Institutes of higher education becoming platforms of politics: K N Tripathi, West Bengal Governor

KOLKATA: West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi today regretted that institutes of higher education are becoming platforms of politics and there is need to improve the relation between the teacher and the students.

"In the present circumstances, politics plays an important role in the life of a large section of students. Higher education institutions are becoming platforms of politics. Generations of unhealthy politics needs to be avoided," Tripathi told a seminar here.

"The role of the students organisations should be to inform and to make the students aware through lawful means. This is a factor which needs to be taken care for the larger interest of the society," he added.

Educational institutions, Tripathi said, have been witnessing political and extraneous influences in the governance of educational institutions.

"This is being particularly done in the name of freedom to form associations and and freedom of speech, forgetting that these freedoms are subject to restrictions as provided in the Constitution of India itself," Tripathi, who is also chancellor of many universities in Bengal including Jadavpur University, said.

Jadavpur University was recently in focus for its students agitation against the arrest of JNU students union president Kanahiya Kumar for alleged sedition.