Vice-chancellor in hospital, Jadavpur University students firm on demands
Telegraph | 7 March 2025
The Jadavpur University vice-chancellor was admitted to hospital on a day students had set a 4pm deadline for him to come to the campus and accept their demands, which included filing an FIR against the education minister whose car allegedly hit a student on March 1.
They also demanded that the VC take immediate steps to resume campus elections.
On Wednesday, the students stuck to their demands.
One of the protesters was heard saying the ailing VC should find an alternative way to discuss their demands.
Education minister Bratya Basu who went to meet VC Bhaskar Gupta in the hospital on Wednesday evening wondered how the students could expect a person in hospital to come to the campus.
He said the demand exemplified the prevailing “anarchy” on the campus.
“They are saying that a VC has to meet them from the hospital bed. If this is the essence of the demand that at a time the doctor has advised him complete rest, he has to come out of ICU to meet them, you must understand what amount of intolerance, inhumanity and anarchy is prevailing there. This (JU) has almost become a fortress. It has become an open turf for lawlessness,” Basu told reporters after stepping out of RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences in Mukundapur.
“Those who are making this demand, what if their family members were in hospital? Could they have demanded the same?”
When Basu was told that one of the demands was filing an FIR against him because his car allegedly hit a student on the campus, Basu said: “The administration will handle it.”
Basu went to JU on Saturday to attend an annual general meeting of a pro-Trinamool teachers’ organisation.
When a section of ultra-Left students wanted the minister to discuss the campus election demand with as many as 40 students, Basu declined to oblige. As he was exiting the campus, his car allegedly hit a student who was trying to prevent the minister’s SUV from leaving.
The student, Indranuj Roy, is admitted to KPC Medical College and Hospital.
On Wednesday afternoon, Indranuj’s father Amit Roy came from the adjacent hospital to walk in a protest march on the campus organised by the Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association.
The protesters demanded the restoration of campus elections and protested the “attack on students” on March 1.
Amit said the state government should withdraw the cases slapped against students like Indranuj. The allegations include arson and vandalism.
Amit said: “The administration must understand that the students had been forced to launch the protest that many have called undemocratic because their democratic demands, like campus elections, have been curbed for long.... I want the cases against my son and others be withdrawn.”
Basu called Indranuj’s parents on Monday to say he was sorry for what had happened.
During the conversation, Amit urged him to drop the cases and the minister told him he would look into it.
When Metro asked Amit if students could set a deadline for the VC to discuss their demands and threaten to lock JU’s administrative headquarters if their demands were not met, he said: “They are agitating because their legitimate demands have been disregarded by those in the administration. Whatever they are doing is a reflection of their pent-up anger.”
A hospital official said VC Gupta was admitted with high blood pressure and dizziness. “The pressure is coming down but it is still higher than normal. He underwent an MRI. A blood test was done.”
Arindam Biswas, one of the two doctors under whose care the VC is being treated, said: “He had a haemorrhagic stroke in 2015. He has come out of it and has since been leading a normal life. Over the past two days, we have been giving medicines to normalise his blood pressure. Any surge in pressure can lead to fresh haemorrhage. As the pressure could not be contained, he had to be admitted.”