Five University professors resigned following abuse on their skin colours

Kolkata, 18 June (HS): In a bizarre incident in West Bengal, five senior Professors including four departmental heads of the city based Rabindra Bharati University today submitted their resignation to the Vice Chancellor in protest against continuous ‘abuse and derogatory remarks against them and their ‘skin colours’ by a section of students under the banner of Chatra Samsad (Students Union) of the same university.

According to sources at Rabindra Bharati University, as the issue has taken a very serious turn following the mass resignation of so many senior professors at a time and too because of  such an uncommon  issue in the state, Education minister Partha Chatterjee realising the gravity of the situation, rushed to the University this afternoon and began a marathon meeting with Vice Chancellor Sabyasachi Basu Roy Chowdhury at his chamber to arrive at an amicable solution to end the impasse, which has come close on the heels of week long statewide strike of Junior doctors.

Blaming the leaders and a section of office bearers of the University ‘Chatra Samsad’, which is being run by the students leaders of Trinamool Congress,the five Professors here today said after experiencing and listening all types of abuse by using even filthy language and hearing taunts about the ‘skin colours’ of some lady professors for several months, it has now become impossible for them to held their head high and continue their profession with dignity and teach their students in the university as they ‘felt very very insulted’.

As such, they felt that they had no other option but to step down from their posts with immediate effect and accordingly submitted their resignations to the Vice Chancellor as per rule creating a huge uproar not only in the university but across the education circles of the state.

But when asked,the office bearers of TMC run Chatra Samsad categorically denied any such incident and on the other hand blamed the concerned professors for allegedly not attending their classes regularly for long, forcing them to lodge complaints against them to the Vice Chancellor time and again.

‘We want a thorough investigation in to the whole issue as only through such probe the truth would come out’, said General Secretary of Chatra Samsad Nilanjan Roy who also denied that the professors  claim that they were continuously abused and even taunted for the skin colours forcing them to quit.

Now, it remains to be seen what comes out from today’s marathon meeting between the Vice Chancellor and the state Education minister in presence of the resigned professors and what action would be taken against a section of students for allegedly abusing their teaches and that too mentioning about their skin colours, which was unheard of art least in West Bengal so far.