Where is the Poriborton?

A lot of things are wrong in this state we live in, but none worse than the governance we have had over the last couple of decades. I heard this from a government employee, whom I must not name for the sake of his life, “CPI(M) government made West Bengal a graveyard, and now the chairperson of the new ruling party is doing taandav on top of our buried bodies”. This made no sense to me back then, but the latest Jadavpur University case made me recall this incident and I laughed a very sad laugh. The poriborton-promising party is going on making the same mistakes their predecessors had committed. What is most appalling is the complete nonchalant attitude with which the case is being handled. 

Let us say, that the police officers who reached the university campus, were heckled, abused and flipped-off by a few students when they were attempting to escort the Vice-Chancellor out of his office building. Let us also say, that the students were being extremely uncooperative and were causing hindrance to the job which the police had come to perform. Now, the question which needs to be answered by the authorities is, was this enough provocation for the police officers to manhandle the peacefully-protesting, unarmed students (note, both male and female) and drag them out of the campus like they were some criminals, punching and kicking them throughout? Isn’t the police force trained to handle a bit of provocation which they might have received inside the campus? If your answer is no, why have I never seen the police force wielding their batons at the political rallies which turn violent? Why were some politically affiliated people (read: goons) accompanying the police officers inside a university campus? Is the police force being governed by the ruling party or are they still truly a public serving unbiased constitutional body?

Another thing which I find extremely essential to point out is that the students were protesting for a thorough investigation on an incident of molestation with one of the university’s students inside the campus. The fact that the students had to protest for this speaks about the university authority in itself. Such politically-inclined people are not fit to be appointed at any post in an educational institution where they can use the power to try and save the guilty of their crimes because of their political affiliations. 

Instead of making sure that the matter is probed unbiasedly, the state government is busy in mocking the protests being undertaken by students from all across the state. The state government is also taking out rallies of its own, comprising of so called intellectuals and scholars, to counter the student rally which took place over the weekend. Firstly, Miss Banerjee, what are you trying to prove by doing this; that by having a few educated people on your pay-roll makes all your actions justified and all your wrongdoings right? Secondly, you need to understand what the student rally was about. It was without any political colour and with an important agenda of non-politicisation of educational institutions; what did you find worth countering in it?

I hope that other political parties do not just see this as an opportunity to grab some limelight but actually raise this issue so that it is solved and investigated properly and see that the guilty are punished accordingly.