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| Dogra academicians second to none, CU must be headed by a Dogra | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 23: Anyway, if the University of Jammu has been headed by non-Dogras like JN Bhan, JD Sharma, SC Dube, Amitabh Mattoo and Varun Sawhney, the story of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra, and Agricultural University, RS Pura, has been no different. The people of Jammu province in general and its youth in particular fought relentlessly for forcing the anti-Jammu authorities to set up these two universities. In fact, the student community of the province, backed to the hilt by the civil society, carried on a two-month-long agitation in Jammu between February 28 and May 7, 1998 to achieve their objective.
The agitation was a massive affair. Jammu observed a complete shutdown for more than 15 days. In the process they suffered police brutalities. Thousands of the agitating youth courted arrest. The people's participation in the agitation was voluntary. There was no coercion at all. The participation of women and school, college and university going girls was very impressive. The agitating youth virtually brought the government to their knees. The government would have surely collapsed, had not the then Chief Minister realized the gravity of the situation as it prevailed then in Jammu province.
Knowing it full well, Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah made the Assembly adopt the relevant two bills in no time and saved his chair. It was a remarkable victory of the Jammu youth. The 1998 spectacular success could be termed as the second great success of the people of Jammu province after their 2008 splendid victory. The case in point is the Amarnath land agitation in Jammu and the decision of the defeated, alarmed and clueless authorities to divert the Baltal land to the shrine board on a permanent basis free of cost. The agitation in Jammu established that it would be suicidal for the authorities to take the Dogras of Jammu for granted.
The people of Jammu and its youth had not fought for the establishment of universities, which would be handed over to the non-Dogras, who would rule like kings, thus injuring the sensitivities and psyche of the people of Jammu who had made supreme sacrifices for the Jammu cause. But it was not to be, Vindictive and anti-Jammu as they were, the powers-that-be in the Raj Bhawan and state government managed the appointment of non-Dogras as Vice-Chancellor of the Shri Mata Vaishmo Devi University and Agricultural University, this defeating the very objective the people of Jammu province and its youth had fought for and suffered immensely.
It needs to be noted that so far the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University has seen three Vice-Chancellors and all outsiders, including two from Kashmir. Similarly, the Agricultural University in Jammu has seen three Vice-Chancellor and all the three outsiders, one from Kashmir and others from other parts India, including Bihar.
About the functioning of these universities less said the better. Local newspapers publish stories on a daily basis on the style of the functioning of these Vice-Chancellors. It is a different story that the governors like Lt Gen (Retd) SK Sinha gave them full protection. The situation continues to remain the same. There are coteries in these universities head by the Vice-Chancellors who have been playing foul games and doing everything that accommodates outsiders and excludes and harms the Jammu Dogras. The Early Times has the information regarding the mal-functioning in these universities and it has been exposing the misdeeds of the Vice-Chancellors from time to time.
As if all this was not enough to insult and humiliate the Jammu-based academicians, the authorities in the state and at the Centre have, it appears, joined hands with a view to ensuring the induction in the yet-to-be-established Central University in Jammu an outsider. He could be Amitabh Mattoo or Sadiq Wahid or he could be someone else, but not a Dogra.
If the reports emanating from New Delhi are any indication, then it can be said that the Dogra academicians will again be dismissed as third-rate academicians by the authorities, whosoever they are. This is not something good for the future of the state, which is already witnessing inter-regional tensions and extreme form of inter-regional bitterness. The authorities would be inviting trouble for themselves in case any outsider, even a Kashmiri, is imposed as the Vice-Chancellor on the Central University in Jammu over the heads of the talented Dogras. Hence, the authorities would do well to ensure the appointment of a Jammu Dogra as the Vice-Chancellor of the Central University. They must remember what the brave Dogras did in 1998 and 2008. (Concluded) |
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