– Mita Mukherjee

Tension gripped the campus of West Bengal’s state-aided Jadavpur University on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday following a series of clashes between students belonging to Left-leaning groups and supporters of the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), leaving several students from both camps injured. Some of the injured students had to be admitted to a nearby hospital for treatment.

At the root of the trouble was a governing body meeting called by the Left-backed students’ unions and the Faculty of Technology and Engineering Students’ Union, a pro-Left student body at the university.

From the very onset of the meeting, students belonging to ABVP questioned the validity of the meeting in the absence of an elected student body as the union elections are pending. They demanded that the meeting should not be held.

While protesting the meeting which was being held inside the campus, a present scholar of the university allegedly hit a student which triggered a scuffle between the students, a source in the university said.

Around midnight a clash ensued between a number of students belonging to the ABVP and the Left- leaning groups causing injury to several students.

Fire was set to the gate of the main administrative building, where the meeting was in progress, as well as at several other places on the campus, which could be seen in footage aired by television channels covering the incident around midnight

Members from both the camps blamed each other for the violence. FETSU members alleged a large number of ABVP supporters, many of whom were outsiders gathered in front of the  building and made provocative remarks. The trouble started when some of them attacked the Left-wing student members.

On the other hand, ABVP supporters alleged they were surrounded and shoved by the opponent camp which resulted into an altercation.

There was no major disruption of academic activities on the campus on Thursday but there was a simmering tension inside the campus throughout the day, sources said.

Several teachers and university officials said that minor disturbances arising from differences of opinion between rival political camps are not uncommon on a campus like Jadavpur University. But involvement of outsiders who are not associated with the university is not acceptable.

“There can be trouble inside the campus due to differences between two opponent camps of students. Such incidents can be managed and solved by the intervention of teachers and officials. But the situation goes beyond the control of the authorities if there is involvement of outsiders and political leaders, ” Parthapratim Roy, president of Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association told EducationWorld.

BJP MLA from Jadavpur, Sarbari Mukherjee visited the scene at night and criticised Left-wing students for creating the trouble. She too questioned the validity of the meeting and alleged that “anti-national” slogans were raised inside the campus.

ABVP leaders claimed that the organisation had only questioned the legitimacy of the meeting as no election has been held.

“We only asked the Left-wing students how could they hold general body meeting when there is no notification regarding student union elections. The SFI, Democratic Student Organisation and the Democratic Students’ Federation planned the meeting to create trouble and attack ABVP supporters,” Ananta Barui, state media in-charge of the ABVP told EducationWorld.

Srijan Bhattacharya, all-India secretary of the CPIM – backed student body Students Federation of India (SFI) said that there was no involvement of the SFI in the meeting and ABVP attacked the students when the general body meeting was being held peacefully.

DSO and DSF supporters said the meeting was held to ensure smooth functioning of the organisation.

Both ABVP and Left- wing students lodged FIRs against each other and organised separate rallies today to condemn the attack.