Teachers at Rabindra Bharati University have opposed the officiating vice-chancellor’s direction to the registrar to “secure the administrative block of the
university by strong iron grille” and to recruit “a sufficient number of armed guards”.
The teachers said what the VC is asking for goes against the “liberal and democratic environment” that the campus, named after Rabindranath Tagore, has been known for.
Officiating VC Subhro Kamal Mukherjee has been working from home since Monday because a section of employees has allegedly been entering his office and “abusing” him “repeatedly”.
Mukherjee gave the grille-up direction in a letter to the registrar, in which he said: “The atmosphere of the university is not congenial to discharge duties and functions in the campus with self-respect.”
A statement signed by Debabrata Das, secretary of the teachers’ association at RBU, says: “We are deeply concerned about the current unfortunate state of affairs in the university. We support the democratic rights of all stakeholders. Everyone has the right to struggle democratically to secure their demands, but that must not lead to
creating chaotic situations within an educational institution.”
The statement says: “We equally oppose the thought of deploying armed forces in the university as that is detrimental to the cause of liberal and democratic environment within the campus. We believe in resolving issues through peaceful and democratic
dialogues among the stakeholders. So, we demand immediate restoration of normalcy within the university at the soonest.”
Das told Metro: “While we are opposed to chaos, a university should not be turned into a fortress by raising iron grille and deploying armed forces. A university named after Tagore is a place for free exchange of ideas.”
Told that the teachers, while condemning the chaos on the campus, have opposed his direction to the registrar to “secure the administrative block of the university by strong iron grille” and to recruit “armed guards”, Mukherjee told this newspaper on Wednesday: “I have not read the statement. They have said what they deemed fit.”
“I will not go to the campus unless normality is restored,” he said.
Governor C.V. Ananda Bose had on July 5 entrusted Mukherjee, a former Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, with performing the duties of VC.
