Babul Supriyo gheraoed at Jadavpur University for hours

Chaos ensued at Jadavpur University in Kolkata on Thursday after Union Minister Babul Supriyo was kept gheraoed and allegedly heckled by a section of students for nearly six hours.

The situation became as such that West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar rushed to the campus and left with Supriyo in his vehicle. Even the Governor’s convoy was blocked by the students for nearly one and half hour.

Tension was brewing at the campus since Supriyo arrived there in the afternoon to attend a seminar organised by ABVP inside the campus. The Union Minister was stooped from entering the campus by members of the Students Federation of India (SFI), the students wing of the CPM and the Arts Faculty Students Union (AFSU). They also shouted “go back” slogan and showed black flags to the Minister.

After the initial scuffle Supriyo managed to enter auditorium inside the campus to attend the seminar. Things took a turn for the worse when the Minister tried to leave the campus after the seminar concluded. Hundreds of students blocked his path demanding that he must apologies for his alleged offensive behaviour with them. The agitators announced that they will not allow the Minister to leave the campus until he apologizes to them.

During his heated exchange with a section of students, Supriyo alleged that he was slapped, pushed and abused. However, the students denied the allegation and accused him of provoking them with insults.

Tension started to increase after a large number of ABVP and BJP workers gathered outside the campus and started agitating. The students union room was allegedly vandalised by the supporters. Vice Chancellors Suranjan Das tried to pacify the students but his efforts turned out to be futile. Das was later admitted to a private hospital.

A visibly agitated Supriyo termed the behaviour of the agitating students as “deplorable.”

“I have not come here to indulge into politics. But the way the students heckled me is extremely unfortunate. They (the students) pushed me and pulled my hair,” said Supriyo.

At around 7 pm the Bengal Governor reached the campus. He also faced protest by agitating students. The reached Supriyo and got into his vehicle with him. However, the agitating students blocked the Governor’s convoy for more than an hour. Governor was finally able to leave the campus with Supriyio at around 8.15 pm.

Earlier in the day, the Governor’s Office issued a statement terming the gherao of Supriyo as “unlawful detention.”

“The Governor takes the incident very seriously as it involves unlawful detention of a Union Minister and this is a very serious reflection on the law and order of the State and on the conduct of the law enforcing agencies,” said the statement.

It further stated that the Governor has taken a “very serious view” of the incident has spoken to the Chief Secretary Malay Kumar De in this regard.