Mou Chakraborty & Subhendu Maiti
Kolkata, April 9
Classes were held as usual in Jadavpur University (JU), despite a state-wide students’ strike called by the SFI protesting against ransacking in JU a few days ago. However, in SFI-dominated colleges and universities, students were not able to attend classes.
While, classes were disrupted in some colleges, students of Jogesh Chandra College and Medical College attended classes after a clash with SFI supporters, during which 2 SFI supporters were hurt. The strike had no impact in Bengal Engineering and Science University, Presidency College and Visva Bharati University. Students in SFI-dominated Rabindra Bharati University, Ashutosh College, South City College did not attend classes.
“We had told earlier that students of this university would foil the strike called by SFI. They cannot get cheap publicity at the expense of a university where they have no mass base. The verdict has been delivered today,” said Amit Chakraborty, the spokes person for all the three students union of the university — Arts Faculty Students’ Union (AFSU), Science Faculty Students’ Union (SFSU) and Faculty for Engineering and Technology Students’ Union (FETSU).
The SFI however claimed that the students’ strike was successful all over the state. The SFI supporters met Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi and chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and handed them letters. “We have demanded that the state government should take action against them and the chief minister promised that he would look into the matter and take appropriate action,” said Sudip Sengupta, state president of SFI.
The SFI on Monday, identified 9 students of the university as the culprits responsible for ransacking the Science Club and the non teaching employees’ union office on April 9, which also includes the names of those involved in breaking the Lexus Motors showroom a few months ago following the unrest in Singur.
About 300 RAF personnel were employed in JU since Monday morning to avoid unpleasant incidents. The non-teaching employees’ union, which has about 1,700 members, had also gone on indefinite strike on Monday. Thus, students who had arrived in JU, hoping to attend classes found the classrooms locked.
“Our teachers helped us open the classrooms in the morning. Some classes could not happen because the locks of the classrooms could not be opened. But most of us attended the classes,” said Chakraborty. While classes were held in the science and engineering streams, students of the history, political science and English departments in the arts stream attended classes.
The teachers of the university under — Jadavpur University Teachers Association (JUTA) — today organised a sit in demonstration protesting the April 5 incident, but they also took classes. JUTA has also submitted a letter to the vice chancellor S.K. Sanyal, urging him to restore peace in the campus.
However, trouble might erupt on Tuesday, when the SFI will organise a meeting with non-teaching employees, teachers, and SFI supporters from the city to restore peace in the campus. The anti-SFI students’ unions that are in power right now in JU will have none of it. “Those responsible for the massacre at Nandigram cannot talk about peace. We would definitely take some step if SFI tries to organise any such meeting in our campus and would even consider staging a class boycott on April 10,” said Chakraborty.
mou.hindustantimes@yahoo.com
sbhendu.maiti@hindustantimes.com
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