Kolkata, Feb 10 (PTI) West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu has alleged that the BJP and Left parties want to disrupt functioning of higher educational institutions in the state, according to a senior member of a TMC affiliated professors' organisation.

Addressing a closed-door meeting of the West Bengal College and University Professors Association meeting here, Basu also asked the participants to democratically fight the opposition, and become followers of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's “ideology of humanity”, the WBCUPA member told PTI.

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Basu is also the chairman of Trinamool Congress 'Siksha Cell' which comprises the party's various wings in the education sector such as teaching and non-teaching staff of schools, colleges and universities.

"In the closed-door session attended by 65-70 members of WBCUPA, Basu asked us to counter the narratives of the ‘Shyamaprasad-panthi' (followers of BJP) and ‘Marx-Lenin panthi' (followers of Karl Marx and Lenin), and become 'Mamata panthi' (followers of Mamata)," the senior member said.

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Syama Prasad Mookerjee was the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the predecessor of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). "The ideologies propagated by the BJP, CPI(M) and Naxalite elements need to be countered as only the ideology of Mamata Banerjee is ‘manabata-panthi' (humanist) in approach, Basu said at the meeting,” the member told PTI.

He alleged that concerted efforts are being made to disrupt the functioning of higher education institutes in the state by opposition parties.

The minister said that the members of the professors' cell should refrain from making any comment which could be construed against the state government's policies.

The minister asked the members to work in their respective workplaces to spread humanism, the WBCUPA member said.

At the meeting held on Sunday, Basu exhorted the members to be more active in their organisational work.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)