Academia is agog with speculation about whether Trinamul Congress will do in 2011 what the Left Front did in 1977: purge the policy-making bodies of all state education boards and universities to pack them with people of its choice.

“The Left Front had reconstituted the administrative bodies of most academic institutions to ensure that they promoted the policies of the government, irrespective of whether these were acceptable to the student and teaching community. That’s our worry again now that the regime has changed after 34 years,” said a senior official of Calcutta University.

Mamata Banerjee has often railed against the politicisation of academic institutions in Bengal, raising fears that her government might decide to rid them of all the Left Front’s yes-men and women.

“Those at the helm of many of these organisations and committees have started resigning but what about the members? We would be going back to 1977 if Trinamul were to decide to replace them with its supporters,” the official said.

Calcutta and Jadavpur universities were among the institutions where the Left Front had planted temporary committees of nominated members in 1977 to “advise” the vice-chancellors till new policy-making bodies were set up.

The then vice-chancellor of Jadavpur University, Aurobindo Nath Bose, resigned to protest the Jyoti Basu government’s decision to supersede the executive council and university court.

“The announcement of the decision of the government of West Bengal to supersede the university leaves me no option and compels me to resign immediately, as I consider the government decision as a grave onslaught not only on the autonomy of the university but on the whole education system,” Bose wrote in his resignation letter to the then governor, A.L. Dias.

Bose’s fears about academic institutions being robbed of their freedom soon came true. Vice-chancellors and heads of other institutions had their powers taken away and the party headquarters on Alimuddin Street took all policy decisions, including recruitment.

“We hope Mamata Banerjee does not repeat what the Left Front did. Over the past 34 years, we have come to accept that only the party faithful would be considered for posts of vice-chancellors and college principals,” said a teacher at Jadavpur University.

A former education minister claimed that the Left Front technically did not violate the rules by dissolving the administrative bodies of Calcutta and Jadavpur universities.

“There is still a provision in the law that allows the government to dissolve the syndicate and senate of Calcutta University and the executive council and court of Jadavpur University,” he said.

A section of pro-Trinamul employees of Calcutta University is now citing this provision to demand a purge.

The Left Front, soon after it came to power in 1977, had also dissolved the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, prompting its then president, Satyen Chatterjee, to quit. For the first six months after the board was dissolved, it was run by Satya Priya Roy, an administrator handpicked by the government. The new board was formed in January 1978 and Bhabesh Moitra, a pro-CPM academic, was elected its president.

The Trinamul unions in the board office are planning to formally request the new government to “get rid of the CPM members”, sources said.