College rebuts Shah theory, claims vandalism outsiders' handiwork

Kolkata: While BJP's national president Amit Shah was busy alleging that Vidyasagar College was vandalised by members of Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP), the college union authority has clearly denied the allegations and stated that it was outsiders who had pelted stones and vandalised the campus later.

On Wednesday in a press conference at Delhi, Shah claimed while holding a picture in his hand that TMCP members had attacked BJP first and later they themselves vandalised the college and broke the statue of Vidyasagar to gain sympathy.

Countering Shah's claims, principal of Vidyasagar College Goutam Kundu denied the allegations and stated that the miscreants were all outsiders. Significantly, none of them were Bengalis either and so did not know who Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar was.

"Each and every miscreant had come from outside with bricks, bamboo sticks and other such weapons. They had set fire to the bikes parked inside and later vandalized the statue," he said.

Shah had also raised questions on why the college was open till 7:30 pm. However, according to college authorities and local residents, the BJP leader's claim is totally false as the incident occurred around 6:30 pm. Elaborating on this, Kundu said: "Though official college timing is till 5:45 pm, we have pending work which need to be done even after scheduled college hours. Does he know everything?"

The teachers and students of Vidyasagar College also protested against the statements made by Shah on Wednesday. "We saw what happened here on Tuesday. Where was he? Even every single news channel is showing who had vandalised the college. How can he say that our students had done this?" said an irate teacher.

Vidyasagar College is the first non-government college in India, which started its journey in 1859. Initially named as Calcutta Training School, it was founded by Thakurdas Chakraborty. In 1859, the school was renamed as Metropolitan Institution. In 1872, Metropolitan Institution was granted affiliation by Calcutta University and named after Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar. Several eminent personalities such as Swami Vivekananda, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, Acharya Jadunath Sarkar, Ram Manohar Lohia and Babu Jagjiban Ram were alumni of the storied institution