People's Democracy

Tripura Teachers Vow To Fight Obscurantism

THE community of college teachers in Tripura has decided to combat the centre’s retrogressive step to include Vedic astrology in the higher education curriculum. This was the resolve they expressed at a seminar organised on the occasion of the seventeenth annual state conference of the Tripura College Teachers Association (TCTA) recently, on the topic of the centre’s saffronisation drive.

The seminar was addressed by three eminent college and university teachers of Agartala and Calcutta. Professor Shyamal Chakraborty of chemistry department in Calcutta University said the Vedic astrology course that the centre seeks to introduce in universities is a misnomer because India can be proud of having the only ancient civilisation in the world where "applied astrology" was conspicuously absent. It was after the invasion of Alexander that it infiltrated into the Indian civilisation, he opined. There is no problem if science and religion are kept aloof from each other, while the present government at the centre is mixing them up to create serious problems, he pointed out.

Professor Mihir Deb, an outstanding teacher of physics in a premier college of Agartala, lambasted the centre for seeking to turn every educational institution into a hotbed of fundamentalism. He pointed out the impossibility of averting saffronisation of education without overthrowing the present government from the centre through protracted protest movements.

Professor Jyotiprakash Roy Chowdhury, an eminent bioscience teacher of the same college and leading science movement activist in the state, thoroughly exposed the centre’s blatant bid to include a "pseudo-science" in the science curriculum in higher education.

Earlier on the day, addressing the TCTA annual conference as chief guest, Tripura education minister Anil Sarkar called upon the college teachers community to rise in protest against all the anti-people policies of the centre. He also urged the teachers to meticulously pay attention to their professional obligations.

SAMAR CHOUDHURY REMEMBERED

THE state Left Front leaders have urged the younger generations to emulate the communist qualities of Comrade Samar Chowdhury and commit themselves to combating the complicated socio-political scenario currently prevailing in the country. The call was recently given in a meeting organised by the CPI(M) state committee at the Town Hall in Agartala.

Addressing the packed auditorium, following the floral tribute at the portrait of Comrade Samar Chowdhury by leaders of the Left Front and mass organisation, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and chief minister Manik Sarkar said that it was Marxism-Leninism that was the source of Comrade Samar Chowdhury’s courage and commitment and gave him energy to overcome all the obstacles standing in his way. Reminiscing about the departed comrade, he said Samar Chowdhury rose above narrow self-interest with his overriding commitment and concern about society, state and the world at large. Communist ideology was the way of life with him in which no disappointment existed at all. At a time when decadent culture is emasculating the younger generations, when 90 per cent of the population are facing an all-out attack on their living standards, when separatism and divisiveness are eating into the vitals of our unity and integrity, it is the revolutionary life and ideals of leaders like Samar Chowdhury that can sustain the democratic movements of the day.

In his address as the meeting’s chairman, CPI(M) Central Committee member and state Left Front convenor Baidyanath Majumdar underscored the fighting character of Comrade Samar Chowdhury on which the party activists ought to be modeled with a view to tiding over the extremely difficult cries of the day. For the departure of such leaders as Samar Chowdhury calls upon the younger generations to fill the gap.

CPI(M) Central Committee member and tribal welfare minister Aghore Debbarma, RSP state secretary Sudarshan Bhattacharjee, CPI state secretary Prasanta Kapali and Forward Bloc leader Brajagopla Roy also spoke on the occasion, emphasising the need to apply the lesson from Comrade Chowdhury’s life to take forward the communist movement in the country. (INN)