Absurdities in (Manipur) University: Where is the sane voice of teachers?

By- MC Meetei 

Manipur University is yet again in news for all the bad reasons. From chronic administrative irregularities to the bad old days of ‘VC Pandey ji’, and from ‘near senile state of social sciences’ rigour to a wretched surrender of academic freedom, Manipur University is seemingly a miniature of Hobbesian state of nature. One need not be a historian to flip through the pages of the University’s past when its statutes were derogated and sane voices silenced. Students’ movements and petitions over campus militarisation in the 1990s, subsequent events of wrongful appointments, and un–authorised commissioning of projects, among others, have often rocked the boat called Manipur University. On the 14th May 2026, the charge of Vice–Chancellor (VC) of Manipur University was handed over to one Prof. Ganga Prasad Parsain. The Union Ministry of Education has opted for an ‘ad-hoc’ in-charge Vice-Chancellor. The ordered has triggered protests from the students on the ground that Prof. Parsain’s appointment violates Section 2 (6) of Manipur University Act, 2005. Section 2 (6) reads ‘in the absence of a regular Vice-Chancellor, the charge is to be assigned to the Pro Vice-Chancellor or the senior most Professor’. As Prof. Parsain is neither the senior most professor nor the Pro–Vice Chancellor, his appointment is a plain violation of the University’s statute. To recall another case, in 2020 the High Court of Manipur had to intervene to uphold the autonomy of the University with regard to the said section.
Uncertainty has hardly been an aberration for Manipur, so as Manipur University. If the state’s federal autonomy has been severely battered since May 3, 2023, the autonomy of Manipur University is in an even more dire condition. And, this unruliness is emblematic of the crises in India’s higher education administration. The current crisis in Manipur University is not about who should be the actual Vice-Chancellor. What is more worrying is the consistent desecration of the statutory obligations and utter lack of institutional fairness. Derogation of statutory norms in the appointment of university officials have become considerably recurrent. Another controversy is already brewing up in the lone National Sports University (NSU), Manipur as a retired IPS officer has been appointed as the Vice Chancellor triggering the same question of ‘violating recruitment rules and provisions under the NSU Act, 2018’. This time, the controversy in NSU, has taken a political turn as a non-academic and a non–shortlisted candidate has been appointed as the Vice Chancellor.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports had reportedly issued a notification inviting applications for the post in December 2024. Subsequently, 15 candidates were shortlisted for the post and 14 candidates appeared for the viva-voce on May 31, 2025 in Delhi. For the reasons best known to the Ministry, the incumbent VC of NSU was appointed. The surprising fact of the matter is that the current VC of NSU, Mr Daljit Singh, was neither shortlisted nor appeared in the viva-voce. The case of Dhanamanjuri University (DMU) established in 2017 is no better. In the first seven years of its inception, DMU saw only one regular VC. The long span of bureaucratic reign, with least academic sensibility, complimented by governmental apathy landed up the students of DMU in various hardships due to the issues pertaining to UGC 12 B status.
Manipur that has been battered by three years of ethnic division, bandhs and internet shut down for hundreds of days, the unruly administration of higher education needs to be viewed as a serious matter. Another avoidable spell of crisis has been imposed on the students of Manipur University with the appointment of Prof. Parsain while transgressing the University Statute. This time again, the voice of resistance has come from the students, that too, on an issue that apparently looks indirectly related to them. Manipur University Students’ Union (MUSU) is up against the appointment of Prof. Parsain’s on the ground that it violates the ‘autonomy’ of Manipur University. MUSU deserves praise for the incredible concern raised. Nonetheless, what is surprising is the near senile silence maintained by the incumbent teaching community of Manipur University and its representative body called Manipur University Teachers’ Association (MUTA), on issue that has directly affected their service mobility, rights, and dignity. Such a silence is to prove inimical to the future of Manipur University and its prestige.
MUTA should have led the debate, if not the resistance. Being silent on such a question of university’s propriety looks quite obviously advertent amounting to an abject surrender of academic sanity. Universities are critical sites of good knowledge production, it is not a mere avenue for employment. Academic freedom is a hard won condition of creative human labour and resilience of sane voices. It needs to be reified every day, every moment, and that is an essential dharma of university pedagogy. Silence, in a pattern of a regularity, is signal of a dying pedagogy. Collective voice of the teachers, MUTA and teachers’ forums in Manipur, should have come upfront when the academic freedom of your co-faculties were curtailed and orders of restrictions were placed on free-speech for you should have realised that it was meant for everyone of you; no matter even if you are so close to the power that be. Wake up, before it’s too late and fail all your social credibility.