Saturday, September 21, 2019

Jadavpur univ VC faces flak for campus ruckus

Raj Bhavan Release Points At Serious Lapses On Police Part To Contain Situation

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kolkata:21.09.2019

The office of Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday piled up pressure on the vice-chancellor of Jadavpur University and police, saying it had taken note of the “serious lapses by the VC” and the failure of the police to provide adequate “security arrangements for the governor” during Thursday’s six-hour campus ruckus.

A Raj Bhavan release on Friday referred to the “issue of serious lapses by the VC, including virtual abandonment of his obligations, and the apparent (police) failure in attending to the situation appropriately and inadequate security arrangements for the governor/chancellor during his visit”. The issues were “receiving his (governor’s) attention for way-forward steps”, the communique added.

The statement, combined with a directive to JU to submit a report on Thursday’s incidents within 48 hours from Friday, has put university officials in a bind. Governor Dhankhar’s presence, and his firsthand observation of the incidents on the campus from close quarters, would add to VC Suranjan Das’s discomfiture, they admitted. “The governor’s first-hand view of the incidents leaves little room for any report that may be contradictory,” a JU official said.

Junior Union minister and BJP MP Babul Supriyo was assaulted and abused by a section of JU students after he had gone there to attend an event organised by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the students’ wing of BJP. The governor had rushed to the campus on Thursday evening to “rescue” Babul after speaking to Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who, according to Trinamool Congress seniors, requested him not to go there.

Das was in hospital on Friday and was not available for comment. There were reports on Thursday itself that he was under pressure to resign, prompting senior Trinamool ministers to come out in his support and assure him that he had “no reason to worry”.

Mamata, who was in Delhi on Thursday, chose to ignore the issue after returning to Kolkata on Friday. The party, too, issued a tame release, saying that it “stood by” its Thursday’s response and added that it expected the “governor to give justice to the VC, professors and students”.

“The administration played a peaceful role to resolve the problem amicably. We must punish the culprits who assaulted students, including girls, and ransacked the campus,” the party said.

But it made “one thing very clear: universities are autonomous institutions and police cannot enter a university campus without the VC’s permission”, according to “a timehonoured tradition”.

Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh came out in support of the Raj Bhavan complaints against the state administration. “The governor had to virtually perform the police’s role,” Ghosh said. “We will pay back on the same coin if CPMNaxal-Trinamool cadres assault a Union minister,” he added.


IN VAIN: Police try to manage BJP supporters during a protest rally against the assault on party leader Babul Supriyo

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