Education minister Bratya Basu told the Assembly on Tuesday that a university must have space for diverse student organisations and different political ideologies, responding to a question on Jadavpur University.

He said it was not “desirable” that whenever the Trinamul Congress Chhatra Parishad dared to speak on the campus, they would be “pounced upon”.

“The SFI has its presence in JU... It is not desirable that if the TMCP attempts to open its mouth on the campus, it would be pounced upon,” the minister said.

Basu was responding to a question about the alleged attack on him by a section of students when he went to JU on March 1 to attend the programme of a pro-Trinamool teachers’ association.

The Indian Secular Front MLA from Bhangar, Naushad Siddiqui, expressed concern about some JU students mounting the minister’s car in the name of a protest but said that he was equally concerned about a student getting hit by the minister’s car that day.

In his reply, Basu said: “The campus must have space for TMCP and ABVP (the students’ wing of the RSS). We don’t have any objection to the presence of the SFI (the CPM’s students’ wing). We believe in this democratic space that will accommodate students’ organisations of different hues.”

On March 1, Basu was heckled on the campus after he went there to attend the annual general meeting of the West Bengal College and University Professors’ Association (WBCUPA).

Left and ultra-Left supporters barricaded the minister demanding immediate resumption of campus polls. The windscreen of the minister’s car was smashed.

One of the protesting students, Indranuj Roy, was allegedly hit by the minister’s car while he was trying to physically prevent the minister’s car from leaving the campus.

Since the March 1 incident, the Left and ultra-Left students painted the walls of several departments with slogans like “Boycott TMCP”.

Some of the Trinamool supporters on the campus said that after the March 1 incident, some of their supporters “were even scared of coming to the campus for fear of being targeted”.

The general secretary of the TMCP unit in JU, Tirtharaj Bardhan, said: “The Left must understand that they cannot consider the JU as their sole preserve.”

“Campus space must belong to various student organisations. They must engage in debate, not physical confrontation,” vice-chancellor Bhaskar Gupta said on Tuesday.