KOLKATA: Citing Swami Vivekananda’s book ‘Raja Yoga’ that says it’s preferable to be “an outspoken atheist than a hypocrite”, Calcutta High Court has ruled in favour of an assistant professor who was denied a job at Ramakrishna Mission Residential College (Autonomous), Narendrapur, despite being recommended by West Bengal College Service Commission (WBCSC), for expressing “strong views on religion and society”.

Tamal Dasgupta, a postgraduate in English from Jadavpur University, qualified NET JRF in 2007 and was awarded PhD by Calcutta University in 2015. According to the college governing body, Dasgupta’s Facebook posts reflecting “strong opinions on religion or ideology were wholly inconsistent with the fundamental ideals, philosophy and guiding principles of the Ramakrishna Mission”. The college said he had displayed a “clear bias” against Ramakrishna Mission and “made derogatory, obscene and disparaging remarks against the institute as well as its monks”. They felt his hiring would “pose a risk of permanently vitiating the atm-osphere” of the college.

HC judge Partha Sarathi Chatterjee, however, disagreed. In his order on Tuesday, Justice Chatterjee said, “There can be no justification for the apprehension that the ideology of Ramakrishna Mission, which is founded on a synthesis of the four yogas and the eternal principles of Vedanta, embraces the belief that all religions are true as different paths leading to the same divine goal, affirms that every soul is potentially divine… would be diminished merely because an individual has made certain comments on social media and if such individual is permitted to render his service as an assistant professor in the college.”
The HC observed that Swami Vivekananda’s book teaches how to explore the innermost recesses of our minds. “It does not ask what our religion is, whether we are deists or atheists, Christians, Jews or Buddhists. Being human is sufficient. Every human being has the right and the power to seek religion. Each individual has the right to ask “why” and to find answers for himself, provided he takes the effort. Therefore, the principles lived and experienced by Sri Ramakrishna, and further articulated by Swami Vivekananda, are of such universality that they may be accepted even by persons professing a different religion, faith, or ideology,” the HC said and held that there was no justification for the college’s governing body to not give appointment to the professor just because he expressed certain views on Facebook.
The judge went on to observe, “A person’s values are shaped by his social environment, identity, religion, faith, way of life and ideology; and when an individual or group does not accept or respect the ideology or ideals of another, the latter may perceive it as a threat. These conflicts are, however, natural, and it is equally true that every conflict is born with the potential for resolution.”

The court asked the college to issue Dasgupta an appointment letter at the earliest.

Dasgupta earlier worked as a permanent assistant professor in Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, University of Delhi. He had applied for the recruitment process initiated by WBCSC for the post of assistant professor in 2020. His name appeared on the merit list in 2023 and he chose Ramakrishna Mission Residential College (Autonomous), Narendrapur, Kolkata. The only special requirement of the college was that no female candidate was eligible.

Dasgupta was made to sign a declaration form forfeiting his claim to appointment in any other college. Relying on this, he sold his flat in Delhi and shifted to Bengal. However, when no appointment letter was issued to him by the college, he filed a representation before WBCSC on Jan 9, 2024 and approached the college. He found out that the college would not be issuing an appointment letter to him and that the WBCSC’s recommendation was not binding on them.

The college argued in court that the WBCSC’s recommendation was not binding on the college as they were an autonomous body and that the college governing body was against his FB views. The HC observed that the contents of the social media posts were not provided by the college to the court. Dasgupta’s counsel told the court that he would not make any comments against Ramakrishna Mission’s ideology in public.