Jadavpur University. Year 1970. Extreme left-wing student organizations have called for boycotts. Why? What is the reason? The reason is weird. No one will be allowed to write the exam. A lion-hearted man stood up against it. Professor Gopal Chandra Sen. The eminent professor of the Mechanical Engineering department, had temporarily taken over the charge of the Vice Chancellor. Professor Sen said the exam will be conducted. Those who want to write the exams, can appear without hindrances. He had conducted the exam and gave the marks by being present in the university even during the Durgapuja Vacation.
For this reason , Gopal Chandra Sen was assassinated on the University campus at Jadavpur on 30th December. Rana Basu, an active member of the left wing student organization, was accused of murdering the vice-chancellor. Gopal Chandra Sen died almost immediately after being stabbed by a knife from the back. The extreme left revolutionary Rana Basu, fled to Canada with the help from his father who was a wealthy doctor. Well, the heinous thing that Rana did was just the impetuosity of his youth? Or did someone with a scheming cold brain slowly injected poison in his mind? It is called ‘intolerance’!
Jadavpur University. Year 2019 . Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) had organized a Freshers’ Welcome at the KP Basu Auditorium of the University. And a discussion on ‘Democracy in a free India’. The invited speakers were former professor Achintha Biswas of Bangla Department of Jadavpur University, Supreme Court lawyer Dilip Kumar Dubey, artist Agnimitra Paul and Union Minister Babul Supriya. Anyone can dislike the ABVP or the BJP, but the Union Minister will not have the right to speak at the university? Will he be gheraoed, assaulted and heckled by tearing his clothes? No matter how many left-leaning speakers go to universities in India, their views may not even be found in those universities with microscopes. However, there is no such examples in recent times like the savagery that has been inflicted on Babul Supriyo at Jadavpur. The university’s professors tried to counsel these unruly intolerants, so did the vice-chancellor, the chancellor himself came. But none of the protesting students listened. They have said that Babul Supriya should apologize. Why? What crime did Babul commit? He had come to speak as a non-leftist ideologue at Jadavpur – is this his crime? As soon as the Union Minister entered through the gate at number 3, a bunch of students gheraoed him. It would be wrong to think of this extreme intolerance as a mere student’s immaturity. This intolerance is being taught for decades cool headedly.
As a student, have seen this intolerance repeatedly at Jadavpur University. It is as if someone has been taught of this cruelty. As if, exhibition of intolerance is a credit! Year 1992. At one afternoon in April, a group of students from a leftist organization was beating a boy on the floor like a thief lynching in front of the Central Library. The hero’s team then led him to the ‘Science Club’ behind the ‘Ashirvaad Canteen’. The boy was still kicked continuously on his stomach and was being asked – ‘tell us, which is your college?’ The boy was unable to speak anymore. It was learnt that the boy studied in Vidyasagar College and was distributing some objectionable (?) leaflets on the Rammandi movement of ABVP. That day, Prof. Dhananjay Das went to the Vice Chancellor’s office and saved the boy. Professor Das asked that day – ‘Why such cruelty? As because the boy entered here from Vidyasagar College? Or the leaflet being distributed is prohibited by the law of the land? ”No one had an answer in the Vice Chancellor’s office. Because, the answer is – ‘We are intolerant’. No opposition can be expressed here.
Some of the boys from the engineering faculty arranged a film show on May 7, at the university’s Dr Triguna Sen Theater. The film was censor board accredited and multiple national and international award winner – Vivek Agnihotri’s ‘Buddha in a traffic jam’. Ultimately, these extreme leftists did not the let authorities to allow the film to be shown in the theater.
However, the undergraduate students of the engineering faculty showed the Buddha in a traffic jam hanging a sheet in front of the Blue Earth Workshop. Unable to stop the screening of the film, this intolerant group behaved frantically. They expressed their anger by kicking on Director Vivek Agnihotri’s car, spitting on the director. Finally, Bangabandhu College professor Debashis Chowdhury was beaten up ruthlessly. His crime, he was the mentor of think India, a student organization that organized the screening. The “external” professor was charged in a false case for that crime. The basis of this intolerant group’s ideology is so fragile that they fear that their shop will be closed when students see such movies.
That day, a group of people came in while watching the movie. In front of which were some people on their fifties. A middled aged lady was shouting with a mic in a hand. If manhandling like hair pulling and tearing clothes of Babul Supriya is thought to be the deeds of some young immature guys, then the the grave sins of their mentors will be diluted . That lady, with a mic in hand, who taught the left-leaning young minds to run over and kill everything but one opinion, whose ‘party class’ had Rana Basu kill the then Vice-Chancellor, is equally responsible and so are the alike intellects. The responsibility lies also in the media who with their matured commercial sense exploit this ‘nuisance value’ to increase their TRP.
Rabindranath said about the appeal of Gandhari : “reaping the venomous honeyed fruit of sinfulness / son is dancing in joy; Under the shadow of affection / Do not give him the fruit to enjoy it; / Take it, throw it away, make him weep. ” Professor Gopalachandra Sen had shown courage to throw away this venomous honeyed fruit in the real interest of the students. Even today, those leftists have only been able to inject grave intolerance in the minds of some of the hundreds of students who had gathered to heckle Union Minister Babul Supriyo. For the rests, some came in fear, some to put on the status symbol of the revolution, and most of them were involved in this outrageous act out of friendship. The spineless authority of Jadavpur is certainly responsible for this. The political leadership did not dare to support Vice-Chancellor Abhijit Chakraborty, who had a spine similar to that of a man.
Jadavpur University is a pilgrimage to thousands of alumni like me. Bachelors in Technology, Post-Graduate PhDs, all academic qualifications are from there. Have received the guidance of Goodhearted, outstanding scholar professors. I realized more deeply as I had come from poor family of a village. Even today, I am closely linked with the university campus for the research work . Feel proud to see Jadavpur’s students from various disciplines of technology or science (must be from literary and social sciences too) in the world famous institutions. Wherever you find an ex of Jadavpur, it gives a family feeling. However, over the past three decades, there has been a great deal of heartache to see the intolerance in the university over and over again. It was for the liberation of the mind from the servitude of foreign lords that the sages like Rishi Aurobindo created the ‘National Council of Education’, where all ideas of thought and sciences would be practiced. What is the status of the pilgrimage today! What is this barbaric way to prove the superiority of your opinion?
One thing to remember is that the university does not belong to leftists merely because they are somehow ruling the students’ union. Jadavpur University is not the property of those who physically assaulted Babul Supriyo in the university premises, abused him in foul languages on September 19th. This university is a national property. For those children who have come only to study in one of the most famous universities in India, this university is also for them. The farmers of West Bengal, the day laborers, the workers who pay the tax, whose children may never come to the university, this university is theirs too. The university belongs to every honourable professor, respectable staff, researcher and everyone who comes to the library. Jadavpur University if for All Alumni Professors, Alumni – All. Alida who served tea to Production Engineering, Bijanda who was an artisan at the Blue Earth Workshop – they also have right over the university, To all of us Jadavpur University is like a mother. If someone wants to put ink on the mother, it hurts the heart. Probably the time has come today, to collectively protest this intolerance. Professor Gopal Chandra Sen’s debt may never be repaid by the Jadavpur University but we must gain the strength to carry his flag.
Let’s all pray to God.
May the good wisdom develop.