Minister wants students to stay clear of politics

zeeshan jawed
KOLKATA: Education minister Partha Chatterjee on Sunday urged students to delink party politics from union activities and return to classrooms, a comment which many academicians interpreted as his effort to rein in a Frankenstein created by the erstwhile Left Front government and patronised by Chatterjee’s Trinamool Congress and which is now threatening to recoil and bite the very hands which fed it.
Educationists attributed the minister’s stance to the difficulty his government may be facing in hiring and retaining good talent to head its universities where the educational space has been infringed by political parties.
Sugata Marjit who was on the receiving end of the student unrest on several occasions during his tenure as the interim vice-chancellor of Calcutta University said last week that gheraos should be banned. Though Marjit cited personal reasons, sources in the education department said that gheraoes had “affected” him which is why he decided to discontinue. His successor Ashutosh Ghosh, who took over as interim vice-chancellor on Friday said bright students will shun Calcutta University if gheraos and indiscipline persist on the campuses in the name of student agitation.
“I have a request for those involved in campus politics. Please restrict yourself to students’ politics only. Spend more of your time in the classrooms. That is where you belong. Do not interfere with the running of the institutions,” said Chatterjee.