Jadavpur University vice-chancellor Suranjan Das on Wednesday said some “fringe elements”, and not students of the institution, were involved in raising anti-national slogans on Tuesday even as the ca
Jadavpur University vice-chancellor Suranjan Das on Wednesday said some “fringe elements”, and not students of the institution, were involved in raising anti-national slogans on Tuesday even as the campus was awash on Wednesday with posters and banners calling for “azadi” for Kashmir and Manipur and supporting Afzal Guru, who was hanged for his role in the attack on Parliament.
In another development, a group of ABVP supporters took out a counter-rally Wednesday. Claiming to be university students, they stormed the campus carrying national flags and shouting “Bharat Mata ki Jai”. They tore down banners and posters, terming them anti-national. They said they destroyed all posters and banners because they could not tolerate the insult to their motherland and the defamation of their university.
Their action may result in a showdown with the Left students’ union on the campus on Thursday.
Jadavpur University has been on the boil since Tuesday over the police crackdown at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. Students of the faculties of science, arts and engineering on Tuesday took out a torch rally as a mark of solidarity with arrested JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar. But some participants shouted slogans like “Afzal bole azadi, jab tum na doge azadi, to chheen lenge azadi (Afzal said azadi, if you don’t give azadi, we will snatch azadi)”.
The Union home ministry has asked the Mamata Banerjee government to send a detailed report. Minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju said the anti-India sloganeering at Jadavpur University would be investigated. “Jadavpur University will not support any anti-national activity. I spoke to the student representatives and they have categorically stated that they had no role in the protest. Students have said that they do not endorse anti-national slogans. That rally was not officially convened by the students’ union,” the vice-chancellor said.
He said he fully supports freedom of expression and the right of dissent, but he also condemned the anti-national slogans. However, he made it clear that he was not in favour of police action against the students. “The university is an autonomous institution. I will not call the police inside the campus,” he added.
The organisers of Tuesday’s rallies, Saikat Sit and Shounak Mukhopadhyay, also distanced themselves from anti-national slogans. “Such slogans were certainly not on our agenda,” Mukhopadhyay said. The SFI, the students’ wing of the CPI(M), also condemned anti-national slogans.
Some controversial posters seen on Wednesday on the Jadavpur University campus said, “Hum Kya Chahe — Kashmir Ki Azadi, Manipur Ki Azadi, Nagaland Ki Azadi.” These poster were put up by “Radical”, an ultra-left student group. “How can slogans about Afzal Guru and Kashmir be anti-national if the BJP is sharing power with the PDP in Kashmir and the PDP believes that Afzal Guru was a martyr,” asked a member of Radical.
