ABVP rally may lead to friction with Leftists today

The ABVP’s counter-rally in Jadavpur University on Wednesday 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)”. “JU 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.