Around 200 teachers of Jadavpur University marched on Tuesday defying the afternoon heat because they thought it was time “to stand up to those who can dare say they can hold a teacher by the collar of his shirt”.
The former head of the JU’s English department Nandini Saha said she wondered whether someone who boasted about heckling teachers “was worth calling a student of JU”.
In an audio clip which became viral on Monday, a man, who has been identified by university teachers as Sanjib Pramanick, president of the JU unit of the Trinamul Congress Chhatra Parishad (TMCP), could be heard saying: “I am telling you today ‘let me know which teacher I must hold by the collar?’ Need I say more? (Let me know) whose collar must I hold? I will do it.”
The teachers took out the march a day after they wrote to vice-chancellor Suranjan Das saying: “After this audio (containing the threat message), can the teachers of JU feel safe?"
A teacher of civil engineering said he “was alarmed over the purported audio clip”, considering what the former vice-chancellor of Aliah University who is a teacher of JU, had to suffer early this month at the hands of student leaders.
Nandini Saha who stood in front of Aurobindo Bhavan, the administrative headquarters of JU, where the march started from at 4.30pm, said: “It (the audio clip) is extremely disturbing. It is in complete contradiction to the kind of relationship we have with our students. In the first place, it makes me wonder whether they are students of JU.”
“We try to help our students in whatever way possible. Therefore such comments disturb us, apart from hurting us,” she said.
Arup Guha Niyogi, a professor of civil engineering, said he joined the protest march because the purported audio clip was “alarming” for him.
“It is extremely alarming when you view it in conjunction with what happened at Aliah University earlier this month. This audacity to heckle teachers seems to be on the rise,” said Niyogi.
A video clip had emerged on April 1 where a youth identified as Giyasuddin Mondal, a former president of the Aliah University unit of the TMCP, was seen gesticulating at the then vicechancellor of Aliah University, Mahammad Ali, and heard telling him “we will slap you”, box your ears”.
Ali last week resumed teaching at JU’s chemistry department after the completion of his four-year tenure as VC.
His colleague from the department, Chittaranjan Sinha was among the marchers.
“I walked because it was time we teachers stood up to those who can dare to say….. Such elements, however smaller in number they are, have to be isolated,” said Sinha.
When the march walked past the area near gate no. 4 on the campus, a group of Trinamul supporters stood in the area holding posters one of which had written on it: “We request you, instead of doing politics, pick up the pen and help the students in getting educated”.
Sanjib Pramanick, stood behind those who held the posters.
“I am sticking to the demand that the veracity of the clip be ascertained first. If the veracity could be established, I will apologise (to the teachers),” he told The Telegraph.
JU has ordered a probe to ascertain whether the clip is genuine.
Partha Pratim Roy, the general secretary of the teachers, said: “Sanjib Pramanick could say that he won’t apologise because elements like him are nominated to governing bodies of state-aided colleges by the state government”.
Pramanick, doing PhD at JU, was nominated to the governing bodies of two colleges in Nadia district last month.
