The students of prestigious Jadavpur University on Sunday upgraded their hunger strike into an “indefinite fast” even as the authorities (apparently at the instance of the State Government) refused to take back the decision bringing a change in the University’s admission policy.
After repeated flip-flops the University Executive Council had a few days ago decided to discontinue the age old system of admission tests for new students and decided to make marks secured in the boards exams as the only criterion of admission in the UG classes.
This led to a protest among the students and professors of the relevant departments who questioned the sudden decision to withdraw a successful policy that had given the JU a healthy NAAC ranking.
While the students resorted to a gherao of Vice Chancellor Dr Suranjan Das the professors of Departments of English, Bengali, Comparative literature and International Relations withdrew from the admission process.
On Saturday even as the VC rushed to Governor KN Tripathi for directions, 20 students started a hunger strike giving the University a 24-hour deadline to change its decision. When that would not happen the students upgraded the strike to an indefinite-fast even as Dr Das said he would not at any cost let the police inside the campus andproposed to resign.