ABVP to hold rally today demanding end of anti-national activities in Jadavpur University; security tightened

Kolkata, Aug 24 (IANS) Security has been tightened at Jadavpur University (JU) in south Kolkata in view of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad’s rally on Monday demanding the end of “anti-national Leftist activities” within the university.

The rally will start from Dhakuria Crossing in the south and will end at Jadavpur 8B Bus Stand, and the huge campus of the JU is within the rally route. Although ABVP leadership has claimed that the peaceful rally will pass by the route and not make any attempt to enter the campus, the Kolkata Police are taking all precautionary measures to avoid any kind of tension over the rally.

To recall, clashes broke out between the activists of ABVP and the CPI(M)’s student wing, SFI, twice last week, in which several students from both sides were injured.

Meanwhile, the JU authorities are expected to announce later in the day the fate of the probe committee constituted for investigating the clashes. Uncertainties over the fate of the three-member probe committee had surfaced after the head of the probe committee and former vice-chancellor of Netaji Subhas Open University, Subha Shankar Sarkar, mailed to the JU authorities expressing his disinclination to head the said probe committee.

Apart from Sarkar, the other members were the vice-chancellor of the Babasaheb Ambedkar Education University, Arunasish Goswami and the Director of the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) of Presidency University, Soumendu Chattopadhyay.

As of now, the JU authorities are left with two options. The first is to get a replacement for Sarkar as the head of the probe committee, and the second option is to announce a new panel with fresh members.

For years, like Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, JU in Kolkata had been a strong bastion of Leftist students’ unions. Even during the 15 years of Mamata Banerjee-led regime in West Bengal from 2011 to 2026, all attempts by the Trinamool Congress to take control of the students’ bodies in JU failed.

–IANS

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