KOLKATA: Tensions mounted at Jadavpur University in Kolkata following a nightlong clash between the Left-leaning students and the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) students.
Several students belonging to both camps were admitted to the nearby KPC Medical College Hospital sustaining injuries.
Denying the involvement of the Students' Federation of India (SFI), in the clash, Srijan Bhattacharya, all India secretary of the CPI-M-backed students’ union, alleged that the ABVP men created trouble by sponsoring attacks on students when the governing body meeting was held on Wednesday night.
No SFI students were there during the incident, Srijan told the media.
The trouble started on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday when the governing body meeting called by the Left-backed student unions and the Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students Union (FETSU) was held inside the campus.
ABVP men protested against the meeting being held inside the campus and got involved in a clash with the Left students.
The agitating ABVP supporters alleged that the Left student union called the meeting at a time when there was no elected union in the university campus.
They raised questions saying, “How did they hold the meeting when there is no notification issued by the state government for holding students’ union elections?”
Videos circulating on WhatsApp showed a group of men allegedly belonging to the ABVP trying to break into locked facilities while raising slogans, sources said.
Several individuals from both sides sustained injuries in the altercation. Local police had to rush to the spot to prevent the situation from escalating further.
The ABVP accused Left-leaning SFI, Democratic Students Organisation (DSO), and Democratic Students' Federation (DSF) for orchestrating a planned attack in the guise of a general meeting. While, DSO members alleged that ABVP brought outsiders into the campus and resorted to vandalism.
BJP MLA Sharbari Mukherjee from Jadavpur constituency visited KPC Medical College to check on the injured students undergoing treatment.
Shubhabrata Adhikari, a member of the ABVP's central working committee, told reporters that FIRs are being lodged against several individuals and some members of the group are protesting at Jadavpur Police Station.
Abhinav Das, a philosophy student and member of the Revolutionary Students' Front (RSF), said, "The ABVP and Nationalist Students' Front (NSF) brought several outsiders to the FETSU meeting."
Fires were set outside the building as well as at other locations across the campus. In addition to the assaults, there were allegations of attempted mob violence and stone-pelting.
In the wake of the events, ABVP announced a protest scheduled at 11 am on Thursday. Protesting the events of Wednesday, Biswajit Roy, Secretary of the DSO State Committee, said, "Sections of the ABVP and RSS wreaked havoc in an attempt to seize the campus, tearing down flags, setting fires, and hurling abuse."
Srijan has demanded that the state government hold students’ union elections as soon as possible.
Citing the incident of damaging the statue of Lenin at Jadavpur allegedly by ABVP supporters recently, the SFI national general secretary alleged the ABVP students were trying to create an environment of trouble inside the university campus but the students won’t be trapped by their strategy.
