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[ranu ghosh]

please circulate widely

Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:39:26 +0530
From: "Abhee Dutt-Mazumder" <abheedm at gmail.com>
Subject: Fwd: Sibpur BESU




Dear Friends,
Why did students write on blank answer- scripts "Save BESU from
becoming a Nandigram"?

The students of Sibpur BESU are facing an assault of the college
administration-local goons-police. The Vice-chancellor Nikhil Ranjan
Banerjea is orchestrating the assault, the aim of which is to
terrorize students into joining or supporting the students' wing of
the major ruling party. It is not an accident that all those who are
being arrested by the police are distinguished by their non-allegiance
to this students' organisation. The enthusiasm of the police is, no
doubt, linked to the fact that the son of Mohd. Selim, of the CPI(M),
is a student of BESU at present (not admitted through the Joint
Entrance Examinations, as reported).

The evil nexus has cleverly used the incident of a brawl under the
effect of drink to go into the assault mode against the students,
while
(1)  masking the real scenario, pretending that the question is one of
discipline, and
(2)  beating up non-SFI students mercilessly in the name of enforcing order.

The campus has been cut off and the media are not admitted in. So,
March 20-24, during which the students were continuously assaulted by
goons and the police, who even entered the girls' hostel, and the
authorities kept up a relentless pressure to join the SFI, little news
of the magnitude of the atrocities and the flagrant political thrust
of the BESU administration reached the media.

Taken aback at first, the students of BESU have rallied back to
protest against the atrocities, returning blank sheets in the
examinations which commenced on March 24, and participating in a
sit-in at Metro channel of Esplanade.

A fact-sheet prepared by the students is given below. Also attached
are letters written by the students to the VC and the Registrar, as
well as a copy of a mass petition against one Afaz-Uddin Ahmed.

Please circulate widely.

Dipanjan Rai Chaudhuri


FACTSHEET

In chronological order:

 07.09.2007:
A notice ( memo no. RDO-2/1387) had been issued by the registrar where
it was notified that four final year students (UG) and six 3rd year
students (UG) were suspended and instructed to vacate their respective
hostels with immediate effect for an indefinite period of time. But in
the aforementioned notice, lots of irregularities have been found,
which are mentioned below:
·        It is clearly mentioned in the notice that inquiries against
the students alleged to have committed misdemeanors, were pending.
Then, we would like to know, how, without proper inquiry, were the 10
students slapped with such harsh punishment?
·        We have found that one of the accused students viz. Tanmoy
Chatterjee (3rd yr. Metallurgy) was not present in the university
campus on the date on which alleged incident took place. He had in
fact, gone to visit his friend's ailing mother, at Peerless Hospital.
Then how did his name crop up in the notice?


So it is explicit that the accused 10 students had been wrongly framed
and suspended on the basis of some fabricated allegations. We are
amazed and upset at this sort of bias on the part of the authority.

12.12. 2007:
" A second year student (U.G) named Afaz-Uddin Ahmed of the Dept. of
Information Technology is fomenting trouble & violence in the
University campus for the last one year. He, with the help of some of
his batch mates is explicitly trying to disturb the peace & harmony of
the University campus by infusing dirty politics in the affairs
related to the students & inciting violence in the University campus,
thus denting the integrity among the students.  It had been reported
to the concerned authority that he was found to behave in the most
unacceptable manner and even has the audacity to manhandle some of his
seniors. Presently he has taken his grudge to such an extent that he
is threatening his own batch mates of dire consequences if they do not
pay their "allegiance" to him. Now he has become so desperate that he
is even trying to scare them by threatening that he will take
"revenge" by waging his animosity against their families. It has been
heard that a guardian of his batch mate has received threatening calls
from an anonymous phone number, which is unprecedented in the history
of this 150 year old institution. There is no denying the fact that
his activities are unbecoming of a student of such a reputed
institution.
We had lodged several complaints against him to the concerned
authority, but unfortunately all have gone unheeded. If he is testing
our patience, we would like to make it clear that we will no longer
remain as silent victims of his inhuman acts. It is unfortunate to
inform you that his motive of gaining narrow political mileage is
explicitly getting the patronage of some of the office bearers of
BESU, as found in yesterday night's incident at hostel  9.But
unfortunately the University authority is trying to overlook his
heinous activities because of his outside political support. " (From a
mass petition by the students)
 When we drew the attention of our faculty members to this matter and
submitted a mass petition to the Dean of Students (PICSA) on
12.12.2007, the authority came under pressure to act and constituted a
disciplinary committee. But on the very day (13th December, 2007),
Students' Federation of India staged a rally and intentionally
fomented panic among the students. And the result was imposition of
section 144 in the campus, a black day for us. The "Afaaz" issue,
thus, died down.

19.3.2008:
Three 2nd year students returning to their hostels at around 10 p.m.
were ragged and racially abused by few boarders of "Wolfenden Hall",
as they were natives from outside West Bengal. They were physically
assaulted and two 2nd year students sustained head injuries. Police
forces were called in to control the situation. However, the boarders
of "Wolfenden Hall" continued to resort to violent means in spite of
the presence of police and faculty members. Two of the Wolfenden
boarders were caught red handed with hockey sticks (it is to be noted
that there is no hockey team in our university) by the faculty
members. But, on insistence of Prof.Bhawani Prasad Mukhopadhay, the
two were released with no charges being levied against them.


20.3.2008:
In the evening, party cadres brutally assaulted few students at the
first gate of the university in front of R.A.F. SFI supporters helped
them by pointing out the targets. When the students appealed to the
R.A.F to take action, they resorted to indiscriminate "lathicharge" on
the students. They even entered Richardson Hall without the permission
of the hostel superintendent and assaulted the boarders, including a
physically handicapped student. More than twenty students were
seriously injured. The same act was repeated in Sengupta as well as
Sen Halls. The dual policy adopted by the R.A.F. was apparent from the
ease with which cadres were roaming freely and threatening us in the
presence of R.A.F. In the mean time SFI supporters attacked 2nd year
hostels. The 2nd year students were so terrified that they sought our
help. We took them to our hostels, called our University doctors and
provided them with First Aid. Strangely, the authority's idea of
assistance was an order to vacate the hostels near midnight. Buses
were provided to transport us to the Howrah station. We narrated the
ordeal of the 2nd year students to police. They assured us that the
2nd year students would be able to reach their hostels. So we boarded
the bus provided by the authority. But unfortunately when we reached
Howrah Station we came to know that the hapless 2nd year students were
arrested by police charging them of loitering in the campus after
10-30 pm.

                      You can surely understand that we, the students
have become victims of SFI-Authority-Police nexus whose sole motive is
to de-stabilize our esteemed Institution. Our very existence in the
University campus is at stake. We would like to vehemently protest
against the barbaric treatment given to the ordinary students.


24.03.2008:
Students were put under virtual house arrest, and their free movement
was restricted by the police. They even threatened students of dire
consequences, which included threatening them with initiation of legal
proceedings and disrupting their careers, for no valid reason.

The press was not allowed to enter the campus and report the incidents
occurring inside. Even the students were not allowed to go near the
press and express their views. This constitutes a gross violation of
human rights.


                                               We would like to appeal
to you to bring this to the attention of the nation at large and help
us to bring the offenders to justice.




   Withwarm regards,

      Students (U.G)

     BESU, Shibpur