Steps against Jadavpur University campus ‘anarchy’ after the HS exams: Bratya Basu
Telegraph | 8 March 2025
The state government would firmly deal with the “anarchy” that is prevailing on the Jadavpur University campus after the higher secondary exams, education minister Bratya Basu said on Friday.
“We will end this anarchy prevailing at Jadavpur University. The administration has not taken lightly the way some hooligans carried out vandalism on that day (on March 1 when Basu went to the campus). I can tell you this much,” Basu told Metro on Friday.
“We are waiting for HS to end and then will take steps.”
The HS exams began on March 3 and will go on till March 18.
The minister, however, did not specify the steps they are planning to take.
“No decision has been taken on this yet. Definitely we will do it democratically. This kind of lawlessness... I am again daring them, these Left and ultra-Left activists, to exhibit such anarchy in a BJP-ruled state,” he said.
JU is witnessing unrest since Basu’s visit to the campus to attend a meeting of a pro-Trinamool teachers’ association on March 1.
Basu’s comment came a day after a criminal case was lodged against him and others based on an email complaint by Indranuj Roy, who was allegedly hit by the minister’s car.
Asked why it was important to deal with the anarchy firmly, Basu said: “It is important to bring down the tensions on the campus for the sake of those students who come to JU to study and not to pursue politics of any hue. Campus unrest starts in JU even over the issue of installing CCTV cameras. The office of the VC remains gheraoed for days.”
“Students can hold discussions with the university administration over keeping certain places outside the ambit of CCTV surveillance. But how can they object to bringing the campus under CCTV surveillance when there is a Supreme Court directive?” he asked.
When JU decided to set up CCTVs on the campus and in hostels in September 2023, following the death of a first-year undergraduate student who was allegedly ragged at the JU Main Hostel a month earlier, students protested the move, arguing they were opposed to surveillance.