, in 1970. Four students were killed and nine injured in firing by the Ohio National Guard (a sort of militia/army reserve force).
We want our universities to be safe spaces – every bonafide student, their parents and staff want that. The assault of a staff member is a grievous betrayal of everything a university should stand for but the deplorable state that NEHU is in at the moment makes such an incident almost predictable. Massing cops on campus, though, is not the way forward.
