By ending 34 years ofuninterrupted misrule of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM)-led Left Front government in West Bengal (pop. 91 million) in 2011, and winning a second term for the Trinamool Congress (TMC) with a landslide mandate in the 2016 assembly election, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has not only established herself in West Bengal but as a national leader in her own right. Banerjee could play a major role in national politics if TMC bags 35 of West Bengals 42 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 general election, now less than 11 months away.
However, even though she has emerged as a force to reckon with in national politics, the fiery chief minister is facing flak on her home turf for chronic unrest in the states institutions of higher education. This has been a summer of discontent particularly for Kolkatas most well-known higher ed institutions — Jadavpur University (JU, estb.1955) and Calcutta Medical College (estb.1835). The new academic year has not begun well for the TMC government.

Since the admissions process began on June 22, complaints started pouring in from aspiring JU students that Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP, the students wing of TMC) activists have been demanding bribes to ensure admission into undergrad programmes. Mass protests have broken out on college campuses against ‘extortion by TMCP.

Simultaneously on July 3, the state government issued a directive to JU to abolish its 40-year-old entrance exams scheduled to be held on July 3-5 for admission into six liberal arts faculties — English, comparative literature, history, Bengali, political science and philosophy — and admit school-leavers on the basis of their class XII marks. According to education minister Partha Chatterjee, abolition of JUs entrance exams will ensure uniformity and equity in the admission process. However, neither the faculty nor students buy this reasoning. They believe, this proposal will dilute academic standards in JU — one of the few surviving top-ranked higher education institutions in West Bengal — and make it easier for TMCP activists to infiltrate this 63-year-old university. On July 6, students called a hunger strike and gheraoed vice chancellor Suranjan Das.

Several intellectuals including Sankha Ghosh, Sukanta Chaudhuri and Nabaneeta Dev Sen, have expressed apprehension that JUs autonomy will be ground to dust if the varsitys well-established system of conducting its own entrance exams is abolished. If the state government wants to decimate a system its best university has been following, and following well, they have to explain the reasons as to why they want to decimate it. Let them explain what good will come out of it, comments Sukanta Chaudhuri, emeritus professor of English at JU.
Subsequently, following mass protests from all sections of society, on July 11, the JU management issued a statement that the entrance exam has been reinstated and would be held from July 11-14. However by then, 75 percent of the 17,000 candidates who had signed up to write JUs entrance exams opted out.

Meanwhile, even as faculty-student protests in JU were grabbing headlines on a daily basis, second, third, fourth and final year students of the vintage Calcutta Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) staged an indefinite hunger strike protesting irregularities and lack of transparency in awarding hostel accommodation. Students demanded open and transparent allotment of hostel accommodation on the basis of seniority and priority for outstation students, which has been the practice since 1977. Relatively cheap new hostel accommodation is being allocated arbitrarily to freshers, forcing over 100 second, third, fourth and final year students to live in rented housing.

Following an indefinite hunger strike of 14 days, the deteriorating health of protesting students, and support of renowned thespians, social activists and intellectuals, forced the CMCH administration to agree to the demand of senior students who were admitted into the new hostel on July 23.

These medical college students are our hope for the future. What pathetically ignorant, callous and incompetent administration can allow these bright sparks to die just for the sake of hostel accommodation? Housing these kids well for their education should be our national priority, says Dr. Soumya Bhattacharya, CMCH alum and a practicing oncologist at Apollo Gleneagles, Kolkata.

Although they were among the first to celebrate the end of 34 years of Communist rule over West Bengal, the small and shrinking minority of bona fide academics in the state are expressing alarm over the gradually deteriorating condition of its higher ed institutions. The general consensus is that instead of respecting the autonomy of West Bengals wounded colleges and universities, Banerjee has opted to emulate the classic communist strategy of infiltrating and capturing the states higher education institutions. This is prompting a slow and steady second exodus from the states beleaguered colleges and universities. No good can possibly flow from this foolish myopia.

Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)