A section of Jadavpur University employees affiliated to the RSS-backed West Bengal University Karmachari Parishad marched across the campus on Monday to celebrate the BJP’s victory in Bengal.

The employees carried saffron flags and chanted “Jai Shri Ram” and “Rashtrabad-er jai hok (victory to nationalism)”.

The employees started their march at the arts-science intersection on the campus, a usual protest site for the Left-backed JU teachers and students.

After starting the walk around 1pm, the employees moved around the campus before terminating their march at Aurobindo Bhavan, the administrative headquarters of JU.

The RSS-affiliated employees’ association held its procession on the campus three days after the RSS-affiliated teachers’ association, Akhil Bharatiya Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh (ABRSM), reaffirmed its presence on the campus and asked the JU authorities to engage with them as well before taking any important decision.

The back-to-back programmes by those associated with the RSS, from which the BJP emerged, suggested a
subtle shift in the balance on the campus, where Left-backed teachers’ and employees’ associations had held sway for years.

At Aurobindo Bhavan, leaders of the Karmachari Parishad said that while they believed in co-existence with those owing allegiance to different ideologies, they would “not tolerate any anti-national activity”.

“Such activities will be crushed with full might,” said one of the leaders.

At an election rally in Baruipur on April 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had described JU as a hub of “anti-national slogans” and said this image needed to be corrected.

Palash Maji, state general secretary of the Karmachari Parishad, said they would also not tolerate “anti-national graffiti”.

Graffiti denouncing “Operation Kagar” — an intensified anti-Maoist military campaign launched by the Indian government around 2022-2023, aimed at eliminating Naxalism from the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border and "Azad Kashmir" — was painted on a JU wall.

“JU started with a spirit of nationalism ushered in by Rishi Aurobindo. Since the 1980s, the campus has descended into anti-national activities, which is reflected in the graffiti. This will not be allowed. The campus cannot promote anti-nationalism,” Maji told Metro.

He said they were in favour of setting up a police outpost on campus and making it
mandatory for students to carry IDs.