All is not well; most certainly not with the Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University (BGSBU). The handling of the affairs by the University Administration is suggestive of ‘old-fashioned raw politics’. And this is bound to vitiate the academic atmosphere of this fledgling university established in one of the educationally not-so-attended areas of the State. Set up in salubrious environs, it was hoped that this university would provide atmosphere for growth and development of scholarship in the State, but some recent incidents of student unrest indicate that   the Campus is unnecessarily being allowed to get politicized. On Sunday the University authorities not only allowed, but called the personnel of Special Operation Group of Police into Campus to deal with a group of students who had staged a sit-in against the examination system in vogue in the University. The engineering students of the University have been on strike for past few days in support of their demand. The Special Operation Group (SOG) personnel of the police used force against students squatting peacefully outside the administration block of the University injuring fifty of them. Some critically injured had to be admitted in a local hospital. Apparently the students are logical in their demand; bring examination system in the BGSB University at par with other universities in the State or outside. What is surprising is that the authorities instead of looking into the grievances of the students got them baton charged. Had the University authorities dealt with the situation intelligently the eruption of the trouble could have been prevented. It is astounding why authorities called the SOG, an elite combatant force of the State police trained for dealing with insurgency, to the campus to persuade students staging sit-in to end their strike. The elite force fired indiscriminately using tear gas shells and brutally baton charging engineering students.
 It is equally puzzling if the elite police force entered the University campus without seeking necessary orders from the top brass or the district administration. The state administration need not hide its head in the sand but instead order an investigation to identify the reasons for spoiling the academic atmosphere of this University; a University that is in its take off stage. It is a hard reality that in most of our universities the academic atmosphere gets disturbed because of politics being allowed to run down into the Campus. Students only become a victim of this runoff. And it is one of the reasons that in our academic institutions the standards of education have gone down. In fact the decay that has beset some of our premier education institutions has percolated down to lower levels resulting in a sharp decline in the standards of education in the State.
It needs not to be reiterated that the BGSBU was expected to be an institution of great accomplishments in science, technology and arts; a model for other universities in the State and outside. But the way poison of politics has started seeping in the veins of this University, it is going to defeat the very purpose for which this University was set up. One of the contributing factors for the rot has been continuance of adhoc arrangements in the University. The term of the present Vice Chancellor has ended long before and it is high time for the government to appoint a new Vice Chancellor for this University. The criteria for appointment of Vice Chancellor should purely be academic worth and administrative capability. The unpleasant incident at BGSB University is suggestive of many ailments in our education system, and one by one we should identify them. One such consuming problem is the role played by politics in determining the academic and administrative content of our universities. This needs a precise clinical treatment. Before it grows into anything, clip it out.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST