A street protest called by former students of Jadavpur University asking people to “unite against ragging” drew several ordinary citizens who said what has happened with Swapnadip Kundu could happen to their sons and daughters if institutions were not strict about ragging.
The protest assembly was held at the 8B crossing, next to the university.
A government employee who was listening to the protest speeches wondered why it took the university the death of a student to think of taking up measures.
“What was the university doing all these days? Is it not a failure of the university administration?” he asked.
A freelance media professional who was passing by stopped to see what the programme was about. He said the institute’s failure to enforce rules on the campus and hostel was at the heart of the crisis.
“The more the university has evaded addressing the issue, the more it has emboldened the offenders, which has culminated in the death of a student barely three days into his first year on the campus”, he said.
Many undergraduate students took part in the protest.
“The time has come for introspection. How could this have happened? I am also thinking of the student who has been arrested. He was a student of JU’s mathematics department. How could a student do this to a junior? Is it because of wanton muscle flexing? And if so, what was the university doing about it?” the government employee in his mid-40s asked. “I am feeling extremely sad.”
Subhojit Halder, the media professional, said he was happy that the problem of ragging was finally being spoken about and that students were at the forefront of the protests.
“What I am more concerned about is why the university did not do anything about it. Why would former students be occupying the hostel? The hostel is not for former students,” he said. “What were they waiting for?”
Sourav Chowdhury, a mathematics postgraduate from JU, has been arrested in connection with the death of 17-year-old Swapnadip Kundu. Sourav had cleared his master’s in 2022 but had stayed on in the main hostel.
Soumyadipta Roychaudhuri, who teaches in a school and is a former student of JU’s Bengali department, where Swapnadip was a student, spoke at the protest.
“One of the reasons why ragging has taken a menacing form is the fact that whenever the university authorities try to punish a student guilty of ragging, efforts are made to disrupt the process. This only emboldens the offenders.
This culture has to stop,”
he said.
In August 2013, JU’s anti-ragging committee had suspended a final-year student for two semesters and another for one semester after a junior student lodged a complaint with the UGC’s anti-ragging helpline.
The then vice-chancellor had been gheraoed for more than 52 hours by students who demanded that the suspensions be revoked. The VC quit on October 21, 2013, a couple of weeks after a meeting of the executive council, JU’s highest decision-making body, allegedly forced him to form a three-member committee to review the punishment.
JU’s dean of students Rajat Ray told The Telegraph on Saturday: “After 2013, we found it really difficult to enforce any ragging-related punishment on campus.”
BJP protest on JU campus
A group of men with BJP flags and wearing saffron scarves entered the Jadavpur University campus on Saturday, ostensibly to protest Swapnadip Kundu’s death.
The protesters were chanting: “Communist der chaamra, gutiye debo aamra, SFI er chaamra, gutiye debo aamra (We will skin the communists, we will skin the SFI).”
They pushed open JU’s gate number 4 around 3.30pm.
SFI supporters on the campus gathered seeing the BJP supporters. JU’s security guards pushed the BJP supporters out of the gate.
Undergraduate student and SFI supporter Aafreen Shilpi said: “We are mourning Swapnadip’s death. At a time like this, in the name of protesting the death, they are speaking about skinning us.”
Sayan Lahiri, BJP’s media co-convener in South Calcutta, who led the protest, said: “We believe cases of ragging-related deaths are on the rise because of the communists who shelter former students in the hostel.”