There has been much bickering by Assam’s Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma on the University of Science and Technology (USTM) located at Baridua in Ri Bhoi district, at the Assam-Meghalaya border. Sarma launched his first attack on USTM following the floods in Guwahati city that disrupted public movement. While residents of Guwahati attest to the fact that there have been building violations especially by builders of high-rise residential buildings and encroachments into drains and canals, Biswa Sarma is hell bent on blaming USTM’s earth cutting activities for the waters from Meghalaya flooding nearby areas of Guwahati and Khanapara. In his usual Islamophobic twist he called the recent floods in Guwahati city, “flood jihad.” Biswa Sarma accuses the USTM of earth cutting for building the PA Sangma medical college. The University administration contests this allegation stating that they had taken adequate environmental precautions and that the building plans and earth cutting etc were approved by the State Forest Department.
In normal circumstances if the Chief Minister of Assam were to escalate such environmental concerns to the Chief Minister of Meghalaya, the matter would have been taken to a different level and tackled more effectively if the allegations stand scrutiny, but because Biswa Sarma is a congenital Muslim baiter, no one is taking his allegations seriously. He has threatened to take the matter to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) even as USTM refuses to react. The Assam CM has always used the media to spread his no-holds barred attacks on Muslims. Two days earlier he had even questioned a journalist for asking certain questions and alluded to him being Muslim. This has angered the press fraternity in Assam which has condemned the incident.
The USTM is a top 200 university under the NIRF. It is run by a Foundation owned by Mahbubul Hoque – a Bengali-Muslim from Assam – who is also the Chancellor of the institute. Earlier the Assam CM nit-picked at the construction of the University entrance accusing it of being non-secular. His latest tirade against USTM is that students passing out of that University would not get jobs in Assam unless they clear some special examination held by the Assam Government. This is a direct attack on the freedom of function of educational institutions which are mandated by the University Grants Commission (UGC). Can the State of Assam alone take such an arbitrary decision? Would this sort of capricious move stand judicial scrutiny? This indeed is a matter of great concern as it hits at the secular ethos of this country which has stood the test of time. In a fit of pique Biswa Sarma has also announced that his government would pass a new law to check the antecedents of every group that wants to establish universities in Assam. While this does happen as a matter of formality and any group or individual wanting to set up an institution in any state has to go through the formalities of providing their sources of incomes and sustainability models to the state government, anything exceeding that brief would point to ill-intent.
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