First year Bengali Honours student, Swapnadeep Kundu, of Jadavpur University fell on the ground from the floor of Jadavpur University Main’s Hostel & died. His death created ripples of unrest in a section of the urban society as Swapnadeep’s death is apparently mysterious. His uncle (Mama) Arup Kundu ruled out a suicide saying Swapnadeep called up his mother at around 9.30 pm on August 9 and said he was scared. “Maa, I am feeling scared, please come here & take me with you, I have things to tell you”, Swapnadeep said to his mother over phone. On the same night at around 11.30 pm his fellow hostellers heard a sound of something heavy falling on the ground & found Swapnadeep lying gravely injured there. The Registrar of Jadavpur University wrote to the Officer-in-Charge of the Jadavpur Police Station on the very next day that they “…had found a student named Sri Swarnodip Kundu, UG- 1, Bengali, on road in front at Main Hostel (at A-1/A-2 Block) within the JU Hostel Campus on 9.8.2023 in unconscious and wounded condition at around 11 pm- as intimated by the Hostel Superintendent, Shri Tapan Jana, telephonically.” The University Registrar added that “The student was immediately brought to the KPC Hospital emergency section for immediate and best possible treatment. We sent e-mail to the concerned KPC official for immediate treatment and all the expenditure towards the treatment be borne by the University.”
Swapnadeep Kundu’s family in Nadia district consisted of his father Ramprasad Kundu working in Gazna Co-operative Bank, his mother Swapna Kundu an icds worker and his younger brother. Swapnadeep was a brilliant student who reportedly scored a good rank in Joint Entrance Examination for Engineering but chose to study Bengali by passion. This shows distinguishing temperament of Swapnadeep & his sensitive mind to choose literature over engineering under the present scenario of neck-deep corruption in the field of education and employment in West Bengal. Hailing from Nadia, far away from the University, he applied for Hostel accommodation but didn’t get it immediately. As a result, as per sources, Swapnadeep was sharing a room with a few other students all of whom were new entrants in the University. On August 7, he expressed to his father that he was enjoying his classes. However, subsequent to that on August 9, he expressed to his mother his apprehensions too and fell down from an upper floor within a few hours thereafter. Having many saying he committed suicide, his uncle (Mama) Arup Kundu & many others refused to accept the suicide theory as he carried several marks of wounds on his body. They were saying Swapnadeep was murdered as a consequence of ragging. ‘He was a good boy, no insane, so committing suicide in not likely. We want a thorough probe and befitting punishment of the culprits. We lost our child, none other must have the same fate.’ Wrote Arup Kundu to the Registrar of Jadavpur University.
People are not ruling out ragging, not even Professor Rajyeshwar Sinha who reportedly said the FIR must be lodged considering the incident as one due to ragging. ‘While he was enjoying his classes, how was it acceptable that he committed suicide?’ Asked Professor Sinha. Professor Kunal Chattopadhyay of Comparative Literature Department too said that ‘a first year student died a while ago as a victim of ragging’. He added that ‘in the recent past, a group of people once tried to justify the practice of ragging by distributing pamphlets claiming ‘ragging or not would have to be decided by a democratic process’. But as a death happened, many would now try to save themselves.’
The matter turned more complicated after another first year student of Jadavpur University’s Geology Department, Arpan Maji of Asansol took to his Facebook timeline to write an account of his own experiences of the first few days in JU. Even Arpan was going through a similar horror in Main’s Hostel and searching for a stay away though he would have to borrow a fund for that & face hardship, he wrote in Facebook. He added that the way the power centres of the society intimidates the weak, he couldn’t imagine some seniors of Jadavpur University Main’s Hostel too would display the same psyche. ‘I came to study here learning about JU’s tradition of protesting against injustice. But the same class conflict exists here too. For last 3 days I am continuing to act upon their commands & keeping on introducing myself to them remaining awake throughout all these nights. Yet I came to know the ‘real introduction’ was yet to be given. I am scared too.’ Arpan Maji wrote. He didn’t restrain himself to express that such powerful seniors were backed by the Union Leaders for votes. He pleaded to the University seniors to raise their unique voice of protest against ragging too, the way they had protested in several earlier occasions. ‘I lost my batch mate for a few wrongdoers. For a mere few votes, the Union Leaders compromise with such power-wielding seniors’, he added. Unless the seniors protested, ‘there will remain no difference between the protesting voice of the University and the various political parties like the CPM, the TMC, the BJP who were supporting Hindu majoritarianism for vote bank’. Arpan Maji expressed. He added that while the raggers enjoyed sadistic pleasure by ragging students on the University’s central ground, the Union and the seniors didn’t protest but asked them in the style of Khap Panchayats to compromise with the raggers.
Such allegations of Arpan Maji exposed once more the dark side of the student politics of Jadavapur University. His post exposed how the young minds were being misled by unadulterated hypocrisy in the name of building a society free of class-conflicts. Arpan Maji could identify beyond ambiguity that those who preached equality were the same ones who intimidated the weak.
After such an account came to public domain, there remain hardly any scope not to apprehend Swapnadeep’s death to be consequential to ragging. SFI made the University Authority responsible for the incident while the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) held the Chancellor i.e. the Governor of West Bengal responsible. BJP leader Sukanta Majumdar slammed the State Administration under the leadership of the Chief Minister saying without the support of the administration such incidents couldn’t have happened. While political organizations are reacting as per their convenience, the State & parents lost a bright, exceptional, young mind— Swapnadeep Kundu.
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