Student politics in the Bengal press
While the Telegraph covered city based colleges and universities, Anandabazar Patrika looked at the significant role that student politics plays in the state, covering college elections across districts with greater regularity and with in-depth ana
AJITHA MENON reports
Comparitive Coverage: West Bengal
How much do we know about newspaper coverage in the regions, or about how regional language newspapers differ from their English language counterparts? How much contrast is there in how they prioritise news and report it? How do they report regional politics, or corruption, or the Maoist insurgency? The Hoot undertook a qualitative and quantitative study of comparative coverage in five states from mid-September to mid-November 2010 which offers some pointers. The newspapers selected are the highest circulated ones in the region. Some articles have been carried earlier on Ayodhya, the Obama visit, and the coverage of the Commonwealth games. The following article, which deals with coverage of student-related issues in two widely circulated dailies from the same group, is part of a fresh series on the entire period under survey.
Students play a significant role in Bengal politics with mandarins often judging the political standing of parties on the basis of college and university student body election results. However, while the Bengali’s love for politics is pandered to almost similarly in the regional Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika and the English daily, The Telegraph, a marked difference is seen in the coverage of student-related issues by the two newspapers which belong to the Anandabazar Group.
The difference is mainly in the selection and representation of issues. Between September 15 and November 15, The Telegraph kept its sights firmly on city-based colleges and universities most of the time, covering college crime, law and order issues, student protests, demands and threats, while Anandabazar looked at the significant role that student politics plays in the state, covering college elections across districts with greater regularity and with in-depth analysis.
On September 16, The Telegraph devoted eight columns under ‘Campus cauldron over camera and card’ to the weeklong student protests rocking Jadavpur University over the management’s decision to install CCTVs and make ID cards mandatory on campus for better security. The newspaper gave space to students opposing the move as well as the vice-chancellor who was explaining his decision.
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The newspaper also had another two column story on a two-day protest by Jadavpur University teachers, demanding payment of salary dues and raising of the retirement age. The Telegraph mentioned that the teachers had taken this action, days after criticizing students for disrupting campus activities!
On the other hand Anandabazar, on September 15, focused on the Students’ Federation of India’s (SFI) victory in the Midnapore College student body elections, pointing out that in the Maoist infested district, where the Trinamul-Congress alliance was running the Municipal Board for the last two years, the CPI(M) backed SFI had thrashed all opposition, winning 83 of the 84 seats in the college elections. The newspaper pointed out that despite the “winds of change sweeping south Bengal”, West Midnapore remained an exception.
On the same day, the Bengali daily also carried another piece from North 24 Parganas district reporting student protests and blockade at Swarup Nagar College demanding increase in number of seats in the honours courses. The newspaper mentioned in its coverage that the protesting students, belonging to the Trinamul Congress Chattra Parishad, had also demanded that all students who had failed their exams should be promoted by the college authorities!
Anandabazar also did a follow up on the Swarup Nagar college story questioning the students’ demand and the weak response of the Trinamul Congress Chattra Parishad secretary, who said the issue needed a compassionate response. This is in contradiction to the Anandabazar Group’s general reluctance to question even the most illogical pronouncements of Trinamul Congress’s supremo Mamata Banerjee.
Both newspapers gave due importance to an incident of a second year student attempting self-immolation in Herambho Chandra College in South Kolkata. Nearly 100 students were protesting against the principal’s refusal to admit some students whose names had figured in the merit list for admissions to B.A and B.Sc courses. The Telegraph, which ran the story as ‘Campus Drama’, had follow ups on two days but had difficulty in confirming whether the boy attempting self-immolation was a first year or second year student. Different versions appeared on different days!
On the other hand, the Bengali daily had a slightly different twist to the story, with its reporter saying the student had hurled petrol on a professor first and then later tried self-immolation. Anandabazar too had follow up stories on two days.
On September 16, Anandbazar had an interesting coverage on the central human resource ministry’s directives regarding student body elections. The directives had come following a Supreme Court order related to increasing poll violence in colleges. The newspaper mentioned that Students’ Unions had shown a total lack of response to the directives.
The Bengali paper also continued with its coverage of college elections over several days giving results and analysis of elections held in Ghatal College, Midnapore where SFI prevailed and city-based Dental and Pharmacy Colleges and Medical College Midnapore, where the opposition had won.
Anandabazar had an interesting piece on September 17 on a joint Trinamul Chattra Parishad and SFI protest in Bon Hooghly’s Brahmananda Keshab Chandra College against improper valuation of examination papers in the college. The newspaper pointed out that despite the bitter relations between the two students’ organizations, they found common ground on this matter and put up a united front.
The Telegraph didn’t have any of the above stories and was silent on students from September 29 to October 30.
Anandabazar had a story on September 29 on the vice-chancellor of Barasat state university being gheraoed by Trinamul Chattra Parishad (TMCP) students demanding action on their charter of demands regarding university regulations. There was another story on TMCP humiliating a professor in B R Ambedkar College at Bagda. The newspaper also had a story on October 1st, on SFI extending support to Congress sponsored Chattra Parishad candidate in the student body elections in Hijli college, in West Midnapore district.
It is significant to note that all these stories were from the district colleges, which were ignored by The Telegraph. Anandabazar, on October 28, had a story on the Chattra Parishad joining the movement demanding modernization of Madrassah education in Bengal. The Telegraph also missed the story on a student leader being accused of being a Maoist on November 2, which was carried by Anandabazar.
The two newspapers seemed to belong to the same group in the context of students’ politics for only one story published by both on November 10 – that of a police lathi-charge on members of a pro-Naxalite students organization showing black flags to the Chief Minister’s convoy. Both carried the same photograph too of a student being thrashed by the police.
Overall, The Telegraph limited itself to occurrences on city college campuses, while Anandabazar, keeping in view its huge district readership, had greater coverage from the districts.
The Bengali daily’s political polarization based on group ideology was less obvious in its coverage of students’ politics. It gave a more balanced space to student organizations like the SFI, CP and TMCP and college and university student bodies which play a major role in West Bengal politics by being the “playing fields of Eton” from where most of the state’s political stalwarts have emerged.
This is a Hoot-Panos study, funded by Hivos.
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