Kolkata: State Education minister Bratya Basu was manhandled and injured and his car was vandalised when a massive extreme Left-wing student protest erupted at the Jadavpur University (JU) on Saturday.
Members of CPI(M) students wing SFI and other extreme Left-wing student organisations gheraoed Basu and damaged the windscreen of his vehicle to press for their demands for declaring students’ union elec-tion in the state at the earliest.
Basu went to the JU campus to attend the annual general meeting of West Bengal College and University Professors’ Association (WBCUPA), ahead of which a seminar was held on ‘Saffronisation in Higher Education’.
Basu tried to speak to agitating students while leaving the campus but he was surrounded by around 100 students who carried out the anarchy showed him shoes and manhandled him.
Earlier, the GB Meeting was violently disrupted by leftist and extreme leftist student groups. Several others, including security personnel of the minister, teacher-members of the WBCUPA and protesting students, also sustained injuries.
Basu was taken to SSKM and doctors said he was stable. On the other hand, some of the protesters alleged that some students among them were injured by a vehicle part of the minister’s convoy. WBCUPA representatives later filed a complaint against the student organisations at the Jadavpur Police Station.
Earlier while addressing the WBCUPA meeting, Basu said: “The TMC is fighting against saffronisation and those who are now protesting outside… ask them how many protests they organised against the BJP.” Af-ter he stepped out of the hall, the students gheraoed Basu’s car. Following this, the protesting student or-ganisations allegedly ransacked the “Shikshabandhu” office and set fire to a portion of it. They also as-sembled near the Jadavpur 8B bus stand and blocked the road.
Basu later told the media at SSKM Hospital: “This is an unprecedented attack. If they think in such a way they can stop (Chief Minister) Mamata Banerjee, they are wrong. I came out and was ready to talk with them but they were not in the mood to talk. Our professors are seriously injured. This is not acceptable. We will again go to Jadavpur University and organise a convention.”
“I agreed to hold the meeting at Jadavpur because, despite attempts by some to disrupt this gathering, we cannot stop democratic organisations from functioning. We are not a Stalinist or Maoist party. I am pleased to see the efforts in Jadavpur to stop WBCUPA and the TMCP. I am also happy to see that Jadav-pur now wants to draw oxygen from our organisation,” Basu also added.
He also challenged the protesting students, saying: “Protests will always exist, but the vulgarity must be stopped. As long as democracy exists opposing voices will remain. However, if they can kindly give a depu-tation against the BJP at any university in Uttar Pradesh then I would understand that they are ‘sons of fa-ther’. Otherwise, this is futile here.”
Denouncing the incident, TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said: “We are shocked. They planned and attacked Bratya Basu...’