Govt Hindu Hostel set to admit first Muslim boarder

CALCUTTA, NOV 22: Shamim Asgar Ali, a first-year student of political science in the prestigious Presidency College of Calcutta, is set to make history. The student from Shaktigarh in Burdwan district of West Bengal may soon become the first Muslim student to get accommodation in the college’s 100-year-old Government Hindu Hostel.

Around a couple of months ago, Ali had applied for accommodation in the hostel but was turned down. However, with the state government issuing an order on November 18 asking the college authorities to admit non-Hindu students in the hostel as well, decks have been cleared for Ali’s entry.“It’s a historic win for us,” says Barnali Mukherjee, former student of the college, which was established in 1817, and now an adviser to the Presidency College Students’ Association (PCSA). It was the PCSA that had launched a stir back in 1996 to get the hostel which has had illustrious boarders like India’s first President, Rajendra Prasad to admit students of all religions. The GoverningBody of the college finally decided to pass a resolution lifting the ban on non-Hindu students.

However, going by the mood among the boarders and other students of the college, Ali’s admission might not be very smooth. The present student’s union is vertically divided over the issue.

Assistant general secretary of the union Ritadip Ghosh says: “We hail this decision of the state government and expect all students of the college to welcome it.” However, general secretary Rajech Pandey strikes a note of dissent. “While we will not object to Shamim’s admission, we will expect the government to open other government hostels like Baker Hostel and Cormichael Hostel meant exclusively for Muslim students to students from other communities,” Pandey told The Indian Express.