FIR possible against Cachar College's Ananda Ghosh; threatening non-Bengali colleague among many other allegations

Assistant professor, Political Science department Cachar College Silchar Ananda Ghosh has spurred yet another controversy. The governing body in its meeting on June 23, passed a resolution to suspend him from the body and all cells in Cachar College. Following the governing body meeting, the coordinator of NSS, Ghosh was asked to handover charged to a fellow colleague.

However, he has still kept the bank passbook, checkbook, and other important documents with him. Recently, when the Prime Minister of India instructed colleges to organise an event under the National Service Scheme, the Principal of Cachar College, Sidhartha Shankar Nath appointed a new coordinator and asked a senior professor to help.

“The coordinator is a newly appointed professor and is from Karbi Anglong. After the programme, he shared images of the same on our official WhatsApp group. Professor Ananda Ghosh, after seeing the images called up the young professor and started abusing it. The governing body was informed about the incident and it was decided that the incidence must be reported to the Director of Higher Education. Accordingly, we have done the same,” said principal SS Nath.

The young professor had reportedly recorded the call he received from Ananda Ghosh who kept asking him to delete the images from the group. Ghosh yelled at the non-Bengali professor from Karbi Anglong on racial lines and his high decibel-verbal diarrhea included death threats too.

While the Principal and other members of the governing body knew about it, hardly any action was taken. In fact, death threats are a criminal offense and must be reported to the Police. “In our latest governing body meeting it was decided that we must keep lodging an FIR against Ghosh as an option,” said the Principal.

37 teachers signed a memorandum and submitted it to the Principal asking for Ghosh’s suspension. Non-teaching staff went on a pen-down strike after Ghosh misbehaved with a couple of them. “There are certain protocols that we need to follow. We cannot take action immediately. The governing body holds a meeting and takes a decision which is then sent to the director of higher education who takes the final call in such cases. The governing body pleaded for Ananda Ghosh’s transfer or termination,” informed the principal.

This is not the first time Ananda Ghosh’s name surfaced in a murky at best and fraudulent at worse case. Earlier he was allegedly involved in a scam related to the center of Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University. “He is a Gunda who threatens people and gets his work done,” said a professor of the College.

At one stage, Ananda Ghosh’s remuneration from the Open University was more than what he was drawing as an assistant professor of Cachar College. When the former governing body president initiated a probe against Ghosh, the president got replaced. “Ghosh often states that he is close to the ruling party and nobody would dare to point a finger at him, let alone taking actions. Though, his claims are baseless, as people associated with all political parties and associations are in support of the governing body’s decision to terminate his contract,” said a senior professor who attended the governing body meeting.

It is certain that the College officials and professors are fed up with Ananda Ghosh’s attitude. What remains unclear is why the management tolerated it for so long and are now crying foul. Professor Ghosh was once considered as someone in the “close circuit” of Principal Nath who joined in October 2019.

“June, this year, I noticed that his behaviour towards the colleagues and other departments is not constructive at all. Whenever we trusted him with key responsibilities, he denied participation by terming them thankless jobs. He only wants to be at the helm of cells that can help him rake in monetary benefits and the moment I got to know this, we took action. So, it is not true that we were tolerating his activities or putting a blind eye to it,” added Nath.

Associate professor Ananda Ghosh was unavailable for comment. However, on Social media platforms, Ghosh took a jibe at Principal Nath and questioned his integrity and authority.

The ball is now in the court of the director, Higher Education. If sources are to be believed, DHE has decided to take action however, the quantum is not known. How this case unfolds, remains to be seen.