Varsity solution

In the end,the Presidency University Bill passed in the West Bengal assembly without the opposition in attendance. Nevertheless,that perhaps matters little since this was a battle Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was waging more against his own party than against Mamata Banerjee or the state Congress. In fact,on making a university of Presidency College,Bhattacharjee and Banerjee have,technically,been on the same side. And it may yet end up being Bhattacharjees only significant success.

Much as this is the iconic and faded institutions real freedom from fetters which the partial autonomy granted earlier couldnt provide it is also a triumph of will for the chief minister,who has now not only seen to the matter before an assembly election next year that could put him out of office but also beaten Banerjee to it. In the process,while Presidency will hope to regain lost stature and modernise,at least a symbolic blow has been struck against the top-down,bottom-up politicisation of Bengals education that has been the Left Fronts handiwork in the name of democratisation and fighting elitism. This very politicisation destroyed Presidencys academic merit by staffing it with a mediocre and transferable faculty,ruining its library and laboratories,interfering in its administration and compromising its results which have been steadily deteriorating; it has also been obstructing the university status. Above all,continued affiliation to the University of Calcutta an antiquated curiosity with over 200 colleges,outdated syllabi,term-end examinations,and inordinately delayed results had put Presidency on death row.

A major battle has been won. But the next one has already begun. Its to be seen in the CPM-affiliated teachers demand for recruitment of government teachers to the new unitary university. Besides,chances remain for political appointees to be still nominated to Presidencys proposed decision-making bodies. Presidency,on paper,gains the latitude to connect itself with the Union HRD ministrys ambitions for higher education and catch up. That is a big step. Now it must raise the bar for itself. As it tries to make up for its lost decades,Presidency must remember that excellence is independent of status.