Governor must provide justice to those 'assaulted' in JU: TMC

Kolkata: Expressing solidarity, Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee on Friday issued a statement saying that it expects the Governor to provide justice to the Vice-Chancellor, professors and students who have been subjected to unprecedented harassment and assault.

The release comes soon after the Raj Bhavan issued a statement on Friday morning questioning the role of Vice-Chancellor Suranjan Das and the police administration in providing adequate security arrangements when Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar went to the campus after receiving news of Union minister Babul Supriyo remaining confined for a long time as he faced protests from students affiliated to two Left-leaning organisations.

"We always respect the post of Governor because it is a Constitutional post. Our expectation is that Governor must give justice to the Vice-Chancellor, professors, students. We are always with the teachers and the student communities," read the statement issued by Chatterjee. It further reiterated that the culprits who assaulted the students including the girl students of Jadavpur University and ransacked the campus should be punished. It also mentioned that the administration played a very peaceful role to resolve the problem amicably. "One thing must be made very clear: universities are autonomous institutions and as per time-honoured tradition, police cannot enter university campus without permission of V-C," the statement read.

Das had said on Thursday that he would not ask police to enter the campus and would prefer to resign after the Governor had directed him to do so.

Jadavpur Registrar Snehamanju Basu issued a press release stating that the university believes that the campus cannot be administered with the help of police and it provokes adverse implications. "It was due to the pursuance of university's teachers and employees, not the intervention of police, that led to the withdrawal of the blockade infront of His Excellency (Governor's) car in the spot," the release read.

Chatterjee had earlier issued a statement on Thursday night soon after the so-called 'rescue act' of the Governor terming the episode of the latter's campus visit as most "unfortunate and shocking".

The statement on Friday highlighted that the TMC sticks to its earlier stand which stated that the Governor went to the campus even after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee spoke to him and repeatedly asked him not to visit the campus and requested him to give some time to the state government to peacefully resolve the issue and bring the situation under control. The Raj Bhavan's statement on Friday read: "Before his visit to the university, the Governor and Chancellor exhausted all possible avenues that could bring an end to the unsavoury spectacle by flagging the issue with the Director General of Police and Chief Secretary."