A sea of red and saffron flags flanked either side of the metal spires of Gate No. 4 of Jadavpur University on Thursday, 20 August, hours after the campus came under attack from a violent mob the night before.
Those carrying the saffron flags, mostly members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidya Parishad (ABVP), were storming the gate from the outside while those with the red flags—representing a consortium of Left student bodies—stood guard on the inside, dodging eggs and projectiles the saffron-bearers hurled at the students inside, along with the choicest of expletives. Many tried to scale the gate to enter but were pushed back by a crowd of students.
The image seemed to speak a thousand words about the political heart of the historic institution, which for decades has stood as the face of dissent, revolution and protest in Kolkata.
“They attacked us inside our college, which is a second home to us. We are here to show them what we are made of. This is our college, and we will not let it go into the hands of goons and extremists. We will resist till the end,” Shamik, a student present at the protest, told The Quint.
A Night of Siege
Tensions flared late on Wednesday night when students associated with the Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students' Union (FETSU) gathered at the JU campus for a late-night general body meeting, which ended in an altercation with members of ABVP, some of whom were also present at the meeting.
According to student activist Sheikh Nabab, members of ABVP, the student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which came to power in West Bengal on 4 May, started making provocative comments.
“Since student body elections have not been held in six years inside JU, the meeting had been called by Left bodies and FETSU to discuss important organisational issues that had been pending for some time. Since it was an important meeting, many came to attend, including persons who were not part of FETSU or any of the unions. Some ABVP members who are also JU students started creating nuisance,” Nabab alleged to The Quint.
Meanwhile, ABVP members like Ananta Barui, state media in-charge of the ABVP, have told the media that "the SFI, Democratic Student Organisation, and the Democratic Students’ Federation planned the meeting to create trouble and attack ABVP supporters,” adding that they only wanted to know how a general body meeting could be held without elections. Members of the ABVP claimed that the altercation began when some of its members were allegedly surrounded and shoved during the meeting.
In the ensuing scuffle, several persons, including both from ABVP and FETSU, received blows. However, since the ABVP members were less in number, they had to beat a retreat.
Students The Quint spoke with as well as multiple accounts of students on social media claim that following the altercation, a mob entered the campus on bikes and on foot, carrying bamboo sticks, bottles filled with kerosene, and rocks. They started lighting objects, including Left group flags, on fire outside the venue to chase the students holding the meeting.
Student activist Anushna from JU told The Quint:
"Some 100-150 ABVP goons entered the campus, chased us, and we were forced to run for our lives and take shelter inside the Aurobindo Bhaban building on campus where some 40-50 students locked themselves in. They came at us with burning sticks and flags and threw those inside the building. All this can be seen in videos."
The mob allegedly poured kerosene outside the gates of Aurobindo Bhaban, leading to noxious fumes filling up the corridors of the building where the students were sheltering. "They hurled fire at us and rape threats for the women. We did not dare come out till dawn when the mob started to disperse when cops arrived in plain clothes," an Arts Faculty student said.
The Quint could confirm at least three students who received injuries amid the clashes. "Two students who are not part of any union and were not even present at the meeting were assaulted outside Gate No. 1. They had to be treated for injuries. Another student was injured by a projectile rock hurled inside Aurobindo Bhaban by the mob. Despite bleeding, we could not take them out to get treatment until dawn because we were surrounded by goons," Nabab recalls. Since the students are not politically affiliated, they requested anonymity fearing further reciprocation.
Meanwhile, a section of the mob moved toward the JU main hostel, located a stone's throw away from the Jadavpur police station, and tried to break in. However, large crowds of hostellers and union members with the help of some guards held the fort, preventing the gates from opening.
According to students, the ABVP leaders also vandalised the Ashu-Timir-er Pathshala, a free, volunteer-run school near JU. The school was started in March 2021 by current and former students to help children from nearby disadvantaged and low-income families. "They tore up the posters made by children," Abhinav, a student activist from the Arts faculty, said.
Students who were besieged in JU on Wednesday night claim that despite making several calls to police and authorities, there was no response.
"When we dialled 100 helpline and said we are from JU, they cut the call."
However, as Times of India report, the police stated that a team went to the JU campus after receiving complaints on the helpline sometime after midnight and removed outsiders from the campus. They claimed that about 50 students were inside Aurobindo Bhaban building, refusing to leave.
Students, however, claim that the police came at around 4 am. "We were told that the goons had left but we also heard that they were lurking outside campus so we chose not to step out till morning," Nabab added.
"They spent lakhs of money installing CCTV cameras. We asked the authority for the footage, but they have not yet responded. Moreover, there were a lot of ex-paramilitary men deployed by the university authorities a few months back to ensure the safety and security of the campus. Where were they on this particular night?" Anushna asked.
On Thursday, thousands of students showed up in reaction to the attack. Students gheraoed the Vice Chancellor's office, demanding accountability for the lack of students' safety on campus and action against those responsible.
"We tried calling VC, the Pro VC, and the Registrar, among other authorities for help when the attack started and kept calling them, but no one came," Anushna said. According to Nabab, the Registrar answer once and promised help but nothing happened.
The Quint has contacted the VC and the Registrar's offices for comments regarding the same. The story will be updated once a response is received.
JU Stands its Ground
As students marched within campus to demand accountability on Thursday, ABVP members launched a counter protest. The police did not stop them, claiming later that the protesters broke through barricades and reached the university gates.
Videos and eyewitness accounts corroborate the violent, aggressive behaviour of the attackers accosting the gates, chanting Jai Shri Ram, Bharat Mata ki Jai, and other slogans associated with right-wing groups. "They tried to scale the gates, they hurled rape threats at women, threw eggs, stones and gutter water at us," a student at the protest recalls.
BJP's Jadavpur MLA Sarbori Mukherjee, who reached JU on the night of the attack, reiterated the claims of the ABVP: "Who called a general body meeting when there is no union, who convened it?” She also attacked Left groups for allegedly invoking provocative and anti-national slogans.
Mukherjee's role, however, has been criticised by many since JU falls in the Kasba Assembly constituency, and not under her jurisdiction as the MLA. Opposition leaders have accused the MLA of fomenting trouble and instigating further aggression.
Countering Mukherjee's allegations, CPI(M) leader Dipsita Dhar who was present at the protests the next day, said, “A general body can be called by student members of a union body or student group to discuss their affairs. There are no hard-and-fast rules for calling a meeting.”
SFI leader Debanjan Dey, addressing the crowd at Jadavpur on Thursday, alleged that the attack was part of a larger conspiracy to hurt students. “The police has come today when we are holding our protest. We don’t need barricading now. The same police was missing while students were under attack.”
Kolkata Police registered a case under stringent, non-bailable sections, including attempt to murder and the SC/ST Act, against 11 JU students, all belonging to Left groups, for allegedly assaulting fellow students of the ABVP. A police officer from Jadavpur police station, on condition of anonymity, told The Quint they received a complaint around midnight from a JU third-year engineering student Sarbari Mukherjee and other ABVP leaders who arrived at the station, based on which the FIR was filed.
Students who faced attack have also filed a written complaint (accessed by The Quint) requesting Jadavpur police station to take action against "ABVP-NSF goons". An actual FIR is yet to be filed.
BJP's Mixed Messaging
The incident comes at a time when the BJP is already facing flak for the death of a 51-year-old man after being assaulted by men with alleged links to the BJP, because his son, a Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) volunteer by the name of Abdul Hafeez, tried to implement the CJP's 'School Thik Karo' campaign at the local school in a Bankura village.
In a bid to distance itself from the incident, BJP state unit President Shamik Bhattacharjee told the media the ABVP is “not affiliated with the BJP; it is an independent entity,” and thus the “BJP will not intervene in this matter at the party level.” He also said that the BJP did not have a student wing.
Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta also posted an "appeal to JU students" on his social media handles, in which he called for both sides, the Left and ABVP, to maintain restrain.
And, yet, the BJP has time and again come to the defence of ABVP.
This is not the first time that JU has been in the eye of student protests and clashes. In 2014, thousands of students took to the streets under the Hok Kolorob (let there be noise) movement, and sat for days on a VC gherao campaign to demand his resignation following police violence against students demanding justice for a molestation case.
Incidentally, the accused in the case, Nikhil Das, 33-year-old PhD scholar at JU, was among the ABVP protesters seen on campus leading the charge on behalf of the outfit, among others.
His presence has led many to question the BJP for allegedly shielding the accused, and brought attention back on the molestation case. Since the clashes, Das has been cited by media as claiming he was "framed" at the time for being a "nationalist".
Nikhil was one of the two ABVP members allegedly injured by the Left groups, as per the police complaint filed at Jadavpur police station.
JU as a Space for Dissent
The ABVP has a history of clashes with sections of JU students, including the Left student bodies that have held sway on campus despite the Left's waning presence in the state's electoral politics. In 2019, ABVP members clashed with students after then BJP leader Babul Supriyo was stopped from entering the university. Allegations of ABVP members attacking students and throwing acid bulbs at them had been reported at the time.
Following the recent clashes, a member of ABVP was seen giving a bite to a TV news channel in which he claimed, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about dimagi naxals. We will do a surgical strike on JU to decimate them.”
Soon after the Assembly election results were announced, violence began and incidents of ABVP members attacking and injuring students and Left activists were caught on video.
Meanwhile, the reputed university has often faced allegations of being a space for "anti-nationals", "naxals-Maoists" and so-called amoral liberalism, even under the rule of the previous Mamata Banerjee government. Soon after coming to power, the BJP, too, issued a statement condemning JU as an "anti-national" hub.
Yet, the for over a hundred years, history of Jadavpur University is deeply rooted in protest, starting from the Indian freedom struggle to the Naxalbari movement and consequent grassroots activism.
“Jadavpur signifies freedom," Debalina Mow, filmmaker and former JU student, told The Quint.
“Today, those trying to malign JU are doing exactly what the previous government under Mamata Banerjee did when she called the university “atonkopur”. The truth is that those in power are afraid of JU as this has historically been a place of dissent, a place for speaking truth to power. These attacks are just acts of cowardice.”Debalina Mow
Teachers at JU have also roundly condemned the attack. Speaking to The Quint, Sibhashis Chatterjee, professor at JU and former head of the Department of International Relations, said the events at JU amounted to more than a simple law-and-order issue or an isolated incident but were symptomatic of a "broader political intolerance in West Bengal, where ideological opponents are increasingly denied legitimacy and dissent is met with humiliation and intimidation."
He argued that as a space, a university must foster democratic space for dissent and difference of opinion.
"What we witnessed over one night and the following day was outright vandalism and a brutal attempt to intimidate the stakeholders of one of West Bengal’s premier universities. We are far from perfect, and a section of the public may not approve of the culture of liberty that we foster. Yet, no reasonable person can condone such an attack."Sibashish Chatterjee
On Friday, members of FETSU and other bodies received a mail from the college administration, seeking a meeting with the VC and the students on the coming Monday. The students were also informed through the Registrar that the administration had filed an FIR with Jadavpur Police regarding the incident, though neither the students nor The Quint has as yet accessed a copy of the FIR.
The students plan further demonstrations in case their demands of a fair inevstigation into the matter are not met till Monday.