Students, teachers to take Nandigram to New Delhi

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, November 13
Call it the Nandigram affect. After intellectuals it is the turn of the students and teachers to hit the road.
Teachers belonging to the All Bengal University Teachers Association (ABUTA) are writing a letter to President Pratibha Patil on the violence unleashed by armed CPI(M) cadres in Nandigram. “We will be sending the letter to the President on Wednesday,” said Tarun Nashkar, general secretary of ABUTA.
The Congress students’ wing, Chatra Parishad representatives have left for the Capital. “We will be meeting Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday and would urge him to visit Nandigram. Cahtra Parishad had won the students election at Nandigram College but the institution could not open due to the violence. Many students have been killed and injured also. We would be urging Rahul to pressurise the state government,” said Sourav Chakraborty, state general secretary of Chatra Parsihad.
Showing their solidarity, a silent rally of about 200 students and teachers was taken within the Jadavpur University (JU) campus on Tuesday. “Is this the party which carried out land reforms in Bengal and turned the fortune of farmers for the better? The brutal killing of farmers has made us realise that the party does not believe in Communist ideology. Land reform was just a weapon for them to come to power and now they have changed stance and are killing innocent villagers,” said Nashkar, who is also a professor of engineering faculty at JU.
JU students have also organised a roadside demonstration in the evening outside the varsity and collecting relief. “Incidents like this are increasingly affecting the popularity of CPI(M) and the Left Front. People are losing their faith in this government and in such a scenario we students have a huge role to play in the agitation,” said Amit Chakraborty, a first year ME student of JU.
The students of Presidency College will also join the protests. Right now they are busy raising funds for the victims of Nandigram. They are not only approaching fellow students and alumnus to donate but would also organise a road show with intellectuals for collecting funds. “What the cadres have done in Nandigram would do credit to a fascist organisation. We are unable to differentiate between Narendra Modi and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Pleading will not help. The need of the hour is to unite to resist the government,” said Dipanjan Sinha, general secretary of Presidency College Students Union.
Students of Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU), Shibpur have just started to return after their Puja holiday and they too plan to join the protest. Students and teachers of Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta too has expressed heir desire to help the victims. The non-teaching staff of IIT Kharagpur had brought out a peace rally in the campus on November 9. Many students and teachers from JU, Presidency and BESU will be joining the intellectuals’ rally.
Mou.Chakraborty@hindustantimes.com