Kolkata college row: Vice-principal says forced to quit, students ‘purify’ campus

A vice-principal alleging that she was forced to resign. Students carrying out a ‘purification’ ritual with incense sticks and Ganga water moments after she left under police supervision.

The extraordinary sequence at Surendranath Law College in Kolkata has turned what began as a dispute over attendance and examination eligibility into a deeply political and unsettling confrontation.

Mohammadi Tarannum, vice-principal of the college, left the institution under police supervision after claiming that she had been forced to sign her resignation letter. As she left amid chants of 'Thief! Thief!', Tarannum repeatedly insisted that she had not resigned voluntarily.

“I was forced to resign; I did not resign voluntarily,” she said, appealing to the chief minister and the higher education minister to order an investigation into what had happened.

Tarannum alleged that she had been confined inside her room for nearly 23 hours, with the situation becoming particularly distressing after the electricity supply was cut. She claimed the lights and fans were switched off and that she was left without adequate access to basic necessities.

“I was left in the dark. I have been subjected to abuse,” she said. In another account, she alleged, “They held me captive for two days without providing food or water. They kept the room dark.”

Her demand, she said, was straightforward: an investigation. “Is there truly no system in the college to maintain transparent attendance records? An investigation is necessary,” Tarannum said. “If teachers continue to face such attacks day after day, it will be impossible to improve the education system.”

The confrontation began with a dispute over attendance. The college had issued a notification stating that students in the second, fourth, sixth and eighth semesters would not be permitted to sit their examinations without the required 75 per cent attendance. Students protested, arguing that classes had not been conducted properly and that the college had no reliable attendance records.

The dispute intensified after students complained to the vice-chancellor of Calcutta University. Classes were subsequently scheduled from 6.30 am, but students objected that many of them could not reach the college at that hour because Metro services were not available.

The college then suspended the semester form-fill-up process on Thursday, further inflaming tensions. Tarannum was subsequently gheraoed inside the college for almost 23 hours.

The attendance dispute also exposed a more fundamental question: where were the records? BJP MLA Kaustav Bagchi said he had first questioned the teacher-in-charge about the attendance figures. “Unfortunately, I found the attendance to be very low. She could not provide a satisfactory explanation as to why the attendance was so poor,” he said.

Bagchi claimed that Bar Council rules required 75 per cent attendance, with a five per cent relaxation, and said after discussions, it had been informally decided that students with 40 per cent attendance could sit the examinations.

But this is where the BJP's role in the dispute deserves scrutiny. If students had attendance as low as 40 per cent, why was a political negotiation being conducted to secure examination access rather than allowing the college and university authorities to determine the matter through transparent rules and records?

Bagchi himself acknowledged that “no proper attendance registers were maintained” and that attendance was marked on the basis of “personal recognition”.

His intervention therefore raises a larger question about the politicisation of an already chaotic academic administration. The presence of saffron and ABVP flags during the agitation further underlined the political character of a protest that began as an educational dispute.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Kunal Ghosh condemned the treatment of the vice-principal. “We condemn the incident that took place against the vice principal,” he said, alleging that student politics at the college had previously been controlled by 'rebel' TMC MP Sudip Banerjee, who he said was now with the BJP.

Tarannum herself spoke angrily about the political allegations surrounding her. “It is repeatedly being said that I am involved in Left-wing politics. Yes, I used to be. But since 2016, I have stepped away from all forms of political membership,” she said.

She also criticised the TMC government, alleging that a party leader had repeatedly created obstacles for her. “That is why I voted for the BJP myself. I wanted change; I wanted a new government that would work for the people. Is this the face of the new government?” she asked.

Then came the most jarring image of the day. After Tarannum left under police supervision, a section of students lit incense sticks and sprinkled Ganga water throughout the college, describing it as a ‘purification’ ritual.

First-year LLM student Milton Sarkar said, “Our college has been cleansed of sin; that is why we performed this purification using incense and Ganges water.”

Whatever the students intended, the timing and symbolism were difficult to ignore. A vice-principal had just emerged from an ordeal in which she alleged confinement, darkness, deprivation and coercion. The immediate ritual ‘cleansing’ of the premises risked turning a serious institutional dispute into a public spectacle of humiliation.