‘Jadavpur University’s female students shameless’

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Saturday kicked up a row when he described a section of Jadavpur University’s female students as “shameless” for bringing molestation charges against ABVP activists.

On May 6, a violent clash had broken out between university students and the ABVP activists over screening of the movie Buddha in a Traffic Jam at the campus. FIRs were filed against four ABVP activists who were accused of molesting some university students. Since then, both camps conducted protest rallies demanding action against each other.

Mr Ghosh on Saturday claimed the molestation allegations on ABVP students were “false” and wondered why those female students were present at the screening of the movie directed by Vivek Agnihotri.

“If they fear so much for their modesty, then why did they go there This is shamelessness. Making such allegations is very cheap. We cannot support these girls,” Mr Ghosh said at a press conference.

They intentionally threw themselves on others and are now blaming them,” Mr Ghosh said at a press conference.

“ABVP is a students’ organisation and it wanted to reach out to the students. If the Left students believe in freedom of speech, then others also have that right. They should not question the entry of BJP or ABVP activists in the university. I feel very bad that being students of a university, they are bringing such allegations against ABVP activists. This is very shameful. If they understand politics, then they should fight democratically and politically. They are bringing down the level of politics and trying to get sympathy by lodging false allegations against their opponents,” Mr Ghosh added.

A section of the university students and women activists on Saturday strongly condemned Mr Ghosh’s remarks and said he stooped to a new low by once again targeting the female students. Even political leaders slammed Mr Ghosh for his repeated controversial remarks against women in general.

This was not the first time the BJP state president made such derogatory statements against JU students. Mr Ghosh has been in the news for repeatedly attacking JU students from public meetings, especially targeting the female students.

Earlier, he had said that if BJP was in power then he would have stormed into the campus and dragged the vice-chancellor out by holding his shirt’s collar. In March, he had threatened to “chop by six inches from top anyone who raised slogans of Pakistan zindabad”. He had also said that JU students should be “thrashed with shoes”.