OBITUARY
A bold man survives in my mind, who said he died?
I first met Ananda Deb Mukhopadhyay in a seminar at Vidyasagar University during the Vice-Chancellorship of Amiya Kumar Deb sometime in late 1990s. He spoke on oceans and their importance. The topic was new to me. I asked a few questions and he answered. Everything was normal as it was in the university. I did not know that this man will be our next Vice-Chancellor!
Ananda Deb Mukhopadhaya joined Vidyasagar University in October 1999 and my first encounter with him was not a happy one. He came to our department and I showed him our profile in the form a small book which I prepared. He ignored it and said it is nothing! I was literally agitated and asked him whether he could show this kind of profile by any other department. He later called me at his chamber and pacified my anger by saying that it was just to encourage me for a much better one! In fact, those simple words from a Vice-Chancellor encouraged me enough to work harder for the first UGC visit at our university when I had to face, and with fair amount of success, the external team as Head of the Department.
It was in 2002 and by the time Professor Mukhopadhyay was facing a
very hard time at Vidyasagar University. The district unit of the then ruling
CPI (M) party was at loggerheads with him over several varsity appointments.
The bold man did not bow down and was heckled, humiliated and finally, he had
to leave the campus and work from his Jadavpur office for more than a month. Ananda
Deb also submitted his letter of resignation to the Chancellor, which was not
accepted and he had to resume at his Vidyasagar University Office after the
student leaders of SFI apologized to him. That is history.
The
fact that this bold man was not allowed to work in his full steam is an old
tale retold about the nasty entry of below mediocre political leaders at our
educational institutions.
Ananda
Deb was an excellent organiser of academic events.
I
would just give two examples. In early 2000, few teachers of the Biological
Science departments of Vidyasagar University planned to hold an
interdisciplinary millennium seminar. It originated from an adda and we went straight to the
Vice-Chancellor to organise it hoping for a rejection. But to our surprise,
Ananda Deb very cordially accepted our proposal and personally took initiatives
to invite luminaries like Dr. Ashis Ghosh and Kailash Chandra Malhotra in the
seminar. They came along with many others. He did not hesitate to invite Mr.
Nazim Ahmed, the then Chairman of Medinipur Municipality as the Guest of Honour
in the seminar who belonged to Congress party.
The
second example is the publication of a book on environment edited by Ananda Deb
Mukhopadhayay in which the teachers of the different departments of the
University contributed chapters almost under the strict orders from him within
the deadline and the book became very popular among the undergraduate teachers
of Vidyasagar University.
He
was a man with down to earth approach and he was always accessible to the
teachers and the students of the University. He was not a bureaucrat nor
authoritative and uncompromising too, and that was the problem with this bold
and courageous man with original ideas. No wonder he lashed out at the
“conservative” attitude of the “local educationists” who blocked the progress
of the university in the era of globalisation.
Let another Vice-Chancellor like Ananda Deb Mukhopadhyay come to our university and shake his head with white hair and say ‘NO’ to the politicians who always try to tame and rule our teachers and students.
