An American Political Science junior asked me today "Why did you come to US for graduate studies? What is different here?" .......Good question indeed...!!!
I thought but could not give him a good answer I think. I do not really know about other cities in India but I know about Bengal...I know why it is struggling....why most brilliant minds move to other parts of India and abroad..But 45 minutes of train journey was too short for me to explain the truth...!
Any Indian would probably know one student was killed in student violence in a college near Kolkata last week. Another lost his eyes...There was a student strike today from a political party against all this...There will be another one shortly, I believe from the opposition within next couple of weeks...This will continue and no one knows when it will end... I do not know why is it like that.....Politics is good, but as long as it does not compromise with education.......We know Presidency College was one of the very best colleges in India...but it lost its reputation and fame mainly due political interference. Shibpur BE college is warned every year that it's national status will be discontinued if it does not stop its campus violence...and even this institute lost its spark , which it had during 70's or 80's. I do see the same future for Jadavpur University in next 10 years. Who will suffer? Not me and not you and not even the guys who are responsible for all this but our generation next.
Most people of our generation would be aware of 70's political violence and naxalite movement, that was also not acceptable but only good thing was bunch of highly educated guys fought for some ideas( read today something about this in Anandabazar). But today violence and dirty politics in colleges is introduced by "political criminals" who are no way involved with a University or a college. It is a sad thing.Most of the students in Bengal try to find a way out from Bengal and do not want to go back. Some of them don't find a party culture over there , I totally ignore them, but others think lack of opportunity is the main reason and I agree with them. We do not have work culture , the same person who spends 16 hours a day in "gachtola" in JU, without doing any work can very seriously work for 18 hours a day any place outside Bengal. Why do we waste our energy? Why do we get happiness in semester Boycotts? Are we too emotional ....we get too involved with silly things...or we think politics is in our blood and we have to show our blood as much as we can? I do not know the answer......I am pretty sure not many people know. We know this is not the way..We are moving towards self destruction...we also know what should be the ideal situation...we only do not know how to transit from this present state to the ideal state...
I hope I will have a better answer next time when someone asks , may be in a negative sense or positive.......
I would only request my fellow juniors to get less involved in college politics now and concentrate on your studies. I do not encourage anyone to join college politics in Bengal given present scenario. Undergrad four years are golden time. Do not waste them....!!!..We all love to fight for making something perfect and we should try to think how we can do that...But we have to change the procedure...We know present system is not going to work...we have to modify them.....otherwise not a very good time ahead...!
The lack of opportunities is very true. With such a huge population 7-15 IITs or 10 IIMs are never enough. We need hundreds of IIT level institute. But sadly we have to make do with collges like MSIT or MIT(mallabhum).
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