We start this editorial
wishing a very happy festive season to our members and readers all over the
world. During this period the Indian subcontinent celebrates different
festivals that were religious to start with, but has become social events for a
long time now. While one can question the incredible extravagance of many such
festivals, it is impossible to deny the overall enthusiasm which enables people
to forget their daily trials and tribulations and look at the world with
renewed hope.
However, the month of
September was marked by a series of events all over the world that do not call
for rejoicing but for serious reflection. In Kolkata and in Hong Kong students
started protest movements against the powers that be – justice for the students
of Kolkata, democracy for the students in Hong Kong. I would like to dedicate
this editorial to the student community all over the world who still fights
with conviction about what they perceive to be right or wrong.
The state of West Bengal in
India is governed by a party called Trino Mool Congress (TMC), a breakaway
faction of the Indian National Congress. Its founder Ms. Mamata Banerjee is the
Chief Minister of West Bengal. The party was voted in with massively by the
electorate of West Bengal in 2011, disillusioned with three decades of
governance by the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Ms. Banerjee’s style of
governance is at best undemocratic and at worst, dictatorial. Several incidents
in the recent past have proved it. The other members of her government are
merely her puppets with no independent opinions.
This is the overall context
in which the movement by the students of Jadavpur University, a prime
educational institution in Kolkata started, following the attitude of the
university authorities, particularly the Vice Chancellor, when a female student
was molested on the university campus. On 16th September 2014,
peaceful demonstrations by students took place in front of the administrative
building of the University, demanding an investigation into the incident.
Following several unsuccessful attempts at dialogue with the authorities, the
students gheraoed some personnel of the University authority, including the
Vice-Chancellor. The Vice-Chancellor then called the police. The subsequent
police brutality unleashed upon the students in the early hours of 17th
September triggered a wave of protests by students and teachers, demanding the
resignation of the Vice Chancellor. Demonstrations showing solidarity with the
students started in Kolkata and across India, and slowly spread abroad as the
ex-students of the University across the world organized demonstrations to
protest against the incidents taking place in faraway Kolkata. Protest marches
in Kolkata had progressively increasing turnout, culminating in a rally on 20th
September with a massive turnout of more than 30 000 participants: the
civil society marched with the students in heavy rain, under a menacing monsoon
sky.
To contain the growing
unrest in the university campus, police pickets were placed outside the
university gates while students continued their peaceful protest armed with
guitars, singing songs and boycotting classes. Well, there were slogans too,
coined by students, sung rather than shouted. They have named their movement
‘Hok Kolorob’ (let us make some noise) and they are making noise, not only out
on the streets but on the social media – for the first time in India these tech
savvy kids are making Internet one of their major allies. The teaching
community has joined the protests too, and the different Teachers’ Associations
from universities all over West Bengal issued formal statements condemning the
action of the Vice Chancellor and demanding his resignation.
Alas, the demonstrations
could not have started at a worse time. The University closed end September for
the annual Puja vacations. As the festive season started in earnest and the
students left the campus, the Vice-Chancellor, who was on a temporary tenure
till the end of September, was confirmed in his post - ratified, as required,
by the Governor of West Bengal. The so called ‘educationalist’, who doesn’t
hesitate to beat up his own students will have umpteen more opportunities to do
the same, maybe every time there is a dissent.
Will the movement take shape
again as the students return to their university at the end of the vacations?
It is difficult to say. The student movement in Hong Kong that mobilized the
entire population and gave a generally peace-loving people the urge and the
courage to demonstrate and brave the tear gas shells and other weapons is
showing signs of flagging as residents grow more concerned about their own
comfort and safety and impatient with the disruptions. It is difficult to keep
a student movement alive for long.
Unless, of course, the civil
society as a whole is behind them and take their movement to a different level.
Will it happen in West Bengal? I have my doubts.
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