Shillong, July 23: Thma U Rangli-Juki (TUR) on Friday condemned the appointment of a non-indigenous upper caste, Prof Prabha Shankar Shukla as the Vice-Chancellor of North Eastern Hill University.
“This appointment shows very clearly the anti-tribal attitude of the Hindutva dispensation running the Union government,” TUR leader Angela Rangad said in a statement.
She said for the oldest Central University in the Tribal Hill regions of India, it is imperative that local indigenous talent is acknowledged and nurtured.
According to her, NEHU in its long history has had only three tribal vice-chancellors and out of the three only one from Meghalaya, namely Dr. B Pakem.
Of the rest, all of the vice-chancellors have been upper-caste Hindus and except for Dr. BD Sharma, whose solidarity with the tribal cause was well known, the rest have been disinterested in tribal social realities, Rangad said.
She further stated that TUR believes that all the central institutions in Meghalaya should come under the local reservation policy.
