I don’t know how much time he has to live as I write this, and whether newspapers are readying their obituaries. But everyone who is part of NUJS, as students and alumni, should reflect. Generation Z has absolutely no idea of who this man is and may not even have heard of him. But those of us who are old enough know his honesty, integrity and efforts to bring industry to Bengal. How Azim Premji called him the best chief minister in India. Who really built the flyovers and industrial townships that today adorn a certain person’s photograph. We also know how that certain person drove Tata motors out. We also know how Ratan Tata referred to that person as “Bad M“. We also know the standard of honesty of politicians in the state today. But NUJS is one of the major symbols of the change. When Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was chief minister, the vice chancellors were Madhava, Menon, BS Chimni and MP Singh. Nobel laureates like Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz gave lectures at NUJS when the college was still brand new, while Upendra Baxi was Ford Foundation chair professor. No other NLU boasted such speakers. The governing body had the who’s who of the legal world. Herbert Smith Freehills started a moot court competition. The batch sizes were 80-100 and there were just two people per hostel room plus many single rooms. There was no domicile quota and the faculty was very good too.
Now look at things today….
I feel it’s time to educate Gen Z about the true history of NUJS and the real people behind it. Maybe someone should do a podcast for future generations, so that this history is not forgotten?
Wrong to say that NUJS flourished during Buddhadeb’s time and that Mamata brought it down. At that time NLUD and JGLS did not exist or had only just started, so the competition was less. NUJS declined when it faced proper competition.
I have seen an old brochure of NUJS. KKV, Gopal Subramanium, former Solicitor General Dipankar Gupta and former CBI director Raghavan were together on the same governing council at NUJS those days. 🤩 There was also an Advisory Council (doesn’t exist now, I think) which had Padma Vibhushan awardee and eminent scientist Raja Ramana, CR Irani and others. Look at the quality of the people now 🤦♂️
It would be great if the old brochure could be scanned and uploaded.
Now look at things today….
I feel it’s time to educate Gen Z about the true history of NUJS and the real people behind it. Maybe someone should do a podcast for future generations, so that this history is not forgotten?
It would be great if the old brochure could be scanned and uploaded.