A day after members of Trinamool Congress backed non-teaching staff union Siksha Bandhu Samitee brutally beat up senior officials and locked up Kalyani University Vice Chancellor Rl Hangloo, Deans, proctor and others for hours with police taking no action even after a day of the incident party, MP Sugato Bose came out in the open criticising politicisation of education in Bengal.
The Trinamool MP and nephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on Wednesday disapproved the way hundreds of Trinamool Siksha Bandhu members attacked the prestigious Kalyani University campus and beat up officials some of them women saying “all parties will have to sit together and devise ways out of this. Hooliganism in educational institutions cannot go on like this.”
On whether the situation has improved from what it used to be in the past Bose who is also a renowned historian said “I had responded to the calls of Mamata Banerjee and had come here. She had called us telling politicisation of education would be done away with but that was not to be. Things have not looked up. A lot is needed to be done.”
Curiously even after a day of the attacks on the VC office with live footages of senior officials including women being beaten up and shoved out by raiding Siksha Bandhu crowds not a single person was arrested. To rub salt to injury Education Minister Partho Chatterjee who “rushed in” reportedly at the behest of the Chief Minister to take stock of the situation only condemned the attacks and said departmental inquiry would be ordered to find out the culprits.
When asked as to whether the police had been asked to arrest the attackers the Minister said “police will do what the law says.” Interestingly, the Tuesday’s attacks took place barely a day after the Trinamool Congress won the Krishnaganj and Bongaon by-elections. Kalyani University falls within Bongaon parliamentary constituency. Meanwhile, in an apparent action replay of Tuesday’s incident bands of Trinamool Congress workers on Wednesday attacked Howrah-based Burn Standard Company. They were demanding regularisation of some retrenched workers. The GM and the DGM were brutally beaten up and allegedly abducted sources said while the union leaders refuted the allegation.