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On Wednesday, after The Indian Express ran a story about the heads of educational institutes going into a shell after four attacks in four days by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) members, Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT), Symbiosis International University and Bharati Vidyapeeth felt emboldened enough to come out with official statements condemning the attacks.
Despite MIT, Indira Institute, Raisoni institute and Bharati Vidyapeeth bearing the brunt of the MNS fury, till Wednesday, all the stakeholders of the city education sector had gone into a shell and were not ready to come out openly and condemn these attacks against the institutes for allegedly giving preference to outside state students over their Marathi counterparts.
V D Karad, founder-director of MIT, came out with an official statement slamming all the four attacks. Incidentally, MIT was the first institute to be at the receiving end of MNS vandalism. Karad termed the attacks unfortunate and acts of cowardice.
“Every institute in the city admits students according to the norms set by the Supreme Court and policy drawn by the state government. According to the policy, only 10 to 15 per cent admissions are given in the management quota and while doing so, there is no such criterion like ‘locals’ and ‘outsiders’. Generally, admissions are done on the basis of norms, but even after that some miscreants in society commit such acts of cowardice on wrong information. It is a shame on a democratic country like India,” Karad said.
The statement went on to point out that such acts may divert thousands of students who come to Pune not only from Maharashtra but also from different parts of the country and world to other places. “It will be a great loss to the ‘Oxford of the East’. I hope such vandalism will be condemned by every section of society,” he said in the statement.
S B Mujumdar, chancellor of Symbiosis International University, also condemned the attacks and appealed to the members of MNS to understand the norms of the admission process of a deemed university and a state university before resorting to violence. “Symbiosis International University, being a deemed university, comes directly under the rules framed by the UGC and the Union Ministry of HRD. We have to conduct a national entrance test to admit the students, for which students from all over the country appear,” said Mujumdar.
“It is observed that very few Marathi students apply for this test with only 5 per cent getting through,” he added. “Obviously, the number is less. Instead of resorting to violence, it is necessary to boost Marathi students to appear for the competitive tests. Being a Marathi manoos,I would love to see more Marathi students appearing for the test and getting admission,” said Mujumdar.
Vishwajeet Kadam, Secretary of Bharati Vidyapeeth, said Pune was the 21st century Nalanda and it should be a matter of pride that students from outside are coming to the city. “Before taking to violence, the MNS should understand the role our institutes have played in taking the Marathi bahujan forward. It is a sad day when institutes have to take police security. We have refused the offer for such security,” he said.
It is amusing to hear what the educationists have to say. They must anser a pertinent question first: If indeed Maharashtrians were not good enough, then why did you set up yout campus in Maharashtra? If you wanted students from other states so badly, you should have set up campuses in those states. If your campus does not benefit the people of this state, why did you set up that campus here? The true development of Maharashtr is the development of the Marathi-speaking people. The true development of any place is the devolopment of the people. Therefore, if any campuses are set up, these must benefit the people of this state. After all, what is our aim behind setting up anything in Maharashtra-be it a shop, industry, college or school? What is the purpose? The purpose if properly understood, is to help the people of this state and prepare them for the opportunities of tommorrow.
Local Pune students must be given preference in Pune Educational Institutes and Punekars should not be made to feel insecure and demoralized by the influx of rich and moneyed students from outside states. Otherwise the feeling of bitterness will increase, the educational atmosphere will be spoiled and this is not good for Pune.Punekars should not be made to suffer for the backwardness of Bihar and UP. The solution lies in developing good educational institutions in Bihar and UP and also setting up IT and BPO Industry over there. Institutions like Symbiosis and Bharati Vidyapeeth must set up campuses in UP, Bihar and North Eastern States to further the cause of education. Also INFOSYS, WIPRO, TCS and other IT giants must go to these states. Only then the whole of India will develop and lopsided migration will stop.
It is amusing to hear what the educationists have to say. They must anser a pertinent question first: If indeed Maharashtrians were not good enough, then why did you set up yout campus in Maharashtra? If you wanted students from other states so badly, you should have set up campuses in those states. If your campus does not benefit the people of this state, why did you set up that campus here? The true development of Maharashtr is the development of the Marathi-speaking people. The true development of any place is the devolopment of the people. Therefore, if any campuses are set up, these must benefit the people of this state. After all, what is our aim behind setting up anything in Maharashtra-be it a shop, industry, college or school? What is the purpose? The purpose if properly understood, is to help the people of this state and prepare them for tomorrow and the day after. This is the main purpose.
Mr Vikas Joshi, semi-illiterates ignoramuses like you and those in the MNS are a hindrance to the 'Vikas' of Maharashtra. No wonder you have titled all your repetitive, illogical and stupid arguements as 'A meaningless arguement' because that's what they are. It is time you enrolled at some of these educational institutes in your state on merit and get some education. And enrol all your MNS uneducated goons too at these educational institutes on merit and by paying proper fees and see if they qualify for admissions or whether they are better off selling your vada paos.
Mr. VKVB:If you have a problem with my arguements, then come out logically and cooly and counter them. At present, you are abusing me. If you have the guts, write your real name here. Then talk about MNS.If you have a problem with my arguements, I suggest you do the following: first find out how much reservation there is for locals in other statessecondly, how much reservation for local candidates in each state viz a viz Maharashtrathirdly, the % of Maharashtrians in these institutesMerely saying my arguements are illogical and repititive is meanginless itself. If you want to argue against what I say, first specify what you are objecting to and do so logically.
All this has happened against this backdrop: a decline in the institutes of higher education in northern and eastern India like Calcutta University, BHU, Aligarh, Patna University, Punjab University, Utkal University-vast numbers of students from northern, eastern and even northeastern India have poured into Delhi, Pune and Bangalore-but most of all into Pune.It is natural that Maharashtrians feel their colleges are being overrun by students from other states. Of course, chauvanism and so on is easy to shout and attractive. But the reality is more complex.In reality, Pune cannot be the education centre for the whole of India. India's development can only take place with good education centres in every region and every state. Over much burden at one place makes no sense. Therefore, Pune's shikshan samraths should set up campuses in other states-since they seem to prefer them to Maharashtrian students! There is a need for colleges to understand their basic duty.
Mumbai, Pune and Maharashtra’s competitiveness in the economy appears to have been at least maintained, more as a result of a flexible and relatively highly skilled workforce from both the inside and outside of the state and by the capital investment by trade and industry, educational institutes and others. New evidence suggests that its strengths are heavily concentrated in financial, professional and business services, its range of markets and often in foreign owned firms. Mumbai, Pune and Maharashtra’s economy has shown recovery during the year following setbacks due to stupid bandhs, agitations and violence by Shiv Sena, MNS and other outfits but that recovery is not strong and can decline if such violent agitations continue. Across Mumbai, Pune and Maharashtra demand has been sustained by population growth, increased debt and a number of major construction projects. Employment is growing steadily than output and investment in the commercial property sector, another indicator of the buoyancy of the Mumbai, Pune and Maharashtra economy. Earnings in Mumbai and Pune are more than 25 per cent higher than elsewhere in the country.
Logically, therefore since the government-funded colleges cannot cope with all the students nor provide courses which are tailored to the job market. Therefore, they asked private colleges to come up. The governmen is also cash-strapped.When these private colleges came up, they started enrolling students from other states. Fair enough. But private colleges should not have forgot that their primary responsibility is to train the people of this state. If a mother feeds her neighbours children, she has to feed her son first-isn't it?Therefore, the private colleges should have earmarked 50 % of the seats for candidates from Maharashtra State and then the rest for candidates from other countries and other states. That would have been okay. But these guys wanted to make immediate gains, even at the cost of harming their own community in the long run. They had the audacity to even say that Pune's economy depends on outstate students-which is utter rubbish.
In September 2005, BJP and Shiv Sena were fined Rs 20 lakh each by the Bombay High Court for damaging public properties during a Mumbai bandh called by these parties on 30th July 2003. They were ordered by the court to deposit these sums of money at the Maharashtra Chief Secretary’s office as fines to the State Government. It is this ruling which should prompt all Central and State Governments, the Railways, the corporate and private sector to immediate legal action for compensation and reimbursement of monies from Raj Thackeray and his goons for damage to their properties and loss of business due to his violent agitations. The action sought by the populace at large is the formulation of tougher policies and laws to enable anyone including the State, and Central governments, the private sector and individual members of the public to recover losses suffered by them from those responsible for such violence. The recent illegal MNS agitations in Mumbai has brought this issue in sharp focus
The recent illegal MNS agitations in Mumbai, Pune and Nashik has brought this issue about these damages to private and public properties in sharp focus among large section of the population and the trade. The Central and State interior ministries, the police and the law ministries I believe would be also be looking deeply into the issue to see what action can be taken under existing laws. Can we then have a statement from them as to what is being done in the matter? The public is of a strong opinion that - if the State and Central Governments, the Indian Railways, the police, the corporate and private sector had forewarned these MNS goons about the dire consequences of their undemocratic, violent and illegal actions, they would have thought a thousand times before indulging in such violence. It is still not too late for the message to go out loud and clear to all those planning any rallies, morchas, demonstrations, protest marches and agitations in future. And the message is that by indulging in violent mayhem and damaging private or public properties, they would be committing criminal acts and that they would be severely dealt and penalised the way the Bombay High Court had done previously.
In English law, causing criminal damage was originally a common law offence. The offence was largely concerned with the protection of dwellings and the food supply and few sanctions were imposed for damaging personal property. Liability was originally restricted to the payment of damages by way of compensation.As time passed, specific laws were introduced to deal with particular situations as they were judged to require intervention, most particularly alongside the rise of mechanisation and urbanisation during the Industrial Revolution. The Malicious Damage Act 1861 was the first real attempt to codify and extend protections in more general terms and for the first time gave protection under the criminal law to personal property. The modern law of criminal damage is mostly contained in the Criminal Damage Act 1971, which redefines or creates several offences protecting property rights. The Act provides a comprehensive structure covering not only the preparatory acts but the most serious offences of arson and causing damage with intent to endanger life. As such, punishments vary from a fixed penalty to life imprisonment and the court may order payment of compensation to a victim.
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