War of words between Mamata, BJP over JNU attack

A war of words broke out between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and state BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Monday over the attack on JNU students. While Banerjee described the attack as a “fascist surgical strike”, the state BJP chief said that communists perhaps deserve such beating for introducing campus violence in the first place.

Speaking to journalists the Chief Minister said that “BJP goons” were sent to JNU and police was instructed to let them do what they want.

“BJP goons were sent there (BJP) and that police was kept inactive. They were told not to do anything and allow BJP to do whatever they want to. It is absolutely wrong. This is a fascist surgical strike,” said Banerjee.

Describing the assault on JNU students as a “preplanned attack on democracy”, Banerjee said that if anyone criticises them they are either dubbed as “Pakistani” or “anti-national”.

“I fell ashamed even to speak about it. They attacked democracy in such a dangerous manner in a preplanned way. If anyone speaks against them they dub him or her as ‘Pakistani’. If anyone criticises them they label him as ‘anti-national,” said Banerjee.

She also urged the students' community to stay united and continue their fight against the BJP government.

Rubbishing her allegations, the state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said that the fact that communists are getting beaten up shows that scores are being settled. He also said that it was leftist organisations like SFI who brought violence to the campus.

“It is true that communists are being assaulted in the country. But perhaps after what they have done, they deserve it. The campus is not a place for violence. But who brought violence to the campus? It was done by the communists, by the SFI...Earlier SFI and Congress did such things. Now scores are being settled,” said Ghosh.

He also said that apart from states such as Bengal, Kerala and Tripura which were once ruled by the Left or are currently under Left rule, campus violence is unheard of in any other place.

During the day several protest marches against the attack on JNU students were carried out by the Leftist students' unions as well as the students of Presidency University. During their protest march, the student of Presidency University got into a scuffle with the police as they tried to head towards the state BJP headquarters in Kolkata.