Mamata: Respect teachers - Chief minister makes no direct reference to campus violence

Mamata Banerjee and Presidency University vice-chancellor Anuradha Lohia
at the Nazrul Mancha programme. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

TT, Calcutta, Sept. 4: Mamata Banerjee today appealed to society to "show respect" to teachers but steered clear of the uncomfortable topic of campus violence and attacks on teachers across the state for which the Trinamul students' wing has often been blamed.

" Amra chhoto bela theke shikhechhi aamader shikshakrai aamader guru (From childhood we have learnt that our teachers are our gurus). Respect your teachers as they are your gurus," the chief minister told a gathering of students and teachers at Nazrul Mancha, where she presented the Shiksha Ratna award to some school and college teachers on the eve of Teachers' Day.

"Like a mother, there is no alternative to a teacher. Teachers have been helping produce good human beings and develop society, generation after generation. So please respect teachers," she said in her 18-minute speech.

The vice-chancellors of several state-aided universities, including Anil Bhuimali of Raiganj University, where bombs and bullets were hurled by suspected Trinamul Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) activists yesterday, the heads of school education boards and senior officials of the education department were on the dais.

Yesterday, a group of 30 youths shouting Trinamul slogans had entered the Raiganj University campus in North Dinajpur, fired in the air outside the staff room and hurled bombs. This was the second attack on the institution in less than a month.

"Everybody knows why the teaching community doesn't get respect in the state.... It is because of Trinamul's student union. But she (Mamata) has never tried to rein in the errant elements in her party. Instead of giving lectures, she should discipline them and allow police to take action against them," CPM politburo member Mohammed Salim, who is also the MP of Raiganj, said.

The TMCP has been accused of unleashing a reign of terror on campuses across the state, especially in those colleges where the CPM and Congress students' unions have a strong presence.

In most of the cases, Salim said, the police had not taken any action against TMCP leaders despite having "strong evidence" against them.

The TMCP controls over 90 per cent of the students' unions in the 450-plus colleges in Bengal.

But there are still a few institutions, such as Raiganj University and Sabang Sajanikanta Mahavidyalaya in West Midnapore, where the students' wing of the ruling party has failed to take control.

"When the Left was in power, it wanted complete control of all colleges. Trinamul wants the same. Whereever there is resistance, there is violence," a senior higher education department official said.

In Sabang, the state Congress has launched a movement following the murder of a student who was a member of the Congress-affiliated Chhatra Parishad.

"Krishnaprasad Jana was the first student to have been killed on a college campus in the four-year Trinamul rule. The CPM too had unleashed terror to gain control of the college union, which has always been with the Chhatra Parishad, but no student had ever been killed," said the Congress MLA of Sabang, Manas Bhuniya.

The state Congress, which had earlier organised a strike to protest the murder of the student, has given the call for a march to Nabanna on September 8. The Congress has accused Trinamul of using the district administration and the police to scare and harass its supporters.

Veteran Congress leader Abdul Mannan echoed Bhuniya.

"On the chief minister's instructions, Trinamul-backed hooligans are attacking educational institutions and teachers," Mannan said.