Jailed Maoist leader Arnab Dam, who stood first in the PhD admission test at West Bengal’s Burdwan University, was brought to the campus on Monday and enrolled in history. The process of counselling began on Monday.
Dam is serving a life sentence for his role in the 2010 attack on an Eastern Frontier Rifles camp at Sildah in Jhargram district. Altogether, 24 people were killed in the attack.
With this, the deadlock over the admission of Dam to the PhD programme has been resolved after the West Bengal government intervened to address certain administrative issues that thwarted his admission.
The logjam began when Dam wanted to enrol at Burdwan University for PhD but was lodged in a correctional facility in another district. Dam had secured 75 per cent in the PhD admission test in history.
Dam’s demand to let him be enrolled in the university saw the support of Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh.
“We are against the politics of killing. We are not calling for the release of Arnab. But if someone wants to pursue a journey in higher education despite being lodged in jail, isn’t that a silver lining in society?” Ghosh tweeted.
Following this, the two departments of higher education and correctional facilities spoke to each other to arrive at a logical solution to help Dam pursue his education.
“The Minister of Education and the Minister of Prisons have spoken. They will cooperate. Arnab will be shifted from Hooghly to Burdwan Jail. The history department of Burdwan University is sincere. However, the Vice-Chancellor is obstructing by creating unnecessary confusion,” Ghosh said.
On July 9, Burdwan University postponed its counselling for admission to the PhD programme in history. The university authorities had sought some information regarding Dam’s security from the administration.
They wrote to the ministry of correctional services and had no objection to Dam continuing his education.
On Monday, Nimai Chandra, Burdwan University’s Vice-Chancellor stated that the process for admission for PhD in history for students will start soon. Chandra said Dam was assured by the state correctional home department that they will be looking after security issues regarding his attending classes.
Classes for the 2023 PhD programme in history under faculty council will commence from July 18.
(with inputs from Sujata Mehra from Burdwan and PTI)