After a midnight altercation between Left students and the ABVP, tensions at Jadavpur University are rising.

After a late-night altercation between the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) students and the left-leaning students at Jadavpur University in Kolkata, tensions increased.  A number of students from both camps were injured and admitted to the adjacent KPC Medical College Hospital.

Srijan Bhattacharya, the all-India secretary of the CPI-M-backed students’ union, denied that the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) was involved in the altercation. Instead, he claimed that the ABVP men caused unrest by funding attacks on students during the Wednesday nite governing body meeting.

Srijan informed the reporters that there were no SFI students present at the time of the event.
The conflict began on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, when the Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students Union (FETSU) and the student unions supported by the Left called a meeting of the governing body inside the campus.

Men from the ABVP demonstrated against the meeting taking place on campus and got into a fight with students from the Left. The Left student union allegedly arranged the meeting at a time when there was no elected union on the university campus, according to the irate ABVP supporters. They raised questions saying, “How did they hold the meeting when there is no notification issued by the state government for holding students’ union elections?”

According to sources, videos of a group of guys purportedly from the ABVP attempting to enter closed facilities while shouting slogans were making the rounds on WhatsApp. The fight resulted in injuries to a number of people on both sides. In order to stop the situation from getting worse, local police had to respond quickly.

The Democratic Students Organization (DSO), Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF), and Left-leaning SFI were accused by the ABVP of planning an attack under the pretence of a general assembly. However, DSO members said that ABVP engaged in vandalism and brought strangers onto campus. Sharbari Mukherjee, a BJP MLA from the Jadavpur constituency, went to KPC Medical College to see how the injured students were doing.

A member of the ABVP’s central working committee, Shubhabrata Adhikari, informed reporters that the group is demonstrating at the Jadavpur Police Station and that FIRs are being filed against a number of people.

Philosophy student and Revolutionary Students’ Front (RSF) member Abhinav Das stated, The ABVP and Nationalist Students’ Front (NSF) brought several outsiders to the FETSU meeting.” Fires were set outside the building as well as at other locations across the campus. In addition to the assaults, there were allegations of attempted mob violence and stone-pelting.

In the wake of the events, ABVP announced a protest scheduled at 11 am on Thursday. Protesting the events of Wednesday, Biswajit Roy, Secretary of the DSO State Committee, said, “Sections of the ABVP and RSS wreaked havoc in an attempt to seize the campus, tearing down flags, setting fires, and hurling abuse.”

Srijan has insisted that elections for student unions be held as soon as feasible by the state administration. The SFI national general secretary claimed that the ABVP students were attempting to incite unrest on the university campus, citing the recent event in which they allegedly damaged the statue of Lenin in Jadavpur. However, the students will not be ensnared by their tactic.