Regime change

The most dangerous legacy of a long-entrenched political culture without alternatives is the persistence of that lack even after a change of dispensation. Its only in a democratic context that we would talk about alternatives and change as a matter of habit and choice. But having remained in a political class of its own without change for three-plus decades,how could West Bengal know otherwise? That is the dilemma confronting the nascent Presidency University in Kolkata.

Bengal was bound by a completely politicised institutional scene perpetrated by the erstwhile Left Front government an institutional capture by the party most pronounced in education. So when Mamata Banerjee took over as chief minister this May,there were apprehensions as to whether a person who personalised and perfected the leftist political expedients could release Bengal and its institutions from that sorry state of affairs. She said the right things namely,promising a hands-off,depoliticised approach to education and did some of the right things in the case of Presidency,forming a mentor group,headed by Sugata Bose and including luminaries like Amartya Sen,to supervise the remaking of Presidency in its new avatar.

So signs of trouble,such as news that the government summarily removed the universitys Executive Council last week whose members were appointed by the Left Front government last year and handed over its charges to the mentor group,raise fears that the politicisation of education has indeed been perpetuated in Bengal. Of course,the mentor group raised a legitimate concern about the dismissed ECs decision to introduce several new post-graduate courses while infrastructure remained grossly inadequate. That is precisely the bodys job. Since the best possible expertise is commonsensical to reviving Bengals educational prospects,the government,without debilitating interference,should facilitate cooperation and ensure it doesnt break down.