Left, ABVP Students Clash in Jadavpur After a Film Screening
Vice Chancellor Suranjan Das rushed to the university and pleaded with the two sides to maintain peace.
Women were allegedly molested and BJP leader Roopa Ganguly was blocked from entering Jadavpur University in Kolkata after student factions clashed over the screening of a political drama Buddha in a Traffic Jam on Friday night.
Bollywood director Vivek Agnihotri screened his film in open-air inside the campus.
After the film screening ended late in the evening, students from ABVP and other Left-backed unions engaged in a fight in which few of them received minor injuries, officials said.
Agnihotri was welcomed at the campus gates with black flags, sloganeering and placards asking him to leave.
The filmmaker claimed he was manhandled and gheraoed by some students and even the glass pane of his car was left shattered in the commotion.
The state-run varsity’s alumni association, which runs the Triguna Sen auditorium, had decided to cancel the booking for a pre-release screening of the film in their hall.
The producers, however, went ahead with the screening at an open-air space in the campus saying they have support from another group of students.
Even as the screening was going on in the evening after classes were over, the agitators carried on with a protest demonstration near the spot.
The agitating students said they have nothing against the screening of the film, but were protesting against the “divisive content” in the film, which also stars Anupam Kher.
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