Statewide SFI strike

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, April 8, 2007
While the SFI is hopeful that the students’ strike on April 9 will be a success, the students’ unions of the three streams in Jadavpur University (JU) — arts, science, and engineering and technology — will try to ensure normal attendance in the university.
Protesting the ransacking of the science club and the non-teaching staff union room on April 5 by some students after the students’ union election results were declared, the SFI called for the all-Bengal students’ strike. While students of all universities in Bengal have been asked to take part in the strike, only colleges in Kolkata will join in and schools have been exempted from the strike.
Incidentally, the SFI has lost in the elections held for the posts in all the streams, including the arts’ elections where they had not lost in the past 8 years. The Arts faculty Students’ Union (AFSU), Science Faculty Students’ Union (SFSU) and Faculty for Engineering and Technology Students’ Union (FETSU) have come together and has decided to foil the students’ strike on April 9.
“While the SFI chooses to remain silent about Nandigram, they do not hesitate to make an issue out of a small incident for which we were not responsible. This is nothing but a political gimmick, and they would not be able to stop students from attending classes on a false issue,” said Amit Chakraborty, spokes person of all the three students’ unions.
The SFI however feels that the strike will be a success. “All we want is that the culprits are identified and they face the toughest punishment,” said Anirban Ghatak, Kolkata district committee member of SFI.
The Jadavpur University Teachers Association (JUTA) has condemned the April 5 incident, but will not support the strike. “Instead we will organise a sit inside the campus, and if students turn up we will obviously take the classes,” said Keshab Bhattacharya, general secretary of JUTA.
The SFI will also hold a meeting on April 10 in campus with students, teachers and non-teaching staff from across the state to protest the incident.
mou.hindustantimes@yahoo.com