‘Divorce student and mainstream politics’

Kolkata, April 11 (IANS) Magsaysay award winning writer Mahasweta Devi Thursday urged that student politics must be “kept apart” from the general politics.

“Politics should be kept apart from student politics,” she told the media here.

Her comments came after Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) members stormed the Presidency University campus and beat up students here Wednesday.

This was in response to the heckling of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by the SFI, the student arm of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, in New Delhi.

Carrying sticks and rods, slogan shouting TMCP activists entered the campus by breaking a gate and ransacked the compound.

They vandalised The heritage Baker’s Building, which celebrated its centenary recently.

The historic physics Laboratory – Baker Laboratory – housed in the building was severely damaged by the protestors.

Legendary scientists like Jagadish Chandra Bose, Satyendra Nath Bose and Meghnad Saha had done much of their research work in the laboratory.

Mahasweta Devi lamented the involvement of students in politics, saying they should focus on academics.

“For the last 50 years there has not been any positive effort to exclude students from politics. Students are being used in political protests, but the political parties seem to have no concern about the consequences and where the students finally land up. It should not been done.”

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.