While utterly dismayed with Manipur University Notification Order vide No.MU/3-37/CUET/ADM/Aca/22 pertaining to fresh admission in various Master level programs and integrated courses even while the ethnic cleansing in the state is still going on, the Kuki Students Orhanisation, General Headquarters, (KSO-GHQ) has demanded that the MU authorities should first address the issue of 400 students including 80 research scholars who are displaced right now.
In its press statement issued on Thursday, the KSO-GHQ warned Manipur University authority not to continue the fresh admission process immediately without resolving the problems faced by Kuki students fraternity.
The Kuki Students’ Organisation stated that the prospects of the Kuki students for higher education is severely affected and jeopardized.
“Since 3rd May evening, the mob run riots inside the campus of Manipur University (MU) to carry out arson and the genocide of the students, staff, faculty belonging to the Kuki Community. The following days, all tribal students including those belonging to the Naga community took shelter at the Assam Rifles camp inside the campus and thereafter, evacuated to the relief camps. In the process of arson, the targeted attacks of personal belongings were directed towards certificates, books, thesis, laptops, etc. Even till today, the Kuki community cannot go to Manipur University and even the Imphal Valley,” KSO said.
Manipur University became a Central University under an act of parliament in 2005. But it has lost its central character and has vitiated itself to even less than a State University. It will be appropriate to rename it ‘Meitei University’, it said.
KSO asserted that some important hallmarks of higher education are accessibility and equity, which is enshrined in the Indian Constitution and upheld by the Ministry of Education and University Grant Commission. But now Manipur University has become inaccessible for students, staffs and faculties belonging to the Kuki community and the authority and the State failed miserably to protect them, it said.
The students’ body demanded that instead of going gung-ho with the admission process, the MU authorities should first address the issue of 400 students including 80 research scholars who are displaced right now.
“All cases have to be resolved on a case to case basis without compromising their future educational prospects and personal safety. Steps should be taken to facilitate their protection of careers like online examination, pre- submission seminar online, handling of certificates, etc,” KSO said, and added that fresh admission should be enabled at the hill areas and arrangement be made for continuation of higher education for the Kuki community in the hill areas.
The KSO General Headquarters warned the Manipur University authority not to continue the fresh admission process immediately without resolving the above issues, and also appealed to all the Kuki tribal students to abstain from applying to such ‘Meitei University’ without making alternative arrangements for the riots affected tribal students.
The KSO General Headquarters further condemned in the strongest terms the insensitive nature of the authority of Manipur University towards the Kuki fraternity of the university till date by continuing in the form of business as usual without taking any steps to resolve the issues faced by the students from Kuki community.
