“Concentrate on education, not on politics”: Governor Jagdish Mukhi’s suggestion for Assam University students

Governor of Assam, professor Jagdish Mukhi visited the Assam University yesterday to attend the 27th foundation Day of the varsity. 

While he encouraged the students to delve deep into research, he suggested they must not let politics become more important than studies in their life. He said, “I appreciate the role of students at any moment, in any part of the country, but at the same time (I think), they should not concentrate on political issues only, they should concentrate on their education as well.”

He added, “As governor of Assam, I am the chancellor of 17 universities. I look for quality education and I want students to concentrate on achieving quality education first. Universities are meant for education, not for politics. I disapprove of any act of violence in the name of protest or movement.”

While a lot of what the Governor said was on the backdrop of the protests going on in Jamia and JNU in Delhi, some of it was targetted to the students of Assam University Silchar too. Recently, the students locked all the key offices in the University complex. They alleged financial inconsistencies and demanded immediate suspension of the officials associated. They also demanded for suspension of a non-teaching staff alleging that he had manhandled the students when they went to him with a complaint.

The district administration sent magistrates, Police and paramilitary forces, after days of negotiation the offices were unlocked on January 20, 2020. Silchar MP, Rajdeep Roy said he felt the protests were an “adoption” of the JNU model. He went on to say that the students here are taking inspiration from a popular gang of JNU. “This sort of protest reminds me of JNU and some popular gangs there,” he said.

The MP reminded students about the other side of JNU too, “It is a University that produces IAS-IPS in numbers, something that we do not see students achieving from this institution. So I would suggest they must keep education as a priority,” he concluded.