Kolkata, Feb 3
A college professor in West
Bengal was Tuesday thrashed inside the premises more than once by
students allegedly owing allegiance to the Trinamool Congress for a
Facebook post critical of the party's students' wing.
Amit Roy,
associate professor and head of the department of economics at Ghatal
Rabindra Satabarsiki Mahavidyalaya in West Midnapore district, later
filed a police complaint.
The crestfallen professor said he was
first attacked outside the staff room and then assaulted inside the room
by students for alleging in his Facebook wall two weeks back that the
Trinamool Chhatra Parishad had "captured the students' council
undemocratically".
"I was sitting in the college staff room, when
the students' council general secretary called me out. I found some
boys standing outside, who showed me a printout of my Facebook post and
asked me why I had posted my personal comments about the college
elections," said Roy.
Without allowing him to respond, Roy said
the students started beating him up and tore his sweater. But as other
professors and college guards rushed in, the attackers dispersed and Roy
returned to the staff room.
But the respite was temporary as the
students forced themselves inside the staff room after 10 minutes,
dragged him out of the chair and again beat him up.
"I fell on the floor. The general secretary was there. I don't know the rest of the students," he said.
Later, as police arrived at the spot, Roy lodged a complaint.
Roy said the situation in the state was such that teachers were coming under attack in all the colleges.
"No
one can dare utter any word against them. When there is no democratic
space, a dictatorial attitude emerges. Then this sort of incidents
happen every now and then."
Describing the incident as the "voice
of dictatorship", he said: "This can happen to anybody any time. The
underlying message is one must put leukoplast (bandage) on his mouth.
You can't speak out."
Kapotakshi Sur, Roy's colleague and head of
the Bengali department, told IANS that Roy was beaten up in the
presence of other teachers.
Sur alleged that when the professors went to the police station, the students forcibly removed them.
"The majority of the assaulters were students. But I can't say there were no outsiders."
She said the teachers have decided not to take classes until the attackers apologise unconditionally.
"We demand that it be ensured that such things do not happen again. We are all feeling insecure," Sur said.
This
was not the first incident of a professor facing trouble in Bengal for
his online posts targeting the ruling party or any of its leaders.
In
April 2012, Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra and his
neighbour were allegedly assaulted by Trinmaool Congress activists and
then arrested for circulating emails mocking Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee.
The West Bengal Human Rights Commission later
recommended Rs.50,000 compensation to each of the victims, but the state
government rejected it
