Injustice..

I remember the first time I stepped into Jadavpur University. A girl with 15 years of strict convent education, JU came like a breath of fresh air. I made up my mind that instant that this is the place where I want to spend the best years of my life. My college life will be spent at Jadavpur University. I still remember that day when I went in to take admission, I was so freaking pround. I am a student of JU!! All my friends reminded me how “lucky” I was to be a part of this 5 star university. All this happened almost 4 yrs back..

Times changed and so did perspectives, however one thing I learnt truly was that all that glitters is definitely not gold. Student politics seemed a bit foreign to me and at first a bit overhyped. But as time passed the need for a constant revolt seemed necessary for the minimal survival of a student in this university. Be it the review-preview of answer papers or the basic drinking water, everyday was a fight in what seemed a very smooth journey. Yes the 3 years spent there was fun, everybody had a good time and it remained our duty to withhold the respect and kool factor in front of other colleges. The problems remained within the campus.

Today, as I was going through the morning news I came across an article by a man named Mr. Partha Pratim Ghosh. Suddenly the same anger swelled in me that had swept us first years at seeing the injustice being meted out to students in every form. He said that students are protesting in an archaic form and security should be the first concern of an university. There after he complained about “uneasiness” among the executive council members because they were feeling too cold in the presence of “air-conditioners” He has proclaimed that the nature of our revolt is dating back to the 60’s and 70’s!!

I have some questions for this man whose young daughter is about to step into a world filled with corrupted people like her father. If our university is to be compared to other star universities of india like JNU and Aligarh Muslim University then let’s start at the very beginning.. The standard of education. The history dept of AMU has professors like Mr. Irfan Habib and Ms. Shireen Moosvi. Students are encouraged to create new ideas and give new ideals. In 2009, one of the last remaining reputed professors left the JU history dept citing “personal” Problems. A dept where the HOD is openly having an extra marital affair in her office and papers are checked according to student’s political ideologies.. I do not think that makes it a dept of a ”star university”!! Coming to infrastructural problems, drinking water was stopped exactly at 4pm everyday. The so called medical centre can be re named a “ haunted house” yet every year Rs. 10 is taken for this centre from every student. Departmental Libraries cannot be accessed by students of different depts.. The fee counter is supposed to open at 10:45am sharp yet is opens a 11:15am and often at 11:30am. Teachers often go off to Paris and London to give lectures missing vitals classes and leaving it on students to finish their syllabus yet if a student misses a few classes for being ill there are no provisions to help him or her out. Students traveling by local trains in mid-march reach the campus in the sweltering heat only to find his or her class is cancelled because the professor had other “appointments”!

Dear Mr. Ghosh these are just a few problems we students face. Yet not much has been done from your end to help us out. It is nice to see that inspite of all these problems we the students still face or have faced people like you who complain of the air conditioner being too high!!

Installing CCTV might increase “your” security but we students would rather study in a good institution with basic infrastructure and good teachers. That is what make an institution a five star university…not some potted plants in the corridors the day NAAC comes to visit or some hi-fi CCTV’S in the classrooms.