Burdwan/Asansol/Kolkata: The Opposition raised a din at the very outset of the concluding day of the assembly session on Saturday demanding a statement from education minister Partha Chatterjee over the attack on SFI-backed students on fast at
Burdwan
University. They demanded Chatterjee's resignation when the minister didn't come up with a statement.
"The
brutal
attack and the silence of the minister in the House proves that the government has got afraid of the rising dissent," said leader of the Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra.
The Burdwan district unit of SFI on Saturday organized a rally to protest against the brutal attack on agitating students on Friday night. Students on Saturday visited
the office
of the Burdwan district magistrate and demanded resignation of BU vice-chancellor Dr Smriti Kumar Sarkar, SDPO of Burdwan (sadar) Soumendra Sengupta and IC of Burdwan Sadar police station Priyabrata Bakhsi.
Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya triggered a fresh controversy on Saturday after making a controversial statement about the JNU student who had given anti-India slogans while addressing a public meeting at
Asansol
organised by Asansol (North) Assembly segment of BJP at Rabindra Bhawan. He said: "Students at JNU who raised anti-India slogans are funded by the foreign money. They are raising slogans against Kashmir where thousands of our brave soldiers have sacrificed their lives for the sake of our country."
The BU students have been agitating at the Rajbati Campus under the Hokkolorob banner. Around 10pm on Friday, Chatra Sikhshabondhu Samity president of BU Sitaram Mukherjee allegedly switched off the main power. Outsiders, alleged members of the samity, then attacked the students with bamboo sticks. At least 20 students, including few girls, were injured and some of them have been admitted to hospital.
BU registrar Deb Kumar Panja said he did not know what happened in the darkness. He, however, questioned the process of the agitation, which does not allow the varsity staffers to go home after office hours. Abhijeet Chatterjee, the third-year English (Hons) student of Hooghly Mohsin College, who has been leading the agitation, said the goons beat him mercilessly.
"We have identified at least two varsity officials - Sitaram Mukherjee and Angshuman Goswami," alleged Abhijeet Chatterjee, the third-year English (hons) student of Hooghly Mohsin College who has been leading the protest. He also alleged that the outsiders have been talking with their political bosses on cellphones and taking instructions. So far, nobody has lodged a written complaint at Burdwan Sadar police station.
SFI state committee member Binod Ghosh said the students of the union will now go for an all out agitation on this issue from Monday. "BU has to further postpone the BA (third-year) examination dates to May-June from March 28," Ghosh said.
Ghosh also claimed that when his state committee colleague Madhuja Sen Roy and other leaders went to meet Governor and BU chancellor Keshari Nath Tripathi in Kolkata on Saturday, they were arrested. The SFI claims that a powerful Trinamool minister of the district has been trying to uproot the students' movement before it becomes a state issue ahead of the polls.
At the Asansol event, Vijayvargiya said it is the duty of state government to take prompt legal action against the students of Jadavpur University who made anti-Indian slogans. He further said that if BJP comes to power in Bengal then they will send all those raising anti-India slogans to jail.
Senior BJP leaders like Dr Subhas Sarkar and Nirmal Karmakar were sitting on the podium when Vijayvargiya gave his speech.
Earlier, Kailash Vijayvargia created a controversy by claiming that Dalit scholar Rohit Vemula used to offer namaz for Yakub Memon.
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