Kolkata: Political temperatures shot up in the metropolis on Friday as political activists and students hit the streets, a day after Union Minister Babul Supriyo was heckled and assaulted by radical Left students in Jadavpur University for hours, following which ABVP workers went on a rampage and vandalised a students union room.
The radical Left students took out a three-kilometer long march from the university campus to Gol Park protesting against ABVP's "vandalism" and the manner in which the Union Minister "provoked" students on Thursday.
Students from the varsity's arts, engineering and science faculties took part in the march.
They alleged that on Thursday, Supriyo made sexist remarks and "went on provoking us".
The students representing radical Left associations and the CPI-M affiliated Students Federation of India (SFI) had originally planned to shout "go back" slogans and show black flags to the Union Minister, but things got out of hand when Supriyo pushed some students, they said.
The students said they were "worried" over their security and "deeply pained" by the vandalism let loose by the ABVP on Thursday evening.
"The SFI's union room has been vandalised, and the furniture, ceiling fan, and computers smashed. The wall of the room has also been defaced. They also beat up a shop keeper with rods and sticks and threw stones at us," said a student taking part in the march.
The SFI organised a protest rally from Dhakuria to the university campus - a distance of about two kilometres - in solidarity with university students and for resisting "fascist hooliganism in the campus".
"One Union Minister came to the campus and provoked and incited the students. The BJP's hooligans damaged the union room. They carried BJP and ABVP flags, acid bulbs, bamboo poles and rods. They beat up people," said SFI leader Samanyay Raha.
The ABVP, on the other hand, held a sit-in at the base of Mahatma Gandhi's statue in central Kolkata's Dorina Crossing demanding the resignation of the university Vice Chancellor and arrest of all those who assaulted Supriyo.
"We will continue the sit-in till our demands are met," said an ABVP activist.
Denying that their activists had vandalised the union room or beaten up anybody, an ABVP member alleged that that the Leftist student activists themselves did the act to put the blame on his organisation.
Meanwhile, the BJP brought out a rally from its headquarters at Muralidhar Sen Lane. Party's state General Secretaries Sayantan Basu and Raju Bandopadhyay led the rally.
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BJP leader threatens leftist "mercenaries"
Kolkata: A senior BJP leader in West Bengal on Friday threatened to beat up the leftist "mercenaries" who assaulted union minister Babul Supriyo in Jadavpur University and said he would have been happier had the attackers been roughed up on Thursday itself.
"I don't know whether any of the attackers were beaten up. If those who attacked Babul Supriyo were beaten up, then I would have been happier.
"The uncivilised Leftist mercenaries of Jadavpur University who assaulted Babul Supriyo should have been flung on the ground and beaten up. The beatings will start today," state BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu told the media while taking part in a protest march organised by the BJP from its state party headquarters here.
Basu alleged that the Left activists had attacked Supriyo with the 'active cooperation' of the police and administration.
"Had the governor not rushed to the university, we wouldn't have been able to get back Babul alive," he said.
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Charge his assaulters, Babul challenges Mamata
Kolkata: Terming the Left student activists as "cowards" who had assaulted him in the Jadavpur University campus, BJP leader and Union Minister Babul Supriyo on Friday virtually challenged West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to charge them for the assault and said no one should be allowed to "malign and tarnish" the name of the institution.
"These cowards will not be allowed to malign & tarnish the image of #JadavpurUniversity .. U shall be found out by us soon but don't worry, you shall not be treated in the manner you treated me," Supriyo said in a series of tweets, a day after he was heckled, slapped, punched and detained for hours by Left students in the campus.
Posting video footages of the assault, Supriyo identified a bearded youth and said "Identify of this Naxalite.. is he a JU student? Even if it's a yes, he has no business inciting a mob in the manner he did ... #TrueFootageOfJU #JadhavpurUniversity"
