The university is completely dependent on State funding and has missed the opportunity to generate resources through other means. Photo from the recent protest at the university | ANI photo
On March 12, the Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar informed the Parliament that Jadavpur University is set to lose the status of Institute of Eminence (IoE) due to a fall in budgetary allocation. Mr. Majumdar, who is also West Bengal BJP president in response to a question by another BJP MP Samik Bhattacharya mentioned that the Empowered Experts Committee (EEC) considered the revised proposal of the Jadavpur University and observed that there was a steep decline in the budget from the earlier projected amount of ₹3,299 crore to ₹606 crore. Such a steep decline in the budget was not conducive to realise the target set for the IoE Institutions.
While the question was raised and replied to by two senior BJP leaders from West Bengal, the development could not have come at a worse time. Jadavpur University, the highest-ranked university in West Bengal, has been on the boil over the past three weeks.
Recent violence at the university
Days before the start of the new academic session, violence erupted at the university when West Bengal State Education Minister, Bratya Basu, came face to face with a group of students on March 1. The students who had blocked the Minister’s car were demanding that the student’s union election be held at the university. After a commotion for a few minutes, the Minister’s car drove over the protesting students and some protesting students came under the wheels of the Minister’s car.
While the protests and blocking of the Minister’s convoy was not something new at the state-run university, the fact that the wheels of the Minister’s car injured students was unprecedented. For more than two weeks the university witnessed protests and academic activities remained suspended. Nine FIRs have been registered, eight of which against students and one at the instruction of the Calcutta High Court against the Minster, his driver, and another professor at the university.
Set up in 1955, Jadavpur University is considered an outcome of the country’s freedom movement and is the highest-rated university in West Bengal, which till decades ago boasted of top-rated educational institutions in India. As per the latest National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranking by the Ministry of Education released in August 2024, Jadavpur University ranked at the ninth position across the country on the list of universities. The university has excellent humanities, science and technology professors and has several interdisciplinary schools and centers that are engaged in inter-disciplinary research.
It is not only politics and protests but also fund constraints that are hampering the development of the university. The Jadavpur University Teachers Association (JUTA) has raised the question that ₹1 crore was crowdfunded for applying for the IoE status. JUTA in a statement in January 2025 said that the university spent ₹34.97 crore from its coffers for “non-salary maintenance-related expenditures” and it will have to borrow funds in future if the situation continues.
The university is completely dependent on State funding and has missed the opportunity to generate resources through self-financing courses or other means like engaging with its vast alumni network. With no central funds in sight and the state government stressed of funds due to other financial commitments such as cash incentive schemes for women and children, the JU might have to grapple with funds crunch for a while.
Politics at the university
At the centre of the controversy is the politics at the university. Jadhavpur University has been a bastion of student unions with Left ideology for the past several decades. The campus saw violence during the turbulent Naxal movement of the 1970’s. Despite being in power for almost 14 years in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress that has not been able to establish itself among the students of this premier university. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has also tried to establish a presence in the university but without much success.
March 2025 is not the first time Jadavpur University has made headlines for the wrong reasons. In September 2019, almost a similar situation had emerged when the students laid siege to the convoy of the then Union Minister Babul Supriyo inside the university campus. Mr. Supriyo, who was a BJP MP then, was rescued by then West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.
Beyond the colourful graffities adorning the walls of the university campus and the slogans of revolution painted all around, student politics has often taken difficult turns, from the occasional laying siege at the office of Vice Chancellors and authorities to the ‘Hok Kolorob (Let there be Noise) movement in 2014 when the siege went to 150 hours. In August 2023, a first-year student allegedly fell to death while being ragged by his seniors. Thirteen students were arrested in connection with the case that is being heard in the Calcutta High Court
There is much more than aggressive student politics that needs to be addressed by all the stakeholders of the university. The students protest surveillance on the campus and oppose setting up a police outpost, but block movement of others and gherao Vice Chancellors and other constitutional functionaries visiting the institute.
The authorities on the other hand try to keep passing the buck. When the Education Minister’s car was surrounded by students on March 1, 2025 the University Vice Chancellor Bhaskar Gupta was nowhere to be seen. He later fell ill and was hospitalised for a few days. Even in the past when there was a ragging death at the campus hostel or a Union Minister convoy was stopped, the university authorities were not seen handling the issue proactively and shifted the blame to institutional lapses.
The different teachers’ associations seem to be more committed to the different ideologies they represent and their actions are more inclined in the interest of the ideology rather than the interest of the university. If all the stakeholders, students, teachers, and authorities do not come together and tide over their historical bias, and if the business-as-usual approach continues, teaching-learning activities will suffer. Jadavpur University may well slide down the path of academic decline.
Published – March 18, 2025 06:00 am IST