Four teachers at IIEST Shibpur started a 24-hour fast on Thursday evening to protest the alleged lack of “democratic space” for teachers on the campus and the authorities’ alleged attempt to silence voices “of concern”.
Manas Hira, president of the IIEST Teachers’ Association, and three other teachers have been on hunger strike in the first lobby of the institute since 5pm on Thursday.
Before the protest started, the teachers’ association, which has been spearheading a “Save IIEST” campaign, had written to the IIEST director, Parthasarathi Chakrabarti, listing their grievances.
The letter, written by the association’s secretary, Tapendu Mandal, says: “To keep the dream behind the birth of IIEST alive, IIESTTA resolved to start the concerted initiative ‘Save IIEST, get what it deserves’. It was unfortunate and shocking to find that the institute administration now adopts repression to silence this voice of concern....”
The letter says: “In course of subsequent dialogue with you, we were further worried to observe that the institute administration is not ready to give any (democratic) space to the teachers.”
Hira told The Telegraph: “On April 5, after IIEST teachers had marched through the campus as part of the ‘Save IIEST’ initiative to protest the absence of basic infrastructure, erratic recruitment and lack of appropriate classrooms and laboratories, four of the protesting teachers were served a showcause notice. This amounts to curbing the democratic space. We are protesting that (through the hunger strike).”
Calls and text messages from this newspaper to director Chakrabarti went unanswered.