Several senior state BJP leaders said on Thursday evening that they wanted to make their presence felt in and around Jadavpur University and despatched around a thousand party activists and supporters from southern pockets of the city.
Both the campus, and areas around it, witnessed violent protests, blockades and arson by lathi-wielding men and women, chanting Jai Shri Ram.
Jadavpur University students and police said that the mob ransacked parts of the campus and set things on fire inside and outside Gate No. 4 of the varsity.
BJP leaders said they were watching live TV coverage to track the agitation around Union minister Babul Supriyo in the varsity. A senior state BJP leader said the leadership lost patience when they saw televised footage of the fracas around the singer-turned-politician on the campus.
“We could not have allowed these Left and ultra-Left elements of Jadavpur University to go on undeterred with what we saw them doing on TV. In a democracy, how can a Union minister be physically assaulted by students? How can they gherao him for hours on the campus? This was outrageous,” he said.
“We were compelled to intervene. They left us with no choice,” he added.
The vandalised students’ union room on the campus. Picture by Sanat Kr Sinha
Sources in the BJP said that around a thousand people — including supporters and activists of the RSS student wing ABVP and the BJP — reached the Jadavpur campus and entered through Gate No. 4. The sources said the crowd was mobilised from areas such as Jadavpur, Santoshpur, Garfa and pockets of Behala.
They immediately went on the rampage, ransacking a students’ union office — defacing the room, vandalising it, smashing to pieces furniture and several computers — to the right of the gate, controlled by the CPM students’ wing SFI.
“The anti-national JU students, like their JNU counterparts, should get a taste of our strength too,” said a BJP functionary of the Calcutta south (suburban) district.
After being taken out of the campus by a police team deployed at Gate No. 4, the mob took to the street outside, setting fire to several bicycles from a nearby stand.
Multiple sources at 6 Muralidhar Sen Lane, the BJP state headquarters, confirmed on Thursday evening that the crowd sent to the campus had specific instructions to make a statement. “It was to be a show of strength, Jai Shri Ram et al. They had been told to show them what we are capable of. Compared to what they had been told, very little was actually done,” said a BJP state unit leader.
ABVP state general-secretary Saptarshi Sarkar later vowed to hold a “much bigger event” at JU in the future.
“We will register our protest against what happened today (Thursday) at Jadavpur University in every colleges of Bengal this week…. We stand committed to holding a much bigger event there,” said Sarkar.
A broken ceiling fan in the union room. Picture by Sanat Kr Sinha
Sarkar said the ABVP had all the necessary clearances from the varsity authorities for its event on the campus, which Supriyo went to attend.
“Yet, they physically assaulted a Union minister…. All of this, over a seminar? They condemn us for so-called intolerance. Is this not intolerance of the worst sort?” he asked.
“They could have shown black flags and shouted slogans. But that is not where they stopped, did they? They do not believe in democracy, those in JU,” he added.
Calling it “unprecedented”, BJP state general-secretary Sayantan Basu said CPM-backed university teachers organisation Juta submitted an appeal to Supriyo earlier in the day to upgrade JU to a central varsity.
“After this, we are going to proactively pursue this proposal with the Centre. Such behaviour would not be tolerated at a central university,” said Basu, adding that the incident, which the Trinamul Congress has condemned, exposed the alleged lack of law and order in the state.
