Presidency University students launch movement against code of conduct draft

KOLKATA : Presidency University students affiliated to the SFI launched a week-long protest on Monday against a draft code of conduct, which proposes that processions in the campus can be taken out in the campus only with the prior consent of the institute's authorities.

SFI, the CPI-M's students' wing which controls the Students' Council of the University, termed some of the recommendations in the draft as an "authoritarian step" and asked all "students who believe in democratic and liberal values" to assemble at the portico of the institute's campus at College Street this week.

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"Presidency is a citadel of free thinking and liberal views. It has always supported progressive school of of thoughts. We will not tolerate any blueprint to murder democracy in the university campus, or any code of conduct for surveillance in the name of discipline," SFI Presidency unit spokesperson Anandarupta Dhar told PTI. She said the students' assembly will chalk out a bigger movement by this month without disrupting academic activities.

The draft code of conduct, circulated on Friday last week, said organising meetings and processions without prior information and proper approval from the concerned authorities of the institute will be not allowed. The students are also strictly prohibited from furnishing audio and video clippings of any activity within the campus to the media without obtaining prior approval from concerned authorities, it said.

The draft also said that smoking within the campus will not be allowed. When contacted the university dean of students, Arun Maity told PTI that the draft code of conduct was circulated among the students seeking their opinion for discipline in the campus and is not binding before a final decision is taken. The SFI, however, maintained that the students should have been sounded before the draft was circulated. "But it was not done," its leaders said.