The BJP government is targeting a premier university like Jadavpur without realising that it could end up destroying an institution that has brought Bengal laurels nationally and internationally, many JU teachers and students said on Thursday.
A senior professor said chief minister Suvendu Adhikari had said in the Assembly that he wanted to turn JU into a centre of excellence.
“But the steps he is taking, like transferring senior teachers from JU in the name of shoring up the standard of new universities, will weaken the foundation of this centre of excellence. If the human resources of a university are systematically depleted, how will the university be a centre of excellence?”
While launching a blistering attack on JU teachers and accusing them of brainwashing students into questioning governments, Suvendu said ₹1,000 crore from the Union government and ₹300 crore from the state would push JU towards excellence.
The senior professor said: “Funds alone cannot turn a university into a centre of excellence. A centre of excellence requires mentoring through senior professors.”
Last year, JU ranked as the country’s best state university in the annual National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) exercise conducted by the Union education ministry.
In 2023, 43 JU teachers found a place on a list compiled by Stanford University that ranked the top 2% of scientists worldwide based on their research.
Among 3,796 scientist-researchers on the list, JU was at the top among Indian universities in terms of citations of research papers and H-index. The H-index measures both the productivity and citation impact of a researcher’s published work, a JU professor said.
JU has many interdisciplinary schools, including women’s studies, gender studies, and media communication and culture.
“Such schools are rare in Bengal,” a research scholar said.
“Now, if the professors overseeing research in those schools are transferred, what will happen to research scholars like us? Where will we end up? Does the government care?” said Sampriti, who is pursuing a PhD on gender studies and media.
She was among the students at the university’s Gate No. 4 when ABVP supporters allegedly stormed the campus for the second time on the afternoon of August 20.
Around 1am that day, ABVP supporters, allegedly seeking to avenge an assault on their unit president Nikhil Das, allegedly vandalised the campus and hurled fireballs and abusive language at students.
The outer ring of the university emblem, designed by Nandalal Bose, came off under repeated blows as people tried to scale the gate.
“We can understand that the chief minister is upset with JU teachers because they had shown solidarity with JU students. But when did showing solidarity become an offence? As the head of the state, he should be more concerned about punishing the attackers of August 20. Instead, he is out to teach our teachers a lesson because they dared to show solidarity with us,” Sampriti said.
In the Assembly on Thursday, Suvendu left little unsaid while speaking on the Inter University Transfer Bill, 2026. Explaining the reason behind the hurried passage of a Bill that undermines the autonomy of universities, he said it was intended to “punish” university teachers, especially those at JU.
Neha Bora, one of the leaders of the student protests at Jantar Mantar in Delhi over the NEET paper irregularities that shook the nation, said she wondered why a “university is so problematic” for an entire state government.
“To be so vehemently upset with an educational institution that has a very proud and glorious history is shameful for a government. Universities are places that decide what a society is going to look like. If you hate a university so much, it must mean that you have something to fear from people who read and learn and study. That is very revealing of your own politics,” Neha said over the phone.
A PhD scholar at JNU, Neha added: “JNU has witnessed this. There was a ‘shut down JNU’ campaign. What is happening at JU is nothing short of that. Why is a university so problematic for an entire government? Universities are supposed to be funded by the government. Young people are supposed to be taken care of by the government. Why else do we elect a government?”
Several JU students said they were being targeted because they had questioned power over the years.
“The state’s might does not scare us,” a postgraduate student said.
Neha said: “It’s so sad that the government thinks like this. Perhaps that is because the youth represent the possibility of a society moving forward from all orthodoxy and conservatism, and this government has an agenda of taking the country a thousand centuries back.”
Leave a Reply