Biswabrata Goswami
Midnapore, 25 Sep: Calling upon students to shoulder the responsibility of rebuilding Bengal’s higher education ecosystem, West Bengal Higher Education Minister Jagannath Chattopadhyay on Friday said the state must reclaim its historic position as a centre of learning and intellectual excellence.
Speaking at Vidyasagar University on the occasion of Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s 207th birth anniversary, Mr Chattopadhyay invoked Bengal’s long educational legacy — from Hindu School and Hindu College to Calcutta University, Calcutta Medical College, IIT Kharagpur and IIM Calcutta — before turning his focus to what he described as the present crisis in the state’s higher education sector.
“This is the legacy we carry,” the minister told students, pointing out that several landmark educational institutions had originated in Bengal.
He also referred to India’s Nobel laureates and said that, barring Kailash Satyarthi, the country’s six Nobel laureates had strong connections with Bengal, citing Rabindranath Tagore, C V Raman, Mother Teresa, Amartya Sen and Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee.
But the minister then posed a sharply contrasting set of questions to the audience, asking where allegations of teacher recruitment irregularities and questions over appointments in higher education institutions had surfaced, and where the migration of students to universities outside Bengal after Plus Two was particularly high.
Mr Chattopadhyay attributed what he described as the deterioration of Bengal’s higher education ecosystem to decades of institutional politicisation and the alleged dominance of “lumpen” elements. He said the state was now at a point where its lost academic prestige had to be recovered.
The minister urged students and teachers of Vidyasagar University to restore the institution’s “honour and heritage” and transform it into a mentor university for institutions in the region and a guiding force for affiliated colleges.
“Medinipur means the city of education,” he said, urging students emerging from the university to contribute to building a new Bengal.
Referring to Vidyasagar’s pioneering role in women’s education and widow remarriage, Mr Chattopadhyay said the occasion should not remain merely a commemoration of the 19th-century reformer but should also serve as an opportunity to carry forward his unfinished legacy.
The minister also recalled his association with former RSS workers in Bengal and referred to the organisation’s earlier activities in the state. He criticised the Left and subsequently the Trinamul Congress, alleging that political developments over the past decades had contributed to Bengal’s decline. These remarks were part of his wider call for what he described as a new political and social awakening in the state.
Mr Chattopadhyay said the younger generation would have to play the decisive role in India’s ambition to become a developed country over the next two decades.
The programme marked Vidyasagar University’s 207th Vidyasagar birth anniversary observance, alongside the Vidyasagar Puraskar and the 15th Vidyasagar Memorial Lecture.
Professor Gopal Chandra Mishra and poet-novelist Binayak Bandyopadhyay were the recipients of the Vidyasagar Puraskar, while Professor Chitta Panda received the Annapurna Chattopadhyay Award.
