Two students from Kolkata’s Presidency University challenged their expulsion over alleged defacement of ABVP posters. They said the university denied them a fair chance to present their defense or view CCTV footage. One student noted, "Unilateral decisions of this magnitude, taken without procedural transparency, severely compromise the integrity of university governance."
The 'expelled' women alleged they were not allowed to present defense.
The postgraduate student and a former student of Kolkata's Presidency University, facing disciplinary action at Kolkata's Presidency University over alleged defacement of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) posters on the campus, have questioned the fairness of the enquiry, alleging violations of natural justice. They claim CCTV footage was not shown to them and that they were not given a fair opportunity to present their defence.
The alleged defacement of ABVP posters came a day after senior RSS functionary Jishnu Basu delivered a lecture at an event hosted by the student outfit.
"I was the one who wrote over the ABVP poster. The expelled postgraduate student did not do anything. CCTV footage was not shown to us, nor were we allowed to present defense. We only received the disciplinary committee report on Monday," Olivia Banerjee, the former student who faced action, told The Indian Express.
While the student has been expelled from the university, both the student and the former student have been banned from enrolling in any future programmes at Presidency University. The university has also barred both of them from entering the campus and participating in any academic work.
Banerjee alleged that there was no student representative in the disciplinary committee and pointed out that the university does not have a student union, as union elections have been pending for the last few years.
Banerjee also wrote to the university, questioning the grounds for the expulsion of someone who is not enrolled with the university presently.
"The initiation of proceedings represents a fundamental jurisdictional defect under institutional administrative law. My status in the institution severs the standard student-university-administrative nexus," she wrote in the mail.
The expelled postgraduate student, who wished to remain unnamed, said, "Unilateral decisions of this magnitude, taken without procedural transparency, severely compromise the integrity of university governance."
She said, "I support Banerjee in what she did. It was an AI-generated poster of ABVP, not a portrait of Swami Vivekananda. It does not amount to any insult. Misrepresenting this context severely compromises the nature of the penalty meted out to me", she added.
Both the women said that they have only appealed against the decision within the university forum. "We have mailed the Dean so far. If we do not receive a response, we will appeal to the Vice Chancellor, who is the highest authority within the university. Any legal action can be thought of after that."
Widespread intellectual and alumni backlash
The alumni association, faculty and other groups have come out against the action taken by the university.
On Monday, a group of Presidency alumni, including historian Tanika Sarkar, art historian Tapati Guha-Thakurta and former bureaucrat and ex-Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar, demanded the revocation of the "expulsion" of the two students.
In a letter to the Vice-Chancellor, the alumni said they were "aghast" at the decision and suspected that external forces had "motivated such punitive alacrity on administration's behalf".
Dr Kalyan Kumar Das, English faculty at the university, had written on Facebook a day after the expulsion, "I don't teach my students to become morons incapable of speaking truth to power! Let that sink in, powers that be!"
Several student organisations condemned the university's decision to expel the two students. The Students' Federation of India (SFI), All India Students' Association (AISA), Independents' Consolidation (IC), Revolutionary Students Front (RSF), All India Democratic Students' Organization (AIDSO), and SRFTI Student Union have decried the university's decision and called upon the authorities to revoke the expulsion.
The Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), a civil and democratic rights organisation, staged a protest in College Street on Monday, demanding revocation of the university's decision.
Eminent public intellectual and alumnus of the institution Partha Chatterjee's said, "Words fall short to condemn the persecution in the name of nationalism, Sanatan Dharma, anti-atheism, anti-leftism, etc in the state's educational institutions. Such attacks on healthy, open, and normal cultivation of knowledge must be met with organized resistance."
Historian and alumnus Gautam Bhadra, during the meeting, stressed the importance of "dimaagi insaaniyat" through examples of figures such as Swami Vivekananda, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, and Rabindranath Tagore. "An institution is a space of power. Still, we need dialogue between students and teachers in an educational institution to move forward."
Arka Sen Chakraborty, a student of the university, also spoke at the meeting to register his dissent and alleged political pressure behind it.
On the question of solidarity expressed by several student organizations, ABVP said Left-wing student organisations have always been opposed to Indian thinkers. "They always discuss and revere foreign figures like Lenin, Marx, and Che Guevara. For insulting Swami Vivekananda, SFI, AISA, AIDSO, and RSF should apologize to the people of the country. The way they have insulted Vivekananda on the land of Vivekananda, the countrymen will never forgive these culprits," ABVP Presidency University unit president Mridul Banik.