The FEDCUTA strongly condemns the dastardly attack on Calcutta University teachers and non-teaching employees who were conducting a peaceful dharna in Calcutta University on 1.7.2015. It is reported that teachers and other employees were heckled and physically assaulted by the lumpen elements in full public view.
What is all the more shocking is that the attack was carried out by hooligans purportedly owing allegiance to the ruling party in the State and in the presence of the Vice Chancellor and other senior functionaries of Calcutta University, who made no effort to intervene or to bring the perpetrators to book.
The FEDCUTA demands that immediate action be taken against the culprits, and the University authorities and State Government take full responsibility for the protection of the peacefully demonstrating employees and maintaining a violence-free campus. We have an inalienable right to peacefully demonstrate in support of our demands and to express our dissent against the anti-people policies of the Government. The Universities especially are expected to provide a space that nurtures civilised dialogue and discussion, where ideas are generated and articulated without fear, where independent and creative thinking are fostered. It is in the interest of society that such spaces must be protected.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated example of the use of violence to crush democratic movements in Universities. The FEDCUTA views the incident as yet another instance of the growing attack by an increasingly authoritarian regime and its agents, in an attempt to crush the democratic voices and dissent against the anti-people education policies that are paving the way for commercialisation and destruction of quality in higher education.
On behalf of all the teachers of all the Central Universities, the FEDCUTA warns such forces that teachers will not be cowed down by such tactics. We will continue to expose the nefarious agenda of the Governments who are acting at the behest of foreign and domestic corporate interests.
NANDITA NARAIN SACHIDANAND SINHA
(President, FEDCUTA) (Secretary, FEDCUTA)
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