Yaadein: Semester 2 (JU)

For me, the second semester was possibly the least eventful semester in JU. Regarding the classes, there were two teachers most of the students immensely disliked- the electronics teacher Tapati Ganguly (TG) and the Programming teacher Abhijit Kar (AK). The first one was disliked because of her horrible teaching and strict attitude like a school teacher -like she used to ask questions everyday, while the second one was disliked because of his supercilious and arrogant attitude. While I had no issues with AK, I disliked TG thoroughly.

One real ordeal was the mass-bunking of TG's classes. Most teachers did not mind a mass-bunk once in a while, but TG not only reported every bunk to the CSA office, but actually went around the building to capture the fugitives. These fugitives mostly hung around the architecture lab and the corridors, and TG would walk up to these places looking for them. If she caught anyone, she would first reprimand him and then assign him the task of finding the others and asking them to surrender :-D. Another comic situation arose when she had caught Aveek writing a love-poem in class, and had even read it out to the class!!!!

Though the semester by itself had been rather short and eventless, there was a huge and long-lasting event at the end of it. This was the "Boycott of the Semester Examinations" by the student's council in protest against the suspension of 4 students who were found guilty of unruly behaviour during some protest held some 2 years in the past. Most of us, including myself, opposed participation in this Boycott, since we had no idea where the students were guilty or not- the incident had happened long before our admission to JU. Besides, we thought that boycotting the semester exam is hardly a sane and logical way of protesting. Nevertheless, we had to participate in the boycott as no one wanted animosity with the seniors/union leaders. It was really boring- we had to study and come prepared on all 6 exam days only to find huge crowds of students crowding in front of the department. We would stand there and chat for an hour or two before dispersing. 

None of the exams were held at the scheduled time, and were postponed to june. But just before they could start, the 4 suspended students went on hunger-strike. As a result, again the exams were boycotted. But this time, 4 days into the hunger strike, on the night of 10 june, a huge police force in battle fatigues swooped on the strikers and rounded them up after a massive "lathicharge". Many were injured. Though this ended the hunger-strike, the university authorities came under severe criticism from all quarters for the use of force. They finally decided to set up a review commitee to review the roles of the suspended students, and set up new examination dates, which were finally followed.

A lot of articles were published in the newspapers regarding the boycott. Many people heaped lavish praise on the participating students for throwing themselves behind the 4 students even "putting their own careers in jeopardy". The ultra-left union of JU hailed the "historic protest". Cynics suggested that the students of the current generation rise in protest only when their own interest are affected, and are otherwise aloof about the society unlike the students of the 70s. I had never really supported the movement, and found all these comments weird. I do not know the truth, but I feel that the Union called for the boycott because they were sure that the authorities would not take any action on the boycotters and arrange for an alternate date. And it was hardly spontaneous, most people participated just by following the mass. Most students had no reason to boycott as they had no idea whether the accused students were guilty or not; indeed if they were not guilty, why and how would the probing commitee single them out?  And semester boycott is an extermely illogical way to protest. With due respect to all, I still feel that the boycott was largely a gimmick.