Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute, Belur, Howrah, West Bengal, India is a co-ed University, but, a boy and a girl can’t go to the library together to issue books; if they do this, the librarian misbehaves with them! Also, boys and girls can’t sit together while eating.
What I find really distressing is the fact that female students can’t opt for preferred courses because Brahmachari Maharaj teaches some of them. Take a look at the screenshot of the email below, it is written “any math boys” and it is highlighted in yellow.
The university has collected Rs.1000/- per semester as FINE for semester fees, although there is no deadline to deposit semester fees.
Students are regularly attacked via insulting comments by VC Maharaj and other Maharaj in relation to their clothing choices.
There is no official rule on the website, and there is no official notice in the department about the dress code of the University. Additionally, there is no undertaking form at the time of admission about these types of meaningless and shameful rules. But according to VC Maharaj:
(i) You can’t wear a black-colour dress, because “Black carries sorrow”!!
(ii) You can’t wear a T-Shirt, because “There is a lack of attention in studies while wearing a T-shirt”!!
(iii) You can’t wear clothes printed with some words, lines or pictures that may be quotes of famous legends like Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Abdul Kalam etc., because “It is indecent”!!
There is no student canteen in the campus. Students have to go to roadside hotels whenever they feel hungry. But according to one Maharaj’s view, wearing a T-shirt makes students look like roadside Romeos!
Students and teachers have complained to the Vice-Chancellor Maharaj against this, but nothing has happened!
On March 28 2019, I made a Facebook post about these issues and many students of this University supported my points by commenting on the post. After a few days, the post reached the administrative section of the Institute. On April 3 2019, the University authorities fixed a notice on the Departmental notice board in the Department of Mathematics and practically called me a “cancerous growth” for telling the truth in my Facebook post.
After that, on April 22 2019, the authorities arranged a meeting with me, my supervisor, and HOD. In that meeting, VC-Maharaj said to me “You have to leave this Institute. If you leave yourself then it is OK, there will be no bad effect on your career if you don’t want to leave, we know how to make you leave.” He forced me to resign from the Institute. The authorities also forced my PhD supervisor not to guide me further, which is why he strictly denied me guidance in my thesis. So I had no option! I’ve resigned from the Institute and joined another Institute.
What did I say to the VC? “Today I came to know that telling the truth in Ramakrishna Mission is an offence.”
His reply to me? “Definitely an offence.”
Note: We contacted RKMV Belur for a comment on the above realities and have received no response. This post will be updated once we receive a response.