WITH COLLEGE CAMPUSES in west bengal and kolkata in particular in a state of ferment reminiscent of the Naxalite agitations of the 1960s with bandhs, gheraos and student insurrection a routine feature, the prolonged students’ protest at Jadavpur University (JU) pressing for an independent investigation into the molestation of a woman student inside a hostel on August 28, continues to receive support of all sections of society. JU students have been demonstrating and agitating for removal of interim vice chancellor Abhijit Chakraborty since September 17, when he ordered a brutal police crackdown to break up a peaceful sit-in by students.
However, despite strident demands for his removal, on October 5, Chakraborty was confirmed as vice chancellor of JU by West Bengal governor K.N. Tripathi, the ex-officio chancellor of the university. “The trouble at Jadavpur University is being fanned by outsiders. Let the university not be politicised,” said Tripathi on September 25.
Yet in West Bengal’s academy it’s common knowledge that the ruling Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC), which ended 34 years of uninterrupted rule (1977-2011) of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) in the state by sweeping the state legislative assembly election of 2011, is behind Tripathi’s decision to confirm the unpopular Chakraborty as vice chancellor.
According to informed monitors of West Bengal’s chaotic higher education scene, the TMC top leadership is hell-bent upon appointing its nominee as vice chancellor of JU because the dominant teachers and students’ unions at the university are affiliated with the CPM. With Chakraborty at the helm, the chances of TMC-affiliated teachers and students’ unions breaking the stranglehold of the communists on the campus, will improve.
However, Chakraborty’s appointment as VC has outraged professors and alumni, and a host of political leaders, including state BJP president Rahul Sinha, and Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who have demanded Chakraborty’s resignation over the brutal police attack on peacefully agitating students on September 17. Simultaneously at a convention held on October 21, Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) renewed charges that Chakraborty had plagiarised his doctoral thesis. Moreover, the JU students’ union has called for a students’ referendum on October 30-31 to press for Chakraborty’s resignation.
Established in 1955, JU is one of West Bengal’s few showpiece universities. Therefore as in Presidency University — another hallowed institution — behind the scenes there’s a grim struggle between cadres of the CPM and TMC for dominating college campuses in West Bengal, and the big stand-off in JU is no exception.
But given the huge trust deficit between Chakraborty and students, teachers, alumni, and professors emeritus, there’s skepticism about the new vice chancellor being able to discharge his role effectively. Comments Prithwis Mukherjee, programme director of business analytics at the Praxis Business School, Kolkata: “A person so universally disliked by students and faculty and an individual without any claim to scholarship or administrative capability, should never have been appointed chancellor of JU. The students’ demand for his removal is justified.”
As JU students prepare to stage a referendum on October 30-31, the threat of further violence hangs over JU’s once peaceful campus.
Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)