Recent occurrences following the arrest of the top leader of one of the biggest political parties are not surprising. But what is surprising is the participation of university teachers in it. It is not new that the teachers protest all kind of highhandedness. Teachers did it many times with a sense of responsibility. These acts are taken very seriously among the common people.

What message are they delivering to those people by wearing black badges and boycotting classes? Two things are very clear from that act-- these teachers are politically biased and they do not want to see the other side of the coin behind this arrest. Teachers participate in their own elections in different colour panels, probably not the worst thing in the world, but unfortunately in recent years those colors are over-coated by the party colours. So how does a student expect a fair view from his teacher?

Another thing, if we look at the cadre system in our country - lots of people involved in it are directly or indirectly sheltered by the student wings of the major political parties based in our universities and colleges. On top of that, if the teachers politicise the campus (not to say that they shouldn't or can't have their own political views) - the cadres in a sense get support from them too. Unfortunately, it happened in the past in our educational arena.

Lessons we learnt in those 36 years by being hostage to our political systems are not very pleasant and any change in the positive direction should be appreciated by any educated people. And the teachers are not just "any people".