Bad-Blood Drained, Start Mending Relationship Now

Editorial:
The Sikkim University-State Government cold war has broken out in the open. Finally. After a series of snubs, snide asides and obvious indifference which played out for more than three years, the situation has collapsed to head-on blame trading. This is not necessarily as bad a thing as the viciousness of the latest exchange makes it out to be. The silver lining behind the thick pall of bad blood is that the wrangle is public. Now that the bad blood has been let out, it will require overt gestures from both sides to patch the wound and see if the relationship can be mended.
Thus far, because both sides had studiously refused to admit to differences, or even acknowledge each other, the disagreement had simmered unresolved, growing increasingly acrimonious. Now that the grievances have been publicly aired, the situation cannot get any worse. The differences are now under public observation, scrutiny if you like, and what the people would want is not for both sides to continue with the blame-game [this is not an issue that people would want to take sides in], or withdraw into their shells again [because no one wants the cold shouldering to continue], but to sit down and settle their differences. The differences might be personal, but at stake here is an institution; an institution which might shout its “established by an Act of Parliament” credentials on every occasion, but one which is still about Sikkim and one which every Sikkimese concerned about higher education should claim ownership of and get involved in. What is required of the civil society and the people at large is to convince the State authorities to open channels of communication to clear the air and resume the collaboration required to help the university find its feet. This is important because every government college student in Sikkim is a student of Sikkim University [save, of course the ones to be enrolled at Kyongsa College] and they need to be reassured that the institution deciding the course of their higher education has the involvement as well as endorsement of the State Government. Ignoring Sikkim University does not help, because by doing so the authorities also sacrifice the moral right to comment on its management.
It might have been the ruling party which lashed out against the Sikkim University Vice Chancellor, but it was obviously conveying the State Government’s sentiments. The issue has since been joined by the Opposition parties. The State Government and the University authorities have not yet addressed the spat directly, although their posturing has been reflected rather clearly in media reports. It is important for them to come on record immediately and ensure that the door which has opened allows negotiations and settlement to blow in, and not the flood of political rhetoric which invariably speaks only in hollow pretensions. One-upmanship might sustain politics, but is an attitude which compromises institutions and Sikkim would not want to wish it on one which is special and materialised after consistent petitions to the Centre. The sooner that the differences are taken up for discussions by the State Government and the Sikkim University management, the better it will be for the State’s image as far as its support for education is concerned and for the institution in as much as its willingness to work with the State is concerned. If the matter is left out to be snipped at by political parties, it will digress into tangents which will create more bad-blood and worse still, hack away at the credentials of both, the university as well as the State. One does not want education to be dictated by political assertiveness, nor the openness that a university should embrace, to be restrained by parochial concerns or vacuous management. Allowing the situation to be claimed by politics will make things worse. The latest spat might appear to have been triggered by the delay in land acquisition for the university and the SU’s inflexibility in accommodating the State Government’s decision to open a college in Gyalshing. While these issues definitely had a catalysing effect, they are themselves manifestations of a falling-out which is of older vintage. Where the State and the University should have been collaborating to make higher education more accessible, we see the pettiness of sabotaging such efforts and where the State should have been facilitating the strengthening of the university’s infrastructure, one sees obvious stonewalling. This issue should have been resolved three years ago when SU took its first batch of students in government colleges here and the colleges and the Department, instead of celebrating the event, tried to remain under North Bengal University. That batch of students graduated last month, uncelebrated again, and the relationship which had started fraying at that time is now in tatters. It’s time that the mending began.