Students stage a dharna outside the Jadavpur University administrative building on Thursday. Subham Dutta
A section of Jadavpur University’s students on Thursday continued to gherao varsity officials over the decision to scrap entrance exams for six Humanities subjects. Some student and teacher unions have also called for a strike on Friday over the matter.
The university’s executive council had on Wednesday reversed its previous decision — in which it had agreed to conduct admission tests — and announced that there would be no such exam for English, Comparative Literature, Bengali, History, Political Science and Philosophy. The council decided that students will be admitted on the basis of their board marks.
The decision had sparked protests in the campus on Thursday.
On Friday, despite protesters holding V-C Suranjan Das and other officials hostage inside the administrative building of the varsity, a meeting of the admission committee was held. In the meeting, it was decided that the admission process will take place on July 27, 28, 30 and 31 and that the form fill-up procedure will begin from Friday.
Chairperson of Arts Faculty Students’ Union (AFSU), Somasree Chowdhury, said the authorities have made the situation complex by frequently changing their stand.
“The university has changed its decision four times in the last month. People from various states and countries have come to appear for the admission tests. This is pure harassment of applicants. We want the admission tests to be conducted and we don’t want any state government interference in the internal matters of the university,” she told The Indian Express. She also said that the ASFU has given a call for a strike.
The Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) also called for a ceasework, with its general secretary Nilanjana Gupta saying, “University authorities have curbed the freedom of each department by not letting them decide on the criteria for admission and by preventing them from taking part in the counselling and admission process. To mark our protest, we will go on a strike tomorrow (Friday) and stage a protest demonstration as well.”
Faculty members of the English department have conveyed to university authorities their decision to abstain from participating in the admission process.
“They (the authorities) have said that we cannot take part in the admission process as there will be no tests. Still, it would require us to complete some official work. However, we have decided to completely abstain from taking part in any activities,” said professor Paramita Chakraborti.
Meanwhile, the V-C questioned the role of students in staging such protests.
“We all have to abide by the decision of the executive council. The current students have no role to play in fixing the criterion for admission… I cannot find the reason why they (students) are staging a protest over this issue,” he said.
Jadavpur University had changed its stance on the issue a day after state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said that there should be a single criterion for admission at the varsity.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Chatterjee had said, “If the engineering department is admitting students based on their marks in board exams, then the same yardstick must be followed in the arts department as well. In the Humanities department also, admission tests are held only for six subjects, while board marks are taken into account for the rest of the subjects. These two criteria cannot be followed side by side.”
When asked to comment if JU had reversed its decision in order to toe the government’s line, Das said, “I had no conversation with the state government or state education minister in this regard. But I will say that Jadavpur University is a difficult place for governance.”
“I feel that we could have avoided complexities if these questions were raised before the issuance of the (earlier) notification. But I cannot do anything about it as it is the executive council which takes such a decision,” he added.