Society

The Price Of Poriborton Is Sameness

Mamata’s tall talk has only yielded a trail of broken promises for Bengal’s education

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The Price Of Poriborton Is Sameness
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Campus Worries

  • Attack on SFI-affiliated students of Dinabondhu Andrews college and Gurudas college for trying to collect nomination papers
  • VC of West Bengal University of Technology says he was targeted by TMC after refusing two ministers’ orders to promote ‘failed’ student
  • Registrar of Gaurbanga University submits resignation after being roughed up by TMCP goons
  • Principal of Raigunj College in north Bengal beaten up by local TMC leaders; CM calls it ‘minor incident’

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“Can you guarantee that I won’t be hauled off to jail for expressing my opinion?” a student of Jadavpur University retorted when Outlook asked him to comment on what one year of ‘poriborton’, or Mamata Banerjee’s much-touted change, has meant for higher education in West Bengal. His question alluded to a series of recent events which saw the arrest of academics and intellectuals critical of the new TMC government. It reflected the general sense of anger, hurt, even fear, that permeates college campuses, hanging like a pall of gloom over classrooms and canteens where Outlook asked the question.

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Exactly a year ago, soon after the TMC swept to power with an overwhelming mandate, we visited the same campuses to gauge the mood. At that time, hopes and aspirations ran high as students looked forward to the promised “total overhaul” of the education system—deemed to be rotten to the core after 34 years of Left rule and stagnating in a bog of ills, including corruption, complacency and politicisation. “Yes, I had high hopes from the new regime,” admits Abhishek Sarkar, a second-year student of economics at Presidency University. “But I’m disappointed.”

What was it that Bengal’s students were expecting from a new government, and why do they feel so let down? Abhijit Gupta, a professor of English at JU, puts it into perspective: “Students’ expectations ranged from the rudimentary, like basic infrastructure and equipment—classrooms, labs, computers and projectors—to the more sophisticated like a syllabus consistent with international standards.” But the disappointment is largely a general one.

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“For instance,” Gupta explains, “the government’s drive to cleanse the state education system of corruption and other evils made it attempt to root out whatever it considered adulterated.” One of TMC’s claims while in the opposition was that, like most state-run institutions, education too had been completely infiltrated by members of the Left. But now, the TMC is guilty of the same attitude. “Some of them (Left members) are key figures and hold crucial positions. Removing them would leave gaping holes in the machinery that is required to run educational institutions,” says Gupta.

That is exactly what has been happening. For instance, the Dean’s position at JU has been lying vacant for almost a year. Hiring has come to a complete standstill. The gaps need to be filled as soon as the vacuum is created; otherwise the entire system can collapse. Change cannot happen overnight. When it pertains to an area like education, it has to be meticulously planned before being executed.

Another area where TMC promised change was the politicisation of campuses. “Students should go to college not to do politics,” CM Mamata Banerjee famously said. Speaking to Outlook, higher education minister Bratya Basu had said, “We’ll remove politics from education.” The ground reality, a year later, if students are to be believed, is far removed from this vision. The only change is that the sfi (the Left student body) and their strong-arm tactics have been replaced by the TMCP, the TMC student body.

Standing outside the Calcutta University campus, an sfi leader narrated how he was roughed up by TMCP members for refusing to switch over to their side, as most had done. “I was called out from an ongoing class right before the professor and taken to another classroom. They told me to shout ‘TMC zindabad’, and beat me up when I wouldn’t. Finally, I said ‘Jai Hind,’ and they relented.” Campus clashes between the two student bodies are regularly reported in the newspapers, as are increasing numbers of verbal threats and physical manhandling of faculty at the hands of rowdies who allegedly owe allegiance to the ruling party.

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Perhaps the biggest grievances nursed by students in college campuses across the state today relate to issues that transcend the boundary of campus life and spill on to the streets of Calcutta. On top of the list is the state’s handling of two recent cases, one in which a JU professor, Ambikesh Mahapatra, was arrested for circulating a collage mimicking Mamata Banerjee and Mukul Roy. In the other case, the CM rudely brushed aside a woman’s allegation that she was raped by calling it “staged.”

“I voted for Mamata because she is a woman. But I was shocked at her insensitive comments after a woman was raped on Park Street,” said Sreemoyee Chakraborty, who is doing her masters in English literature at JU. Her classmates Shonkholita Chakraborty and Sharbajaya Bhattacharya echo her concern. “Calcutta was always a safe place for women. It is ironic that we no longer feel safe in this city when there is a woman chief minister. Her comments will allow perpetrators of crimes against women to get away with it. Though it is not specifically related to our disappointment in education, it has affects us students and has larger implications.”

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The Park Street incident has indeed antagonised the entire student body, cutting across gender and political ideology. Sulakshana Biswas, a student of film studies at JU and a women’s rights activist, (and who wears a Marilyn Monroe arm tatoo) is an avid supporter of Mamata. But after her comments during the rape case, she organised Calcutta’s first ‘Slutwalk’, with the message: “We are sluts. But don’t you dare touch us”. The arrest of Prof Mahapatra too has outraged students.

Back in JU, a group of students are whiling away the afternoon playing cards. “As you can see, we are playing along,” quips Riju Pathak, a third-year English literature student. Everyone chuckles. Someone hums a Beatles line: “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away, now it looks as though they’re here to stay....” Another lights up her cigarette and blows smoke. “Gone up in smoke,” she sniffs. Students would rather not be quoted saying anything negative about the government. That’s a far cry from last year, when the students were eager to speak. Today, they would rather remain silent. Their silence speaks a thousand words.

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