Two rallies were held in the city on Sunday in connection with the ongoing unrest at Jadavpur University.
One of them was organised by Abhaya Mancha, a platform which was constituted in the wake of the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9 last year.
The other rally was organised by the BJP.
The rally by Abhaya Mancha started from Hazra and terminated at Ranuchaya Mancha near Rabindra Sadan.
Apart from condemning the injury of a student who was allegedly hit by the car of state education minister Bratya Basu, the rally reiterated its demand for justice for the RG Kar postgraduate trainee who was raped and murdered last August.
The rally, which started at 4pm, was attended by teachers, doctors and theatre
artists.
Those who walked carried posters with “Banglar meye Abhaya hatyar sat maas, mantrir garir chakay shikkhar sarbonash” (seven months have passed since the murder of Abhaya, the education minister’s car has crushed education) written on them.
When minister Bratya Basu had visited Jadavpur University on March 1 to attend a meeting of a pro-Trinamul teachers’ association, his car allegedly hit JU student Indranuj Roy who was physically blocking the minister’s car.
Some JU students who are supporters of the Left and the ultra-Left organisations on that day barricaded the minister, demanding immediate announcement of the campus polls schedule.
Monalisa Mohanta, 40, a political science teacher at a government college, said: “Students are one of the stakeholders of any educational institution. Ensuring their safety is the foremost duty of the institution. But at JU we have seen that the education minister’s car ran over a student.”
“Students only sought a meeting with the minister over the campus polls that have been stalled by the state government over the past five years. Why could not the minister listen to what they had to say?” she added.
Tamanas Chaudhuri, a doctor and a member of Abhaya Mancha, said the students should be given some space to talk.
“The movement pressing for the resumption of campus polls should go on. However, the movement must not disrupt the exams and classes. The institution is a place to study,” he said.
Some JU students have been staying away from classes and examinations as a mark of protest against the alleged assault.
Asita Sen, a theatre artist who walked in Sunday’s Abhaya Mancha march, said: “No one wants to boycott classes or sit in a movement for days but the students were forced to do so. Students are entitled to have a full-term vice-chancellor in the university and exercise their voting rights to form their students’ council. But they don’t have a full-term VC. Campus elections have been withheld as well.”
JU does not have a full-term VC over the past two years.
The BJP rally started around noon near Navina Cinema Hall on Prince Anwar Shah Road.
Calcutta High Court fixed the route of the rally that was attended by Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition in the Bengal Assembly.
Calls to break the nexus of the Trinamul Congress and the CPM were raised in the rally that terminated near Jadavpur police station.
“Whatever unfolded on the campus on March 1 was scripted by the TMC in consultation with the CPM. The Trinamool did this to give the CPM some space in politics as they are scared over the rising popularity of the BJP in Bengal,” said Adhikari.