Last month, a skirmish among members of the Trinamool Congress Chhatro Parishad (TMCP)-led students’ union of Aliah University ended with three students bloodied and the semester-end exams withheld.

West Bengal’s Aliah University is state-run and falls under the minority and madrasa education department. The fight on its New Town campus was ostensibly over a trifling matter – of strict invigilation in the exams – but the real reason lay deeper.

The union elections are round the corner, and the body’s three-time general secretary Kabirul Islam intends to retain the post for himself. He wants to do so reportedly to get political mileage with the state’s governing Trinamool Congress, and to ground the union’s one-time vice-president Giasuddin Mondal, who was earlier part of Islam’s coterie.

Would-be politician and student leader Islam took admission in Aliah University in 2009 in the five-year integrated MCA course. After completing the course in 2014, Islam took admission in the mass communications department and became general secretary of the students’ union at the Park Circus campus without attending a single class. However, after a year he left the programme. He was also general secretary consecutively in 2016 and 2017.

After leaving the journalism course, he took admission in the B.Ed programme to mobilise the students’ union, but again left after a year. In the meantime, he made contact with some heavyweight political leaders of TMC who helped in his many admissions and cancellations.

In 2017, Islam also took admission in the M.Tech programme though he submitted blank answer sheets in the Aliah University entrance test for the same.

Giasuddin Mondal, on the other hand, a student in the electrical engineering department, worked under Islam until August last year. He was vice-president of the TMCP in the New Town campus. The two, along with their fellow students, had made headlines in the university for more than 42 days in 2016 for taking up petty issues, which were actually just excuses to force then vice-chancellor Prof. Abu Taleb Khan to quit.

Prof. Khan termed the recent group violence as “natural” and claimed it was related to politics and money. However, what the conflict has opened up is the corruption and mismanagement in the varsity administration and nepotism by student leaders who have political influence and who also allegedly earn money at the time of admissions.

2017 witnessed massive protest rallies demanding the removal of Prof. Khan from the V-C’s post. Though the TMCP union was dissolved last year by chief minister Mamata Banerjee for sabotage and no student election has been held since then, student groups are still working and issuing threatens under the banner of other previous outfits.

According to Mondal, he had confessed before a gathering in August 2017 that he had 42 backlogs in his B.Tech course, and his application form for the M.Tech programme was cancelled by the former vice-chancellor. This was one of the main reasons behind the protests.

The recent violence among students took place on December 21 when M.Tech final-year student Asif Ahmed was invigilating exams along with another assistant professor. Ahmed is the team guy of Islam and had an altercation over strict invigilation with a student sitting for the exam who happened to be a follower of Mondal.

The student, Sakil Ahmed, alleged that Asif Ahmed and his team, including Islam and some locals from Chinar Park, hit him and some others in his group with a stone later that evening.

Next day, the New Town campus ground became smeared with blood as violence erupted just before the start of the exam.

Speaking about why he moved away from his once friend and political comrade Islam, Mondal said “for the last six months, we came to realise that his (Islam’s) motives were not for the welfare of students but about his own benefits. He wants to ensure a political career through student politics. How can one become the representative of the student community when he does not attend a single class and is always busy with political leaders? Besides, how many times must he be allowed to become general secretary when there are many other capable candidates for the post?”

Mondal said the recent skirmish was a result of Islam’s apprehension that he might not be chosen this time by everyone for the post of general secretary, for which he took admission in the M.Tech course recently.

Former V-C Khan alleged Islam was laundering money in the university by doing forgery for taking scholarships through the university portal, taking money from ineligible candidates for admission in the BSc nursing programme with the assistance of the chairman of Aliah University Admission Test, Muklesur Rahman, and also bribes while recruiting security guards for the university.

Mondal spoke in this regard and said, “There were 60 seats in the nursing department. The AUAT chairman, with whom our leader has a good rapport, very skillfully issued a list of only 60 students without any waiting list. Later, the supposedly waiting candidates were given admission by depriving the eligible ones who would have got a chance if the admission was done fairly.”

The former V-C also accused the students’ union of the 750 scholarship scam with the help of one university official.

The role of the university authorities in tackling the charges and irregularities is appalling and disappointing and raises many questions and doubts. Prof. Khan alleged a nexus between acting vice-chancellor Dr Nursadh Ali and powerful student leader Islam.

During the December violence, the university administration did not even bother to call the police to normalise the situation. When asked about this, Ali, who is also the registrar of the university, said “we did not call the police because not one of the two clashing groups came forward to complain about the incident”.

Islam had refuted all allegations, saying “if my admission is a problem, I will cancel it. I am out of station now, let me just come back”. On January 2, he cancelled his admission in the said course.