The statement of the organisation release in connection with the ongoing impasse is produced without editing
MSAD as a collective voice of Manipuri students staying in Delhi has observed the ongoing political scenario in Manipur and the deteriorating politics inside Manipur University, and thus it has resolved to take a solid stand with regard to the struggle faced by students community in Manipur University.
Time and again it has been proven that there is an inherent contradiction between the aspiration of the people of Manipur and the administration of Manipur (which represents power that be in Delhi), and the people of Manipur (which is represented by its masses and student community) have always revolted against such inherent contradiction right from the day when the Indian government forcefully merged Manipur within their oppressive regime.
Education, in any society, is never neutral. It either serves as a technology that facilitates the integration of a whole young generation into the logic of the system that exists (the colonial system in Manipur) and to bring conformity with it, or either it serves as a critical tool to look into the realities of the system and to bring about a drastic change. A university is one of the places where a critical mindset will develop and from time to time will resist and revolt against any oppression in a coherent manner, and this Delhi quite knows for sure.
It is because of the above reason that oppressive regime and its puppet administration have used their power to silence every resisting voice and have used whatever resource within their capacity to destroy the critical mindset that a university breeds so that students community will, at the end serve the purpose of oppressive regime.
Manipur University has become a laboratory of colonial system of education, a site of colonial experimentation and practice. No doubt Manipur is one of the most militarized zones on earth and there resides a military cantonment inside the very campus which has led to a creation of fear psychosis among the student community, a psychosis which at the end the student community seems to have normalized.
The recent statement made by India’s Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan in 105th Indian Science Congress held in Manipur University where he uttered an illogical and foolish Hinduised (a religion which is inherently Castiest) statement that cosmologist Stephen Hawking had said that the Vedas have a theory that is superior to Albert Einstein’s e=mc^2 theory of relativity reflects the pathetic condition of this university and its intellectual condition.
Moreover, the ongoing conflict with regard to the blatant misuse of power by the MU Mayang Vice-Chancellor, Adya Prasad Pandey, where he has tried to saffronised the university campus, in turn inviting a strong protest against such VC by the students community (namely MUSU and others), and the subsequent shutdown of MU campus by violent state force, have led MSAD to a situation where it has become a necessity act from our part to raise a voice as such.
MSAD is of the view that saffronising (Hinduizing) Manipur within the framework and discourse of India’s “one nation one culture” is nothing but an anti-Manipur step from the part of the Delhi government. Manipuri and its people will resist and revolt against such intrusion from every front with any means necessary.
MSAD stands in solidarity with the people of Manipur and its student community in its fight for a just education system. The VC should resign at the earliest, and the military cantonment should vacate the university space no later in the interest of the student community in particular and Manipur people in general.
