Azadi slogans return to Jadavpur varsity
Slogans demanding ‘azadi’ for Kashmir and Manipur returned to Jadavpur University on Monday when students, led by the Arts Faculty Students’ Union (AFSU), took out a rally against Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)’s alleged attempts to ‘pollute’ the campus atmosphere.
“Students who participated in the rally demanded azadi from religious fundamentalism and the evil designs of the RSS, as well as from poverty and social injustice. Some students also raised slogans demanding azadi for the people of Kashmir and Manipur,” said Nilim Bose, a film studies student and a member of the Leftwing students’ outfit .
As many as 200 students participated in the rally. Similar slogans were also raised on Sunday by some varsity students during a programme at Academy of Fine Arts, which is about 10 km from the campus.
The ‘azadi’ slogans have remained at the centre of escalating tension between the Leftwing students who dominate campus politics in Jadavpur and Sangh-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which is trying to gain a foothold at the university.
In February 2016, similar slogans and posters demanding azadi for Kashmir and Manipur had struck a controversial note, even as the students had justified the act. The Left outfit had called Monday’s rally to protest against ‘RSS hooliganism’ on the campus during a weekend seminar on atrocities on minority Hindus in Bangladesh, attended by BJPleader-turned Tripura governor Tathagata Roy and Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh.
Trouble erupted during the seminar itself, as a group of Leftwing students took out a poster campaign outside the venue seeking answers on the status of minority Muslims in India.
A scuffle between RSS activists and Left-wing students led to three police complaints against Sangh activists, including that of molestation.
Reacting on the slogans raised on the campus on Monday, state education minister and senior Trinamool leader Partha Chatterjee said that the government would not allow anti-national activities on the campus. The BJP and the ABVP too has vowed to take on the ‘Left-wing students propagating anti-national activities on JU campus’.