Visva-Bharati registrar Ashish Agrawal on Tuesday refused to leave his office, citing that the protest of the students — who had gheraoed him for 24 hours — was a “life threat”.
Agrawal made the allegation after students lifted the gherao at 11.30am on Tuesday.
He was inside his office even late on Tuesday evening.
Visva-Bharati students of various outfits, including the SFI and the Trinamul Chhatra Parishad, jointly started a movement last month to demand the reopening of hostels as physical classes had started.
Tension mounted on the campus on Monday after a large number of students shut all departments and gheraoed Agrawal, demanding hostels be reopened as many students had to spend money on renting accommodations in order to attend classes..
The gherao reportedly started around 11am on Monday and continued till 11.30am on Tuesday. Early on Tuesday morning, Agrawal — who had insisted he had no power to make any such decision — tried to leave his chamber by crawling on the floor, which the students prevented.
“It was an unprecedented move by a registrar of Visva-Bharati who tried to escape from us by crawling on the floor. Those who saw the video were really surprised,” said Minakshi Bhattacharya, a TMCP leader.
Sources said as the gherao of its registrar continued on Tuesday, varsity authorities went to the police accusing students of wrongfully confining Agrawal.
Following police intervention, students vacated the chambers and adjoining rooms of the registrar with a nod to him to move out.
Students started protesting outside the office, but Agrawal was too shaken to come out.
A poster by the protesters
“They confined me for over 24 hours and later informed me that I could go out.The unruly mobs are right outside my chamber, because of which which I feel insecure and consider (the situation) a life threat. We communicated our concern to the district administration but they took no action,” said Agrawal.
“I had to perform rituals on the occasion of Shiv Ratri but couldn’t because of the students,” the registrar added.
Police officers said that following information of wrongful confinement, cops spoke with students and asked them to withdraw the gherao.
“The gherao was withdrawn and there is no obstruction to the free movement of the registrar. There is no question of confinement now,” said Nagendra Nath Tripathi, the Birbhum police chief, on Tuesday evening.
“We have gone to the registrar and informed him about the withdrawal of gherao and that he is free to move anywhere. We have vacated his chamber areas and have started protesting outside the building. It is really unfortunate if the registrar is afraid of threats to his life from his own students,” said Somnath Sow, an SFI leader.
The campus continued to be on the boil. An instruction from the office of vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty asking Visva-Bharati staff, including teachers, to gather in front of the central office at 9am sparked resentment among a section of teachers. They protested against the directive, assuming that authorities were trying to make them take a stand against the students’ movement.
Teachers and senior officials held meetings twice on Tuesday, both of which were headed by acting VC Mukteshwar Tiwari as VC Chakrabarty is currently in Delhi.
“The acting VC asked us to withdraw the movement and said they would consider our demand later. We are not ready to accept this till they gave us a written assurance. We will continue our movement,” said Sow, who pledged to stay put on the campus till their demand was met.
