The Centre is not asking for airport near CUB as it is being made out. Rail, road and air connectivity is one of the criteria laid down in the Act passed more than three years back at the time of setting up of Central Universities in 14 states, that is, well before Motihari was proposed by the state government. The truth is that Motihari does not fulfil most of these criteria. It lacked both physical as well as social infrastructure.

What is strange is the way the Bihar chief minister is mocking and ridiculing the connectivity aspect. Oxford and Cambridge were set up centuries before the plane was discovered. Yet who can deny that Oxford was established on river Thames––London is also on its bank––and Cambridge on river Cam. In those days rivers used to play a very important role in connecting people. Therefore, that aspect was fully taken into account at the time of their establishment.

Yes Motihari too is situated on the bank of river Burhi Gandak, but then now rivers are no more a mode of transportation. So we talk of road, rail and air connectivity. Besides, as per the Site Selection Committee the two plots of land offered by the state government remain waterlogged in most part of the year.

So the issue is not between Motihari and Gaya or Mahatma Gandhi and Mahatma Bodh. One can not play with the sentiment of Gandhiji and sacrifice the larger interest and career of our students. We have paid tributes to Gandhiji by naming hundreds of Maidans all over the country. But what have we made of them is known to all.

After all the Centre yielded to the state government’s pressure and shifted the off-campus branch of Aligarh Muslim University from Katihar to Kishanganj, though the former was a relatively big town, with more infrastructure facilities and better connectivity. More than three years were wasted in this controversy.

In case of Motihari the Centre has even offered to financially help the state government in building a state university there. So where is the problem. The Centre is not even demanding any plot from the state, which is really a difficult task in state like Bihar, which has fertlie land. It would be using the defence ministry land for setting up CUB. And the Centre is well within its constitutional right to do so as setting up central universities is not the state government’s business.

Thus instead of making the Central University of Bihar an issue there is a need for adopting a reasonable approach. The greatest sufferers, no doubt, are the students as well as faculty who fear that anyday their University can be thrown out by the BIT Mesra, though they are paying rent.

We know it took three years for the IIT Patna to get land. NIT is still finding it difficult to get its due though it is Nitish Kumar himself who, as Union minister, played a key role in getting Bihar College of Engineering elevated to the present status. The issue of Nalanda International University is still hanging in balance with both Centre and state government contributing to the present deadlock. And the story of the AMU Centre is well known.

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