SANTINIKETAN: Visva-Bharati, a central university, on Monday suspended its admission process and withheld the results of all final-year UG and PG semester exams, saying the decision had to be taken as the university was “under siege”.
The university officially notified that the vice-chancellor’s physical presence in his office was needed for the admission process. The decision, plunging the future of hundreds of applicants — both from India and abroad — into uncertainty, has caused surprise and outrage, with a former vice-chancellor calling it “unprecedented”. A former senior officiating VC questioned why the VC’s physical presence was necessary at all, especially in a year the entire admission process was being conducted online.
The authorities have not mentioned the exact nature of the campus disturbances, but speculation was rife that the reference was to the on-campus protests sparked after the university rusticated three students for three years and suspended two professors for “gross indiscipline and misconduct”. The decision by the university authorities sparked sit-ins, one of them outside ‘Purbita’, the official residence of vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty.
Late on Monday afternoon, a group of Visva-Bharati teachers approached the protesting students to open a dialogue over the impasse, but were shouted out.
‘Univ wrong to risk students’ future’
The university’s admission cell coordinator posted the following on the official website on Monday: “Visva Bharati is currently under siege.... The admission cell needs the physical presence of the VC in his office. Given the unfavourable circumstances... the admission process stands temporarily suspended.” The notification stated that a revised schedule of admission to courses under the 10 bhavanas (departments) would be announced in due course.
The suspension comes a week ahead of the scheduled publication of the undergraduate merit list on September 7. The university had announced that it would complete the counselling and admission process between September 13 and 20. The suspension of the admission process affects these deadlines.
Former vice-chancellor Sujit Kumar Basu said he was not sure whether the ground situation at the university warranted such “unprecedented” decision. “I had faced violent agitations during my tenure. There was pressure from vested interests on the admission process. But we never stalled the admission process midway. I don’t know how grave the situation is now, which led the authorities to take such an unprecedented decision,” he said.
Former officiating VC Sabujkali Sen held a similar view. “The university cannot suspend the admission process and put the future of students in jeopardy,” she said, adding she failed to understand why the admission cell was insisting on the physical presence of the VC. “The process is being carried out in a centrally run MHRD portal. The heads of the bhavanas have asked to keep a tab on the process,” she said.
Applicants who came to the campus, and their guardians, were also taken aback. “Most colleges have started coming up with the merit list. I had wanted to put my daughter in Visva-Bharati, but how long should we stand and wait amid such uncertainty,” said Suri resident Baisakhi Bag.
