Shillong, Nov 29: The North Eastern Hill University Teachers’ Association (NEHUTA) on Friday slammed the vice chancellor Prof Prabha Shankar Shukla for trying to blame the association, state government, students and non teaching staff for the current crisis in the university.
This came a day after Prof Shukla sought adequate security before resuming office as VC on December 2, despite the ongoing protest demanding his removal.
In a statement, NEHUTA president Prof Lakhon Kma said, “NEHUTA would like to strongly condemn his irresponsible statements with a malafide intention to defame the NEHUTA, all other stakeholders of the NEHU and the entire state of Meghalaya. Prof. Shukla is trying to blame NEHU teachers, which is not acceptable and hence the Association is forced to question Prof. Shukla’s academic credentials.”
“It is pertinent to state how Prof. P. S. Shukla was appointed as the Vice-Chancellor by keeping aside much more qualified shortlisted candidates. He was a pure political appointee. As he implored upon ongoing performance of every faculty, it is indeed necessary to appraise in the public domain what are his academic and research contributions, publications and other such research related works that are noteworthy. To our utter dismay, while Prof. P. S. Shukla does not have any, he keeps undermining and decrying contributions of NEHU faculty,” he said.
“On the one hand he claimed credit for QS ranking and on the other he keeps downgrading faculty research and contributions. Indeed, in more than three years of his tenure as a VC, he has neither invested any resource to promote academics and research not brought any funds except paying lip service to research and academics in the University. A political appointee VC like Prof. P. S. Shukla has seriously let down every section of the university community and every aspect of its academic, research, financial and administrative responsibilities leading to huge mess for which students, teachers and non-teaching and larger Meghalaya public had to resort of protests and agitations declaring him as persona non grata, who is no longer welcome to step into NEHU and Meghalaya. He is totally oblivious of NEHU, Meghalaya and the North-Eastern region’s socio-cultural ethos and ecosystems. It is because of his non-understanding and mishandling of the situation as reflected in his careless statements of blaming faculty and others for slide of rank in NIRF and his non-response to students’ demands for immediate removal of erring officials like Registrar and Deputy Registrar that hunger strike happened with all its consequential deleterious effect on health of students, for which he alone remains responsible,” Prof Kma stated.
He further added, “It is because of his adamant and arrogant non response that the situation escalated to this level and to hide his own incompetence he is indulging into a game of blame by shifting and targeting teachers, students and non-teaching employees and their Associations and Unions, which are important statutory bodies of elected representatives under NEHU Act which was duly passed by the honorable Parliament. The falling NIRF ranking of NEHU is due to the gross mismanagement of NEHU’s affair at every level by Prof. Shukla. His entire tenure so far is marked by the propagation of mediocracy and murder of meritocracy. He rewarded an underperforming person a second term as Dean of School of Social Sciences denying much more productive 20 odd professors down the line waiting for their turn to come by the rule of ‘seniority by rotation’.”
The NEHUTA president also noted that the VC jumped the gun by expressing his sweet will to return in the middle of due process of inquiry when the Committee appointed by the Ministry is seized with issues of NEHU and going to submit its report.
“While we are all eagerly waiting for the report, his proclamation that he would like to join NEHU on 2/12/2024 while his conduct as a VC is under investigation by the Inquiry Committee shows that Prof. Shukla ridiculed the Ministry and perhaps, thinks that he is above it. Moreover, as a habitual liar, he tried to misled everyone by falsely claiming that the NEHU Inquiry Report was prepared under the Chairmanship of Prof. Lakhon Kma to tarnish the reputation of NEHUTA and its members and the Acting VC Prof. N. Saha (Annexure 5),” he said.
“Meanwhile, Prof. P. S. Shukla came out with such an unsubstantiated abrasive public statement to further create rift, tension and chaos on the University so that he can sadistically enjoy the pain that he inflicted on the University community from a distance. This sensationalism and irresponsible act of Prof. P. S. Shukla is further reflected in his abrasive assertion that non-tribal teachers are threatened during the agitation. Such a statement is intended to create rift in the University between tribal and non-Tribal teachers with a communal intent which again shows how Prof. Shukla is psychologically completely deranged. No man ever in his senses can create such animosity. We have raised from spectra of communal flare-up and violence in NEHU and Meghalaya and he is restarting it through his communally charged statements,” he stated.
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