Jadavpur issue: Thousands hit Kolkata's streets; governor gives moral support

History of sorts was created in Kolkata when about 60,000 people took to the streets of the West Bengal capital on Saturday demanding resignation of Jadavpur University vice-chancellor even as West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi intervened to end the four-day old stalemate in the prestigious educational institution.

Students from Presidency University, Calcutta University and other educational institutions joined the march to the Governor’s House in central Kolkata in a show of solidarity demanding resignation of JU VC Abhijit Chakrabarti after the alleged brutal police action on students inside JU campus in the early hours of Wednesday.

Police and Rapid Action Force troopers and ‘plain-clothed goons’ had ‘invaded’ the campus and mercilessly beat up the students who were taking part in a sit-in to protest against the university authorities’ ‘apathy’ over the sexual assault on a student on campus on August 28.

This incident sparked widespread protests and culminated into this massive rally.

Braving heavy downpour, students shouted slogans, sang songs, strummed guitars as they challenged the state government and the administration to test their ‘strength’.

Creativity was at its best as the rally swung to the tune of some really interesting couplets: E shatabdir duti bhool, CPM ar Trinamool (CPI-M and Trinamool are the two biggest mistakes of the century); Ei VC ke chine ne/OLX-e beche de (Identify this VC and sell him on OLX).

This was one of the rarest of the congregations that was bereft of any political colour and was organised mainly with the help of invites circulated through social media under the hashtag #hokkolorob.

Messages flooded Facebook and Twitter with students, teachers, alumni, and well-wishers of the university condemning the incident.

As evening rolled in and rain gods took mercy on the relentless crusaders, a delegation of eight students, including an alumnus, met West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi around 5 pm and handed over a detailed report and a video footage of the JU incident.

According to the students, Governor, who also is the JU chancellor, gave them a patient hearing and appealed to them to bring back normalcy to JU campus.

"The governor sir gave us a patient hearing. He expressed his moral support to our cause and said that he will look into each and every aspect including the barbaric police action on the students," a JU students' representative told media persons after the meeting at Raj Bhavan.

The students, he said, have handed over a CD to Tripathi which has video clipping of the police action on the students.

"The governor sir sought time till Monday morning. So till then our academic strike will go on but we are withdrawing the sit-in (at Mayo Road) for the time being. We will again meet on Monday at 12 noon and decide our next course of action after seeing the steps taken by chancellor," he said.

"The government changes but the attitude of those who are in power never changes. In 2005 during the Left rule police too had beaten us inside the campus," a protestor said.

Meanwhile, an apology attributed to the VC was posted on the university website, which official sources denied claiming it had been hacked.

"I am sorry" was the message posted on the website in VC Abhijit Chakrabarti's page.

Registrar Pradip Ghosh clarified that he had spoken to the VC and Chakrabarti had not said anything of that sort. 

"We have not done that. I have spoken to the VC who said he has not posted anything. The website is hacked. We will look into the matter," Ghosh said.

The students of JU have called a general body meeting on Monday after which they would chart out their next course of action.

Additional Inputs: PTI