The Jadavpur University Teachers' Association accused the Narendra Modi government of "undermining public universities while extending support to private institutions" and Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Mamata Banerjee’s leadership had weakened Bengal’s institutions as the brouhaha over the prime minister calling the Kolkata varsity a "symbol of anarchy under the TMC's rule" continued on Saturday.
Modi had at a campaign meeting on Friday described the Jadavpur University campus as a hotbed of “anti-national slogans”.
Mamata, who has had a prickly relationship with segments of JU students over the years, had quickly seized on Modi’s criticism: “Jadavpur University has been receiving top ranks from your government’s NIRF ranking framework year after year, and you descend to insult that centre of excellence? You stoop so low?”
JU teachers hit back at Modi
The Jadavpur University Teachers' Association (JUTA) took exception to the prime minister’s comments and highlighted on Friday that, alongside academics and research, the institute has played a significant role in advancing social justice.
It alleged that "despite fulfilling all criteria for being granted the 'Institute of Eminence' status, the university has been deprived of its due recognition".
In a rebuttal of Modi's comments, JUTA said: "Jadavpur University was born out of the anti-British movement and carries forward the legacy of India's freedom struggle."
The statement, signed by JUTA secretary Partha Pratim Roy, said: "Despite severe financial constraints, it has got global recognition as a centre of excellence through the sustained efforts of students, faculty, researchers, staff, officials and alumni.”
It further claimed that funds under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) have not been released to the university by the Centre, while the state has also not woken up to the situation and address the issue of fund constraints.
JUTA also expressed concern over alleged moves to dismantle the University Grants Commission, which it said would halt central funding to public institutions.
It accused the Centre of "undermining public universities while extending support to private institutions such as Jio Institute."
"The government cannot abdicate its responsibility of sustaining public institutions," the association said.
JUTA also said the university, founded on the ideals of patriotism, has never compromised with "nationalism" and remains committed to academic excellence, freedom of thought and the pursuit of knowledge.
Dharmendra Pradhan targets Mamata
In a post on X on Friday, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee appeared "more disturbed by the call for revival than by the condition in which those institutions have been left under her government".
Citing findings of a UGC expert committee on Jadavpur University constituted after the death of a first-year student, Pradhan said the panel had described the varsity's anti-ragging framework as "feeble and lacklustre" and flagged "serious administrative failures marked by indifference, negligence, and a troubling absence of accountability".
"The committee found that institutional safeguards had weakened, governance had become ineffective, and the system had failed to respond with the seriousness expected of a premier university," he said.
Pradhan added that the findings were "so severe" that the panel recommended a 10 per cent reduction in the university's capital and recurring grants for non-compliance with UGC regulations.
He alleged that the Trinamool Congress government showed "little intent to address the deeper structural failures", claiming that "campuses have too often been viewed through the prism of political influence rather than academic responsibility".
"What has clearly unsettled Mamata Banerjee ji is not criticism, but the possibility that Bengal is beginning to recognise how deeply her politics has corroded institutions that once commanded respect far beyond the state," he said.
"The people of Bengal can see that the real threat to its institutions came from years of silence, decay and a politics that reduced pride to paralysis. What truly worries her is that Bengal is no longer willing to accept decline as destiny, and that the demand for renewal has now become stronger than the politics that tried to suppress it," Pradhan added.