It is possible to beat a bandh if there is a will to do so.

Almost 80,000 Calcutta University students proved it on Thursday by writing a paper in their Part III exams with many travelling several kilometres to their centre. 

The general and honours students from BA, BSc and BCom courses managed to travel across the city and to adjacent areas despite limited availability of transport to take the environmental studies paper. 
Calcutta University vice-chancellor Suranjan Das told reporters that the examination had been held peacefully at all the 85 centres. 

“Not a single student has complained of not being able to write the exam because of the bandh,” said Das.
Examinees Metro spoke to said they had never written an exam on a day when the entire city remained paralysed throughout their school and college days. 

Many said they had spent anxious hours trying to figure out how to beat the bandh.

At Lady Brabourne College, 343 students from three city colleges had been allotted seats.  

“All the students who attended the April 29 exam were present today. The examination was held peacefully,” said Shiuli Sarkar, the principal of Lady Brabourne College.  

Lady Brabourne’s own students had to take the exam at Maulana Azad College. “None of our own students complained of having faced any problem on their way to the venue or being unable to take the exam because of some trouble,” said Sarkar. 

Asutosh College teacher-in-charge Ena Chatterjee said the institution recorded cent per cent attendance for the exam.  

“Bengal has got used to the bandh culture because most people prefer to stay back at home and enjoy a holiday whenever there is a strike. The huge turnout of examinees at all centres shows that it is possible to beat a bandh if there is a will,” said the principal of a college in south Calcutta.  

The CPM and the BJP, the parties that called the bandh, claimed it was total. The principals of various colleges Metro spoke to said this was not true as they had recorded almost normal attendance at their institutions. 

Students, however, dismissed the ruling Trinamul’s claim that the bandh had no impact at all. Many had a hard time reaching the exam centre. 

“There was no transport at all. At the same time there was no guarantee that bandh supporters would not attack our vehicle if we hired a car.

“So, I hired an ambulance to take my daughter to the exam centre,” said Binodh Bandhu Sarkar of Baruipur in South 24-Parganas.

His daughter took the exam from Charuchandra College.  

Nazbul Laskar, a student of Magrahat College, said he and some of his friends had to walk 9km to reach Fakirchand College at Diamond Harbour where they had been allotted seats.

Vice-chancellor Das said if the university received any complaint from a student who had failed to appear for the exam because of the bandh, the authorities would consider compensating him/her.

The spirit that Calcutta University students demonstrated in beating the bandh was in evidence at Jadavpur University, too, where 100 per cent attendance was recorded in chemistry and geology undergraduate exams.

But none of the 80 students in mathematics took the exam, a source in the university said. 

At Rabindra Bharati University, some examinees missed the Bachelor of Fine Arts exam because of the bandh.

WHERE THERE IS A WILL THERE IS A WAY