August 24, 1998

The ruling party's bid to have a say in the affairs of the Ramakrishna Mission gets nowhere.

By Udayan Namoodiri

Like communists everywhere, those in West Bengal too make it a point to wield remote access to the levers of independent, public-spirited groups. The past 21 years have seen such organisations in the state, engaged in everything from rural welfare to studying ancient scriptures, resisting the ruling Marxists' interference in their right to internal autonomy. Eventually, most have succumbed to the bullying tactics because routine harassment at the hands of their own politicised staff makes it impossible to function. A handful has somehow survived them so far with the help of public backing for their cause. One of them is the Ramakrishna Mission (RKM), the Hindu monastic order which runs 13 schools across the state with a student enrolment of over 30,000.

But the going has been tough. Work at three schools run by the mission has been disrupted one way or the other over the past eight months due to political interference from the Marxists. At the RKM Ashram School at Baranagore, it is the primary schoolteachers who have been fomenting trouble. Primary schoolteachers, incidentally, are the state's biggest strike force after industrial trade unions. When school Secretary Swami Gopeshananda wanted to unite the school's three primary and junior wings under a common management, the teachers struck work, saying they had not received the Government's clearance for the amalgamation. "It was just the formalising of an already existing system and involved no financial matters," says the monk. But the teachers have been steadfastly refusing to sign the new attendance registers and are even boycotting classes. Worse, the school has been threatened with withdrawal of government aid. The flashpoint came when the post of the head teacher, formerly held by Amalesh Saha, fell vacant. Swami Gokuleshwarananda, a monk, took over and the Marxist-backed teachers protested saying one of them should have succeeded Saha.

The RKM, however, was in no mood to capitulate. Incensed at the state's threats to hold back funds, it went ahead and inaugurated the new primary wing to commemorate its centenary. It was also decided to run the school entirely on public donations "to avoid persistent interference in the selection of teachers and arrangement of the syllabi". Two leading newspapers of Calcutta even printed the school secretary's appeal for funds on their front pages free of charge. "The response has been overwhelming," says Gopeshananda. "We expect to raise Rs 90 lakh as revolving fund in three years."

Such efforts by the mission have left the teachers a frustrated lot. Even at the Rahara Ramakrishna Mission School and Sarada Mission School for Girls at North 24 Paraganas, the distribution of classes between the Marxist-backed teachers and the monks has become a contentious issue. Swami Jayananda, the Rahara school's secretary, charges the teachers with "a shameful attempt to vitiate the academic atmosphere".

To add to the disadvantage of the teachers is the doublespeak of the Marxists' top leadership, which has been only covertly backing them. Says state Primary Education Minister Kanti Biswas: "Baranagore is a local matter and we don't wish it to snowball into a Government vs RKM issue." The irony, Biswas knows, is that his own party leaders queue up at the RKM schools to get their wards admitted.

The issue then is that of the Marxists wanting a say in a parallel school system run by a monastic order. In the '80s, when workers hijacked a Jesuit school in Haldia and Catholic priests threw up their hands with a take-it-or-leave-it position, the CPI(M) ran to them with the white flag. This time the situation is different. But by harassing the RKM -- which is more visible among the weaker sections -- to get what it wants, the ruling party is actually risking political suicide.

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