St Stephen’s Cancels Mamata Invite, Ex-Students Say Bowing to Govt

St Stephen’s found itself in an embarrassing spot after it withdrew an invite extended to Mamata Banerjee.

Trinamool Congress Party supremo was expected to deliver a talk and interact with the students on 1 August.

Photo: The Quint

St Stephen’s College landed itself in an embarrassing spot on Saturday after it withdrew the invite extended to Trinamool Congress Party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who was expected to deliver a talk and interact with the students on 1 August, Wednesday.

Both parties agreed last week and arrangements were made, only for the college to withdraw the invite discreetly on Saturday, citing “infrastructural problems” over an email to Banerjee’s office.

TMC alleged that college has buckled under pressure from a Union minister, The Indian Express reported.

St Stephen's would have seen Banerjee’s first talk on campus on Wednesday.

‘We Don’t Have a Policy Against Inviting Politicians’

Assistant professor at St Stephen’s english department, NP Ashley, said that the college has never followed a policy against inviting politicians. The situation, he says, could have been handled graciously by the college administration.

St. Stephen’s does not have a policy against inviting politicians or Chief Ministers, for the college has hosted such people earlier. I think students should have followed due college procedure in inviting a guest, if they erred on that front. But these are our students and the college belongs as much to them as to the administration and the faculty.

NP Ashley, Assistant professor, St Stephen’s

Calls and messages sent to Principal John Varghese and planning forum counsel Karan David, who was a part of this event coordination, by The Quint went unanswered.

“The students could have been warned and the college should have found a way to get around this, as some of us had already extended the invite, provided there was no policy or ethical issue. Disinviting, since it is not a dignified or gracious way of handling the situation, should have been resorted to only as the very last resort, and with a million apologies from the college community,” Ashley told The Quint.

Another reason why the invite could have hit a roadblock could have been due to the absence of a supervisor for the talk, Ashley said. “Usually student society work is supervised by a faculty advisor. As teaching has just begun, they have not been allocated. I think that was also a reason for the unfortunate situation the college found itself in,” he said.

St. Stephen’s General Zia Connect

This could be a blot on St Stephen’s otherwise glorious past for allowing discussion and discourse on the campus, said an as ex-student as he recalled an invite extended by the college to Pakistan’s former president General Muhammed Zia-Ul-Haq for college’s centenary celebrations in 1981, an event which saw the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in attendance.

“When President Zia was invited, he was invited as an ex-student of college. He even settled his bills with Sukhia ji, our college dhaba owner on college campus. Stephen’s has always encouraged the spirit of questioning and ensured all the views are heard,” said Ashish Joshi, alumnus of St Stephen’s College, 1986 batch and executive member of Association of Old Stephanians’.

Joshi added that the college has become guarded in the recent past as instead of pursuing incidents where the grave of Stephen’s founder was vandalised and the chapel’s door was inscribed with “Mandir Wahin Banayenge”, the college has maintained an eerie silence.

“Instead of ordering an enquiry, the college administration not only hushed the matter but also denied that any such incident took place,” Joshi said.

Nandita Narain, ex-DUTA member and professor of mathematics at Stephen’s, says denying permission for a talk and not taking action against vandalisers on the campus could be because of the college’s pursuit of autonomy and the fear of upsetting the current regime. “It is very likely that the college does not want to invite someone who is not wanted on the campus.”

The letter, staunchly advocating autonomy, was shared by Principal John Varghese last year in February.(Photo: The Quint)

According to former students who have previously conducted seminars and conferences on the campus, the modus operandi requires students to decide on a guest, extend an invite, finalise the dates and schedule the talk. The permission was earlier granted in writing and the 2017 batch witnessed the transition from hand-written permission to online.

“We were allowed to make requests in either format – written application or online application – whichever was deemed feasible. Under no circumstances, an event or a talk has been scrapped on our campus in the past,” said Arshad Muhammad, graduate from St Stephens’ 2015-2018 batch.

What does the Principal’s pitch for autonomy imply?

In February last year, Principal John Varghese claimed in a letter that autonomy in St. Stephen’s will deliver higher standards of excellence in academics through new courses that will enhance employability of their students. He said it will help the college grow intellectually as well as increase the infrastructure that has seen minimal growth since the 1960s. The push for autonomy has been met with repeated protests by students arguing that it will mean a huge spike in fee and loss in academic credibility.

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