At least four students’ associations in Bengal have called for rallies in support of three students rusticated by Visva-Bharati authorities on Monday night.

Old-timers of the varsity also dubbed the rustication as part of an “anti-student” environment being created during the tenure of vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty, who allegedly has saffron leanings.

The three students — Somnath Sow and Falguni Pan of the economics department and Rupa Chakraborty of Hindustani classical music — were rusticated on Monday night for their alleged “gross indiscipline and misconduct” in January last year.

The rustication letters stated the decision was taken based on an inquiry report by a varsity committee set up to look into the role of the trio during a campus protest on January 9, 2020.

They had been suspended nine months ago.

CPM’s students’ wing SFI called for a two-day protest across the country from Tuesday. The Bengal chapter of the All India Students Association (AISA) called for statewide protests for two days from Wednesday.

The Progressive Democratic Students’ Federation (PDSF) has called a protest rally at the Shyambazar five-point crossing in Calcutta on Wednesday. The Presidency University Students’ Council demanded the rustication be rescinded and announced a protest rally on Wednesday.

Srijan Bhattacharya, SFI state secretary, said: “On Tuesday, our unit at Jadavpur University campus held protests. They will also start a campaign to boycott a book written by Bidyut Chakrabarty, which is part of the syllabus. Protests will be held at Presidency University. We will wait till August 27 for Visva-Bharati to come up with a solution.”

The three students have been asked to appear before the varsity authorities on August 27 in case they have anything to say on the rustication.

Old-timers on campus pointed out several instances of alleged anti-student measures by the varsity during Chakrabarty’s tenure.

In January 2020, Visva-Bharati evicted a student from his hostel on the charge of video-recording vice-chancellor Chakraborty’s Republic Day speech, in which he made comments on the Constitution in the backdrop of protests against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

Sow and Pan were among students who had filed a police complaint against the VC, after a purported video had him remarking that students who gheraoed him and BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta in a January 9, 2020 lecture to support the citizenship matrix of the Narendra Modi government should be given a dose of medicine.

“It is really rare to see students being rusticated here since Rabindranath Tagore’s time. I can hardly recall if any one of our students was rusticated even in the early 1970s (a tumultuous time of unrest for Bengal),” said Sabuj Kali Sen, former officiating vice-chancellor and an old-timer.

“Is this how Rabindranath Tagore envisaged the institution he founded?” asked Sudripta Tagore, a member of the Tagore family and principal of an English medium school.