Political violence spreads to West Bengal colleges

With elections in West Bengal still a few months away, clashes between the ruling Left and Trinamul Congress are on the rise.

In rural Bengal, cadres of the two political parties are engaged in a bloody turf war that has even spread its tentacles in college campuses. On December 16, one student was killed and another seriously injured in violence that spread across educational institutions.

While clashes between SFI (CPI(M)’s students wing) and the TMC’s students wing were over the student union elections, police said in most cases the provocation came from external sources.

SFI had called a state-wide bandh today across educational institutes to protest the killing of a supporter. Most schools remained closed. The CPI(M) said since the general elections in 2009 campus violence has claimed 15 lives in the state. TMC has also made similar claims.

Violence has not been restricted to clashes between rival student unions, but taking on the college administrations has become the norm of the day. Recently, the principal of Habra Sri Chaitanya College in North 24 Parganas, suffered a cardiac arrest after he was gheraoed by students for more than 12 hours.

A veteran Naxalite leader of the 1960s, Ashim Chatterjee, who had been part of students’ politics, feels that today the politics is bereft of any ideology and the sole focus is now about exercising brute force to impose political control over student bodies.

Debjani Sengupta, a senior teacher in a Birbhum college, feels that the climate is so vitiated that it might continue to hamper studies for the next few years.

A growing number of students are leaving Bengal to pursue higher studies in other states. The vice chancellor of a state university was recently heard advising students to migrate to other cities for higher studies, as the coming years might see more campus violence.