On November 29, the NEHUTA (North-Eastern Hill University Teachers' Association) threw down the gauntlet to North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) Vice-Chancellor Prof Prabha Shankar Shukla, asking him to substantiate the charges he levelled against the association, thereby tarnishing its image.
In a rebuttal submitted to the Secretary of Higher Education, Government of India (GOI), NEHUTA president Lakhon Kma said Prof Shukla is trying to blame the current crisis in NEHU on NEHUTA, NEHUSU (North-Eastern Hill University Students Union), KSU (Khasi Students' Union), state government, and state police instead of blaming himself, reported The Shillong Times.
NEHUTA condemned the VC’s “irresponsible” statements allegedly made with a malafide intention to defame the association, all other stakeholders of NEHU and entire Meghalaya. Prof Kma said it is unacceptable that the VC is trying to blame the teachers of NEHU and therefore, NEHUTA is forced to question his academic credentials.
NEHUTA President
“It is pertinent to state how Prof Shukla was appointed as the Vice-Chancellor by keeping aside much more qualified shortlisted candidates. He was a purely political appointee. As he implored upon the 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,” the NEHUTA president said.
Further, he alleged Prof Shukla keeps undermining and decrying the contributions of NEHU faculty members.
“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 nor brought any funds except paying lip service to research and academics in the university,” Kma said.
Additionally, he also said that Prof Shukla has let down every section of the university community and every aspect of its academic, research, financial, and administrative responsibilities, which led to a huge mess for which students, teachers and non-teaching staff and people of the state had to resort to protests and agitations declaring him as “persona non grata”.
Letter to MoE
Meanwhile, the NEHUTA president observed that the “colourful” letterhead on which Prof Shukla wrote the letter addressed to the Principal Secretary of Higher Education, Government of India, is not signed by him, but his signature was copy-pasted by somebody else.
Kma said this is the level of the VC’s wilful omission and commission with which he goes to the public and authorities to level unsubstantiated charges, casting biased aspersions on individual faculty members. “Secondly, no faculty individually operated in the protest and agitation, as their participation in the role of members and office bearers of the Teachers' Association called NEHUTA is a matter of their rights and dignity, especially when a VC like Prof Shukla fails to address a single issue,” Kma said.
VC's rejoining
He said Prof Shukla jumped the gun by expressing his “sweet will” to return in the middle of a due process of inquiry when the committee appointed by the Ministry of Education was 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,” Kma said, reported The Shillong Times.
