Cachar College: Principal claims innocence; ACTA regards him to be the ‘epicenter of all ruckus’

way2barak, Sept.21: Wednesday, the 21st of September, 2022 will go down the annals of history as a black day in the 60 long years of prestigious existence of Cachar College, Silchar. Infact, as per the official version of the Cachar College Unit of Assam College Teacher’s Association (ACTA), the teacher members of ACTA sat down in an emergent meeting to discuss about the future course of action on the 22-point charter of demands submitted by them to the Principal of the college, Dr Siddhartha Sankar Nath on 6 September, 2022. However, since then, 15 days have elapsed, yet the Principal did not take any step to mitigate these demands of the teachers. As such, the ACTA Unit of Cachar College organised a meeting.

“We have a hell lot of allegations against the present Principal, Dr Siddhartha Sankar Nath. His draconian way of functioning has jeopardised not only the life career of the teachers but also of students. Now, at the end of that ACTA Unit meeting, we went to the room of the Principal and was giving a demonstration as per the decision of the said meeting. There we sought reply from the Principal for not accepting the legitimate demands of the teachers. The moment we entered his room, we were startled to find that the Principal along with a few students were relishing some food items. The sight was never one of an official relationship between the students and a Principal. Surprisingly, when we were there, the students didn’t even bothered to get up from their chairs. Their body language revealed that they were prepared to insult us,” stated Joydeep Biswas, Associate Professor of Economics and a senior faculty member of the college.

Hemanta Kumar Borah, Assistant Professor of English of the college, who also happens to be the Secretary of ACTA Cachar Zone said, “We were watching from a long time that our Principal by foul means was trying to instigate a few students against us. Look, our 22-points charter of demands are all legitimate claims to put back Cachar College on the track which was unsaddled by this particular Principal. You all must be knowing that the very Education Minister Dr Ranoj Pegu Sir said on the floor of the Assam Legislative Assembly that this Principal has exhibited serious negligence of duty during the recruitment examination held on 21 August. The minister categorically stated that he was found guilty on the basis of an enquiry conducted by the government. Our central leadership of ACTA is in touch with the Director of Higher Education (DHE) and we have learnt that very soon action will be taken against him.”

Some other teachers of Cachar College also expressed the view that from the last three years this Principal has been jeopardising the teachers on many counts. “When on Wednesday afternoon we went to meet the Principal, the few students seated inside his room almost on a holiday spree were reluctant to show the basic courtesy of allowing us to seat. When we asked them to go out for a while as we had to discuss our matter, they went out reluctantly. Meanwhile, we heard students were accumulating outside the Principal’s room. At this moment, Joydeep Sir along with some of our colleagues went out to have a dialogue with the students. Joydeep Sir asked Nitish Tewari (student who was seated a while ago in Principal’s room) what was the matter? To this, Nitish replied that he had no problem with the teachers, but yes, he had problems with ACTA. It should be placed on record that ACTA is the only organisation of college teachers in entire Assam,” said another lady teacher.

Narrating the further development of the day before the media, Joydip Biswas said, “It was at this juncture that these students suddenly broke the bridge and started hurling abuses towards us. Slangs and only slangs came out spontaneously from the mouth of these students. I am serving this college from last 25 years and have witnessed innumerable student unrest, but never in my career I have experienced such unruly behaviour of the students. We are certain that these students were just instigated against us by the Principal. They were just let loose on us. At that juncture, we also came to know that a little ago, these students even went to the college office and in unruly manner asked the non-teaching staff as to who gave the ACTA to do meeting that day! These students even went to the extent of threatening us of dire consequences, once we go out of the college campus. Feeling unsecured, we became bound to inform the police and also seek help from the administration.”

Towards the evening, a joint meeting between Assam College Teacher’s Association (ACTA) Cachar College unit and Assam College Employee’s Association (ACEA) Cachar College unit was held wherein it was decided that there will be ‘sit in demonstration‘ on 22 September from 10 AM to 3 PM in the college campus. Issuing a message to this effect, Secretary of ACTA Cachar College Unit requested all esteemed members to participate in the said protest whole-heartedly. It was also mentioned in the notice that those teachers engaged in examination work may also participate on rotation basis. Their main demand before the government would be to remove Dr Siddhartha Nath as the Principal of Cachar College.

“His exit is a pre-requisite for retaining the academic atmosphere of the college, which has been tarnished since the last 3 years. It’s indeed surprising that the results of HS 2nd year was declared in the month of May 2022. Since then, more than 3 months have elapsed, yet the Principal for reasons best known to him has not started classes for TDC 1st semester students. These students were even not given fee card or identity cards till now. Isn’t it strange? Not a single demand in our 22-point charter of demands contain anything regarding enhancing our salary or providing us with any benefits. We just wanted our esteem back and resuming of normal academic activity and nothing else. It’s indeed unfortunate to take note of the fact that it is probably the 1st incident in entire Barak Valley where students are instigated by the Principal, the guardian of the college against the teachers,” said ACTA and ACEA of Cachar College, Silchar.

Hemanta Kr Borah, Secretary of ACTA Cachar Zone said, “When there was such a situation that the students were almost prepared to physically abuse us, this Principal was sitting in a cool and calm posture inside his chamber! Was he waiting for us to get assaulted by the students whom he had instigated against us? We had to call him to come out and give us protection. It was indeed his duty to take legal action against these erring students, but he just did nothing and as if waited for the scripted drama to take its own course.

Meanwhile, speaking with media, Principal of Cachar College, Dr Siddhartha Sankar Nath said, “Around 4 PM teachers came to me with a memorandum. They were speaking and I was listening. Suddenly we heard a commotion outside my room. Immediately along with the teachers, I too went out and saw something of the sort of an argument going on between the teachers and the students. I tried my best to calm the students and even told them not to behave in such a manner with the students. We all teaching and non-teaching staff told the students to maintain decorum. And finally, due to our collected efforts, the situation came under control.”

However, the all teachers present there denied and rubbished the claims made by the Principal and rather stated that it is Siddhartha Sankar Nath, the Principal of the college, who is the ‘epicenter of all ruckus’ going on in the campus since last three years. “We strongly demand his extermination from Cachar College and also demand that the students who assaulted the teachers should be debarred from entering the campus and just be allowed to sit for their examination. We are teachers and so we never want that their career gets disturbed. But we all are scared by their activities and so we want them to be debarred from entering the college. They may be allowed to come in for appearing in their examinations,” stated ACTA Unit of Cachar College.