Row over Saraswati Puja continues in Kolkata college, minister faces student protest

Kolkata: West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu on Sunday faced protests by a group of students of a Kolkata college, who alleged that outsiders led by a Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) leader threatened them for organising Saraswati Puja on the institute campus.

Following a row between two groups of students in Jogeshchandra Law College premises over organising the Puja, the Calcutta High Court on Friday asked the Kolkata Police to ensure that the ceremony can be held by law college students with adequate security.

Matters came to a head on January 29 when students of the law college, majority of them women, alleged they were being prevented from organising the puja on college premises by members of TMCP led by ex-student Sabir Ali and even faced rape threats by them.

One of the girl students then moved the Calcutta High Court seeking its intervention and the judge ordered that the students must be allowed to celebrate the festival and asked a top-ranked official of Kolkata Police to monitor their security posting enough personnel at the college gate.

One general college and a law college are run in the same building at different times of the day. Students of the two colleges have been separately organising the puja on the same campus for years. The situation, however, is different this year.

Basu, who was accompanied by local Trinamool Congress MP Mala Roy, was greeted by 'We Want Justice' slogans from the female students as he went inside the law college campus and met them.

"I am here to talk to you. None will coerce you, terrorise you or threaten you. If anyone has issued any threat, we will take strong action against him," the education minister said.

Several of the female students broke down before him and alleged that while entering the college, they were threatened with assault and rape by some "outsiders".

"I have met the students, I had a darshan of the idol and offered prayers. I have assured the students we will look into their grievances and appropriate action will be taken after inquiry, Basu said.

He said he would meet them and the college authorities on February 5-6 to discuss the issues.

Rejecting the allegations, Ali said, "We are organising the Saraswati puja of the day section in the adjacent lane of the college. No threats have been issued against anyone. They cannot show any such video (of issuing threats)." He also added that being an alumnus of the day college, he has every right to be part of the Saraswati Puja.

Mala Roy said, "Saraswati Puja is not the occasion to shout slogans demanding justice.” The MP said she and the education minister visited both puja pandals erected by the students of the two colleges.

“There has been no provocation or aggression shown by the Saraswati puja organises of the day section. Everything is being conducted as ordered by the honourable high court in the presence of the police.

“There are reasons to suspect that those demanding justice are backed by political elements who want to disrupt the academic functioning of the law college and foment trouble during the Saraswati puja," she said.

Senior minister Firhad Hakim said that in West Bengal, occasions like Saraswati Puja and Durga Puja are both social and relligious events where people from different communities take part with equal gusto.

“But some forces are trying to disrupt the prevailing communal harmony in the state. They want to vitiate the atmosphere by using isolated incidents of squabble between two individuals. Their political ploy will never succeed," Hakim said.

Leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP alleged that West Bengal is turning into Bangladesh as Saraswati Pujas are being organised under the watch of police.

“I ask all devout Hindus to be united and foil the game plan of radical Islamist elements sheltered by the TMC," Adhikari said.