Diphu September 13: After a brief lull of almost a year of the tumultuous state of affairs of Diphu Government College, this culminated with the brutal attack on the principal of the college on 13th September 2014. The scare of the incident has not erased, even today, from the most prestigious educational center in Karbi Anglong. Freshly from all admonition, it appears that a certain vested interest group began campaigning to revisit of the death-defying circumstance in Diphu Government College yet again with a sole motive. That motive is to oust the serving principal of the institution Dr Nirab Kumar Sarmah.
The campaigning has begun with publication of numerous news articles (all the identical story) in local vernaculars and other daily news papers and booklets, although until now, this Goebbelan campaigning has failed to evoke any damaging result. It seems a terrifying perplexity is brewing up among the students and in academic circles in Diphu.
When Dr Sarmah was confronted by this reporter for his account about the allegations published on the basis of fact and figures obtained by local organizations through RTI, Dr. Sarmah negated almost all allegations terming them a “conspiracy to allow happen some untoward incidents by misleading people and students.”
Dr Sarmah was asked: It has been observed in a few local dailies published from Diphu dated 11th September, 2015 that a defamatory news item highlighting the present person holding the chair of the Principal, Diphu Government College, Diphu has been published challenging the validity of the whole episode, would you like to clarify?
“I was duly selected by the Assam Public Service Commission and subsequently appointed by the Government of Assam with all due procedure. Due to very personal reason for not allowing continuing unionism, irregularity in attendance and unpunctuality in the college, two teachers of the college mainly stood against me by focusing and assuring the regaining of earlier unruly situation of ease and started plotting various conspiracy time to time. Later on, some more professors joined in their venture and submitted memorandum at various places in the name of Teacher Association & of fictitious organizations also. However, not satisfied with all these, the said duo with the help of an NGO filed a PIL challenging my selection as Principal by APSC with a large number of accumulated RTI documents about which the mentions have been made in the news items in some local dailies published from Diphu dated 11-09-2015. After hearing of the PIL in the Hon’ble Guwahati High Court, concluded my selection as completely satisfactory and genuine. Simultaneously, the Hon’ble court dismissed the PIL. This verdict was passed on 24-09-2015. But the matter was done so clandestinely that I came to know about this only on November, 2015 when I received the copy sent to me by post. The trouble creating group then stopped that matter there and started with new and nasty conspiracies which finally led to the brutal attack on me in my office chamber with the intention to kill me on the spot. On 13-08-2014. This led to suspension of 14 professors of Diphu Government College, Diphu who remained absconding for a period of around two months to evade arrest along with arrest of a few goons. These included two lady professors viz, Mrs Machurina Hussain, then HOD, English and Ms Lar-im-Taropi of Philosophy (in the state scale of pay) who were sent to jail (judicial custody) while found to plot with goons.”
If the whole matter is lying in court for final outcome and your appointment has been duly cleared by the court, is it possible that the propaganda campaigning is total baseless?
“After a gap of again three years the same news has been published with false direction, misrepresentation and misinterpretation in order to hatch a criminal conspiracy by misleading and confusing the people of the area and students of the college in particular. Some of the already charge-sheeted teachers in the Principal attack case are suspected to be the masterminds behind the scene who have been instrumental here even after due declaration by the Guwahati High Court.”
“It is cleared in the order that Research Guidance was not mandatory and hence carried no mark as per APSC Advertisement and API Score was not the inclusive criterion at that time while selecting the total score of the candidates appearing for Principals interview in December, 2011. Hence, the news published in those dailies without verification has no relevance at all at present as it has already been dismissed by the Hon’ble High Court in 24-09-2015. There is no point of fabrication of documents as published in the news except conspiring to allow to happen some untoward incidents by misleading people and students.”
Dr. Sarmah asked that newspapers not publish unsubstantiated and misleading stories, because they have not been verified.
“I would like to appeal to all the news papers not to publish such misleading news without verification as such wrong items sometimes may create havoc irreparable in many occasions. Further, if such baseless news items continue to be published to confuse the masses, then no option will be left except to take to take shelter.”
