Dons' strike and the conscience
factor
The
strike by university Dons is well into its second month and the
majority of the public as well as the state are in a highly
troubled state of mind over it, but the strikers seem to be
unmoved by the widespread distress they are causing. We hope we
will be proved wrong in making this assumption because the
younger generation of this country's citizens, in particular,
should be spared the trauma of losing faith in those who are
said to be their teachers and guides.
We call on the sides to this issue to focus strongly on the
common interest. Hopefully, the striking Dons would have come to
realize that they cannot forge ahead without having the common
good at heart. How will it benefit them if they barter away the
national interest in their anxiety to win their sectional
demands?
What the general citizenry finds extremely baffling is this
seeming insouciance with which our striking Dons brush aside
their duties and responsibilities towards the younger segments
of our populace.
It does not seem to bother the Dons' conscience that they
hold the future of our undergraduates, in particular, in their
hands? We hope we will be proved wrong on this score too,
because we simply do not like to believe that our academics'
consciences have been deadened and rendered grossly insensitive
as a result of this stand-off with the authorities.
Apparently, the state is willing to negotiate a solution to
the outstanding issues at the heart of the strike and we hope
the striking academics would continue to give talks a try. They
need to admit that the state has not been deaf to their
grievances and that a considerable number of issues raised by
them have been resolved. Accordingly, the academics would do
well to persist in their talks with the authorities, arrive at a
time-frame to resolve their issues, and get back to the
responsibility of teaching.
The academics, perhaps, cannot imagine the extent of the
heart-burn and sorrow they have unleashed among children and
their parents. They could be certain that the distress is
pervasive and that many a home is engulfed in dejection and
sorrow over fears that the life prospects of our youngsters are
steadily shrinking in the face of the prolonged closure of our
seats of higher learning.
Would the striking university teachers wish that such a
heart-rending situation befalls their children, or their own
flesh and blood? How would these Dons feel if they were in the
shoes of a parent whose children are thus suffering as a result
of frustrated just hopes and ambitions?
There is no way in which a society could forge ahead towards
better prospects if those who are expected to be standard
bearers degenerate to the position of mean-spirited bargain
hunters who are obsessively engrossed in self-interest and the
latter only. Have our striking Dons thought on these things?
Accordingly, we call for a rethink on these issues on the
part of our university teachers. The upholding of essential
human values depends crucially on them and on how they manage
issues of a contentious kind. They would do well not to
compromise their traditional standing and image for material and
monetary considerations because it is wisdom, knowledge and
ethical values that prove the life-blood of a country, in the
final analysis.
We also urge the state to act on these issues with a greater
sense of urgency.
It is not our position that the state is apathetic in this
crisis, but a speeding-up of the process of problem-solving is
desired.
It is essential that the sides to the issue do not lose faith
in each other and a seeming delay in resolving the crisis could
cause the impression that the state is foot-dragging. Let not
this be the case.
We call for a strong focus on the national interest. Besides,
we call on both sides to avoid a polemical tussle. If the
national interest is kept mainly in mind, finding compromise
solutions would not prove difficult because the sides would be
headed essentially in the same direction. |