IC pips SFI in Presidency

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, February 27, 2007

The Independents’ Consolidation (IC) won the students union election of Presidency College on Tuesday amidst the backdrop of a vociferous campaign on the industrialisation policy of the state government. Till reports last came in, IC had bagged 38 out of 73 seats while SFI had 33 seats. There was a tie in two seats of post-graduate first year.
The election result according to the IC is the students’ verdict against the government’s land acquisition policy in Singur and Nandigram. While the IC’s agenda was the “atrocity of the government at Singur and Nadigram,” the SFI tried to convince the students about how industrialisation will help the youth in getting jobs.
Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is an alumnus of the college and the students of Presidency have an illustrious history of creating public opinion in the state for over a century.
“Globalisation, special economic zone and industrialisation are the magic words used by the chief minister to fool the people. The students of Presidency College have given their verdict against these magic words. They have voted against the chief minister’s move to acquire fertile land for industry,” said Debanjan Chattopadhyay, IC spokesperson.
The IC supporters along with the students of Jadavpur University (JU) had gone to Singur and Nandigram to help the peasants in their fight against the state machinery. The IC also tried to bring social activist Medha Patkar to the college to mobilise opinion against land acquisition.
The SFI on the other hand distributed leaflets and held meetings saying that Singur and Nandigram would lead to economic development. Apart from telling students about the rehabilitation policy of the state for uprooted farmers, the SFI also had come out with booklets and CD’s.
The SFI however, is not ready to see this result as a verdict against industrialisation. “We were defeated because of our organisational weakness in the college. It is definitely not a verdict against the chief minister’s policy of wooing industry and creating economic development,” said Kaustav Chatterjee, SFI’s Kolkata district secretary. However, the IC disagrees. “Our opposition to Nandigram and Singur made the difference. SFI has lost ground in post-graduate departments, which used to be their main forte,” said Chattopadhyay. The SFI however, have alleged that there were false voters in PG and have demanded re-polling in the two seats where the result was tied.
Presidency had become a bastion of the SFI for two years when the chief minister’s daughter Suchetana and Ajanta, the daughter of the former Left Front chairperson Anil Biswas were studying in the college. This year too the hopes were bright with the daughter of tourism, small scale and cottage industries minister Manab Mukherjee, Hiya and Saptarshi, the son of housing and public health engineering minister Gautam Deb, both first year students and campaigning for SFI.
“The verdict also shows that Presidency College students do not care about the sons and daughters of ministers who campaigned for a wrong cause,” added Chattopadhyay.
mou.hindustantimes@yahoo.com