The allegations are thus: a) that an assistant professor of Goa University stole a question paper from a colleague and gave it to a girl student; b) that despite this being brought to the notice of Goa University, the university heads did not take action.
What happened next was a group of activists filed a complaint with the police.
While the matter may be investigated by the police and appropriate action taken, there are various other issues involved here, but primarily for this discussion, here are two: a) why didn’t Goa University act immediately?; b) why didn’t the student body of the university take up the matter, also immediately?
It was surprising, quite shocking even, to hear the vice chancellor stating that there was no official complaint. In a case such as this, one doesn’t wait for complaints, whether formal or informal, but acts at the first allegation.
Was Goa University hoping to sweep the matter under the carpet with the hope that it would remain there? It ordered an inquiry only after the matter boiled over.
As the top educational institute in the State – it is the only university in Goa – those occupying the posts of vice chancellor, registrar have the collective responsibility of not just ensuring that the standards of learning are maintained, but also those of probity.
Was Goa University hoping to sweep the matter under the carpet with the hope that it would remain there? It ordered an inquiry only after the matter boiled over.
Here, Goa University failed. It calls for another probe, as to whether there was any motive to keep the matter secret, hoping that it would not seep through the walls of the university and be taken up by others. Was the university so sure that the students would not take up this matter or even leak it out?
This brings us to the second question of the role of the students – their strength, rather, and their potential to stand by the student community of Goa.
Whatever has happened to the student movement in Goa that it is unable to raise issues that affect their own body and it is left to activists, who have so many other battles to fight, to take up for the student community?
Has the student movement in Goa weakened to such an extent or has it been politicised such that it cannot act unless it is given the green signal by the parent political party?
From even a cursory examination of the matter, there does appear to be an apparent reluctance on the part of the student groups and unions to take it up.
Obviously, this last became clear in the manner in which the two students’ unions came into the picture a day after the social activists filed the complaint.
While one group of students went and filed a separate complaint, seeking a probe into the entire incident, another merely protested and demanded an inquiry.
From even a cursory examination of the matter, there does appear to be an apparent reluctance on the part of the student groups and unions to take it up.
This reaction of the students to the matter at hand is so different from the past, when an issue such as this would possibly have united the entire student community across the State to take it up and see that it meets a logical conclusion.
One merely has to ask some of the past student leaders for their memories of the role they played in their youth.
In fact, that may not even be necessary, for in recent months the ‘inspiring history of Goa’s students’ movement of the 1970s and the 1980s’ was celebrated, with the student leaders of those times, some of them now senior citizens, recalling the movements and how they kept them going.
One of the observations at this meeting was that, in current times, student unions have become more of ‘event companies’ whose ‘presence is felt either during college/university elections or issues which are generally irrelevant to the students at large or the State’.
One of the observations at this meeting was that, in current times, student unions have become more of ‘event companies’ whose ‘presence is felt either during college/university elections or issues which are generally irrelevant to the students at large or the State’.
If there was a need to substantiate this statement, then the current scandal at the university suffices, for this issue is relevant to the students, and yet, their involvement is hardly seen.
Goa’s student community has definitely lost its voice, its vibrancy and its will to stand up against what is wrong. If it cannot show its strength in a case involving the university and where there is an obvious malfeasance, when will it display its force?