An open letter by Visva-Bharati vice chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty in which he blamed “movements” by students and staff for the varsity’s poor ranking in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) has kicked off a debate on the campus with his detractors citing the examples of Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jadavpur University, regarded as hotbeds of campus movements, securing second and fifth ranks, respectively.
The letter — released by Chakraborty’s office on Friday night in English, Bengali and Hindi — has become a talking point in the sprawling Santiniketan campus after the rank of the varsity slipped by 13 notches, from 37 to 50, this year. The NIFR rankings for the year 2020 was made public on June 11.
“The Karmi Sabha (varsity’s union of non-teaching staffs) sat on a strike for 22 days just immediately prior to last year’s Durga Puja holidays…..it should also be noted that although the non teaching staffs had been on pen down strike, they continued to sign the attendance registrars twice a day (as per rule) so that their claim to salary was established,” the letters reads.
“We were gheraoed last year for 25 hours by students who did not even allow a provision of insulin for our colleague, who, as a result, had to be hospitalised. Nevertheless the stalemate was resolved amicably through dialogue and discussions with the students in which some of our colleagues took leading roles..” the letter goes on to say.
The VC also claimed in the letter that he was engaged in cleansing the varsity of its rampant deviations from rules and regulations since his joining in November 2018 and so the varsity not to concentrate on other issues like NIRF.
“Since my joining in November 2018, I have been engaged in cleansing the institution of its rampant deviations from well-established rule and regulations which perhaps create an image of Visva-Bharati being a deviant system, embroiled in controversies. This extremely urgent task has unfortunately left the administration with little time to address other pertinent issues,” said the letter.
“Visva-Bharati is the proverbial goose that lays golden eggs for everybody—students, teachers, the local businessmen, the toto drivers, the journalists and other stake holders. What is required to take care of the goose instead of contributing to its slow demise,” the letter added.
Detractors lashed out at the VC. Somnath Sow, an SFI leader in Visva-Bharati, said. “In his letter, the VC blamed students, teachers, staffs and almost everyone, but didn’t mention his failure to create an academic atmosphere,” Sow said. “If our movement was responsible, then JU and JNU should rank below us,” said Swapnanil Mukherjee, an UG student of economics.
Another source said that NIFR does not judge an institution on whether students and staff members are agitating or not.
