Bengal a failed state: Physicist Bikash Sinha

Kolkata, Jan 3 (IANS) Eminent Indian physicist Bikash Sinha Saturday strongly criticised the culture of protests in West Bengal and said it is a "failed state".

"There is no point in protesting all the time. West Bengal is a 'byartho rajjo' (failed state)... this is a fact. There has been no progress in the last two decades," Sinha, who is active in the fields of nuclear physics and high-energy physics, told a regional TV channel.

On the series of agitations by a section of the Jadavpur University students and faculty, the Padma Bhushan awardee said that a change of mindset is required.

"The mindset has to change," Sinha said, adding there is "no use in going to the University campus and creating a ruckus".

The students have been clamouring for vice chancellor Abhijit Chakrabarti's removal since Sep 17 when the University authorities ordered a police crackdown on a sit-in by students demanding an independent investigation into the alleged molestation of a female student inside a hostel.

The incident triggered protest rallies in the city and had a ripple effect across the country, with the alumni organising protest marches in Delhi and Mumbai.

Many students also boycotted the 59th annual convocation of the prestigious varsity Dec 24, 2014.