Flop show: ABVP rally has few takers

Kolkata: ABVP organised a rally from Golpark to 8B Bus Stand in Jadavpur on Monday, condemning the attack on Union minister of state for Forest Babul Supriyo. However, the rally turned out to mostly be a flop show.

The police put up iron barricades at Jodhpur Park and stopped the procession. They allowed 4 members of ABVP to meet the pro Vice-Chancellor Prof Chiranjib Bhattacharya to submit a memorandum.

ABVP supporters demanded resignation of the JU V-C and a judicial inquiry into the incident. They also tried to break the barricade and beat up the police personnel on duty. One police personnel was injured after they pelted stones at the police. Sudeep Sarkar, Deputy Commissioner, South Suburban Division, went to the spot and pacified the ABVP members.

Meanwhile, Jadavpur University is mulling to impose restrictions on political leaders addressing programmes conducted by student unions inside the varsity campus.

The move comes in the wake of an untoward incident inside the campus involving Supriyo, last Thursday. He had come to attend the freshers' welcome programme organised by ABVP - the student wing of BJP.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, while referring to the incident at JU, said the people of Bengal have seen what they (BJP) did at the institute. "They try to wield power everywhere, bulldoze everything. The people of Asansol had voted for BJP and you see the condition of ECL, the unit of SAIL and Chittaranjan Locomotive there," Banerjee said. Interestingly, Supriyo is the elected MP from Asansol.

Professor Snehamanju Basu, registrar of Jadavpur University termed the incident of Jadavpur as 'unfortunate' and said that such incidents affect the image of the university. "We are thinking about some restrictions to avoid any untoward incidents arising due to people from different walks of life coming to attend programmes organised by different student unions inside the campus. We will be giving permission only after examining the various aspects that may emerge due to any political personality coming to our campus," she said, adding: "We will be conducting an internal meeting with the Vice-Chancellor to finalise things."

The teachers of JU also organised a human chain, expressing their solidarity with the students near gate 4 of the university. The students also held a rally from the JU campus to Jadavpur police station on Monday afternoon, condemning the attack on them by ABVP supporters.