‘It’s an attack on public intellectuals’: West Bengal teachers will challenge proposal to gag them

University and college teachers in West Bengal plan to legally challenge a state government draft policy on governing higher education while they still can.

There are many disquieting clauses in the draft West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Administration and Regulation) Rules, 2017, a copy of which was leaked last week. One of them forbids teachers from moving a civil court if they are not satisfied with inquiries conducted by a college or university. Teachers can appeal only to a tribunal established by the state government, and without the aid of lawyers. “No legal practitioner shall be allowed to plead for or on behalf of any party to the appeal,” says the draft.

The document, which lays out regulations for the administration of higher education in West Bengal, has raised hackles across the state. Teachers associations, including the umbrella West Bengal College and University Teachers Association, have spoken up against it. If the rules are implemented, the democratic and independent functioning of educaitonal institutions will be “heavily jeopardised”, said Subhadoy Dasgupta of the West Bengal association. The proposed rules even include a permanent gag-order on university teachers, banning them from criticising the policies of the state and Union governments. Speaking to “any outsider” or the media is also forbidden “without the written permission of the Vice Chancellor”.

The rules are calculated to intimidate academics, said Nilanjana Gupta of the Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association, which is planning a protest against the draft on April 26. “We are talking to lawyers and were told that some clauses are absolutely unconstitutional,” she said. “All legal opinion suggests that you cannot prevent anyone from going to court or expressing their opinion.”

West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee denied that the state planned to curb the freedom of academics. “No such rule is being implemented,” he said.

But the teachers are not convinced. Dasgupta said that the state government had promised to rework the draft of the Act on which these rules are based as well, but that law was notified with minor changes in March 2017.

The law

The draft rules follow the equally unpopular West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Administration and Regulation) Act 2017. “The Act created avenues for straight interference of the government in the affairs of governing bodies [of colleges] and the councils and syndicates [of universities],” said Dasgupta. “It undermines their autonomy.”

This law was widely opposed when a draft of the legislation first emerged in 2016. “It was full of anti-teacher clauses and the government had to withdraw it from the Assembly,” said Dasgupta. “They said it would not be passed, but redone after talking with stakeholders – students and teachers. But practically the same copy with very subtle changes was passed.”

Jadavpur University’s Gupta said that the Act was passed on February 10, 2017, on a day the Opposition had walked out of the state Assembly to protest another issue. West Bengal has 21 operational state-aided universities. Another five are coming up. According to estimates of the West Bengal College and University Teachers Association, there are 5,500 teaching posts in the universities, of which about 2,900 have permanent staff.

State universities are established through individual Acts passed in state legislatures. They frame their regulations. These are signed off by the state governor – who is also the Chancellor of these universities.

As per a gazette notification, the 2017 Act, which applies to all state universities, is intended to “bring about a certain uniformity and standardisation in the rules, practices and procedures of these educational institutions”. It overrides the existing individual Acts that helped establish the universities, and hands considerable powers to the state government, which can fix the tenure of a governing body of a college; nominate four of its 13 members, including the president; and dissolve and replace it with an administrator when it feels the need to. The Act requires state-aided universities to frame common statutes and adopt the same practices. For instance, universities state-wide are now required to transfer the provident fund of their permanent staff to the state government treasury.

“Traditionally, all our retirement benefits have been managed by the university,” said Gupta. “It makes things much simpler and swifter, and there have never been any complaints. It usually takes much longer to get the benefits from the state government.” Teachers fear the provident fund provision will give the state an opportunity to harass academics who have been critical of its policies or actions. “They could ask for some papers or lose the file,” added Gupta.

The law allows the government “to enquire into the affairs of the university, as and when it considers necessary” even though the individual university Acts already define offences and processes of enquiry. “The idea is to create a sense of intimidation,” she said.

The 2017 law also allows the government to transfer college staff, teaching or otherwise, “in the interest of public service”. Thus far, only teachers recruited through the State Public Service Commission and placed in colleges set up by the state government could be transferred.

Colleges in West Bengal are divided into four zones depending on their distance from state capital Kolkata. Every government college teacher serves in all four zones over the course of their career. However, teachers in trust-owned aided colleges were recruited through another agency – the College Service Commission – and were not required to move. But that, said Dasgupta, may be changing, and transfers could be used as a punitive measure for all college teachers. There are over 500 colleges in West Bengal. University teachers are not transferred.

The rules

The West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Administration and Regulation) Act, 2017, first led to a set of rules aimed at drastically altering the way students’ union elections were conducted in the state’s universities. The West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Composition, Functions and Procedure for Election of Students’ Council) Rules, 2017, came last June.

The rules for administration, including codes of conduct and other service conditions, are yet to be finalised. But several elements in the draft rules have worried teachers. For one, they stipulate an long probation period for teachers during which they will remain vulnerable – two years for college and three for university posts, instead of the current one year.

In the case of university appointments, the recommendation of the selection committee has to be sent to the state government “for consideration”. Until now, the probation period was one year, and in universities like Jadavpur, the government had practically no role in appointments beyond sanctioning the posts. “But now you need a clean chit from the government,” said Gupta.

Teachers have also objected to a provision requiring all probationary staff to be verified by the police and examined by a medical board before being regularised. “We did not have these before,” said Dasgupta. The draft rules make biometric attendance and the annual disclosure of teachers’ assets compulsory, and these will be counted at the time of granting promotions. “This gives the impression that teachers are truant, have illegal sources of income, and will erode the respect accorded to them,” he added.

Academic duty

But nothing has rankled as much as the proposed bar on the freedom of teachers to express their opinions on state matters. The section in the draft rules titled “Bar in Communication of Official Information” says:

“1) Official information obtained in course of employment must not be communicated by any employee to any outsider or to the press or electronic media without the written permission of the Vice Chancellor. Violation of the provisions of this statute shall entail disciplinary proceedings against the erring employee.
2) No employee of the university shall without the written permission of the Vice Chancellor, publish anonymously or in his own name or in the name of any other person in the press or in any electronic media, any documents or make any statement of fact or opinion –
i) that has the effect of any adverse criticism of any current policy or action of the state government or the central government; or
ii) that is capable of embarrassing the relations between the state government and the central government or the government of any other state or any foreign state: 

Provided that this rules shall not apply to any statements made or views expressed by an employee in his official capacity or in the due performance of the duties assigned to him: provided further that the no such permission shall be required if such documents, facts or opinions have purely literary artistic or scientific character.” 

Teachers argued that it is their “academic duty” to analyse and talk about policies. “The rule is undemocratic and against the basic duties of researchers,” said Gupta. Academics from economics departments are often asked to explain the implications of government budgets by publications. Political science teachers may talk about policies in a panel discussion. Gupta has written about media policy and madrassas – Islamic seminaries – for publications and spoken on them on television. “Many of our colleagues work on environment and disaster management policies,” she said. “There are sections that believe nuclear energy is the answer while others insist on renewable energy. These debates need to reach the public domain as well.”

Teachers explained that speaking about policies is not necessarily about expressing a political opinion. “This is an attack on our existence as public intellectuals,” added Gupta. “We are funded by the government and we believe we have duty to the people as well.”