The Presidency University ‘indecent protest’ took yet another turn on Tuesday after three District Intelligence Bureau (DIB) officers raided Presidency University protester Tamoghna Haldar’s residence at Dum Dum. According to sources, on reaching Haldar’s house, the officers could not find Tamoghna and the house was locked. Later, the officers spoke to the neighbours and came to know that he is about to leave for California this week to do his Ph.D. Haldar hit the headlines, after he wore a bra to participate in a protest march in solidarity with FTII students on August 21.
He had participated along with other students, who were staging a demonstration outside the Bengal BJP party office against the appointment of FTII chairman Gajendra Chauhan. He was spotted wearing a bra, with Khuli Khidki, the name of Gajendra Chauhan’s movie written on it. He had wound film reel around his body and played Draupadi’s ‘Vastra Haran’ act in the rally. Soon, he learnt about the protest going on at the Presidency University and decided to join in.
He roamed around the campus and vice chancellor Anuradha Lohia’s office dressed in a bra. His form of protest received a lot of flak from a section of academicians. However, students of Presidency University and Jadavpur University justified his form of protest. Gitosri Sarkar, the gold medallist from Jadavpur University, who turned down her medal demanding Jadavpur University vice chancellor Abhijit Chakrabarti’s resignation, also supported his form of protest. Soon after a section of educationists started attacking him and cyber furore followed, he switched off his mobile phone and deactivated his Facebook account.
Before deactivating his account on Facebook, he had apologised for his act. “I want to apologise to the students of Presidency University, as I have let them down and their agitation has suffered due to my form of protest,” he wrote, adding that the media had alienated him. Haldar is set o leave for California this week to do his Ph.D and is a former student of St Xavier’s College Kolkata and the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in Chennai.
