Lotus for VC, ‘Jai Shri Ram’ flags pop up at JU, staff body seeks ‘Naxal-free’ campus
Telegraph | 6 May 2026
Saffron flags fluttered at Jadavpur University on Tuesday, many bearing the slogan “Jai Shri Ram”.
A group of university staff members moved around the campus carrying the flags. They handed a lotus in bloom to vice-chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee and attempted to apply a saffron tilak on his forehead. The VC declined the tilak and accepted the lotus.
A day after the Assembly election results, JU offered glimpses unfamiliar to the 71-year-old campus.
Areas around Milan da’s canteen and the arts-science intersection leading to gate No. 4 were dotted with flags of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the RSS.
Members of the West Bengal University Karmachari Parishad said they were preparing a list of demands to place before the VC. “Get rid of the Naxalites,” tops the list.
Palas Maji, state general secretary of West Bengal Universities Karmachari Parishad, said: “Our leader Amit Shah said India had to be rid of Maoists by March 31, and took steps accordingly. Similarly, we will tell the VC to take steps to rid the campus of Naxalist elements. The Prime Minister recently said JU was a seat of ‘anarchy’, not learning.”
“This anarchy in the name of freedom will not be tolerated any longer,” he told Metro.
At an election rally in Baruipur on April 24, Narendra Modi had described JU as a hub of “anti-national slogans”.
The employees’ list of demands also includes setting up a police outpost on campus and making it mandatory for students to carry IDs.
On March 12, 2025, Kolkata Police had sought space from JU to set up an outpost and barracks to “maintain a safe and secure environment… for smooth academic activities”.
“We will ask the police to do whatever they deem fit to control the anarchy on the campus,” said Dibakar Nashkar, a non-teaching employee. “Graffiti like ‘Azad Kashmir’ cannot be written anymore,” he added.
In December 2025, JU had informed Calcutta High Court of its opposition to setting up a police outpost on campus. Police action on the campus on the night of September 16, 2014, had triggered the students’ Hok Kolorob movement, leading to months of unrest and culminating in the resignation of then VC Abhijit Chakrabarti. Since then, JU has been reluctant to call in the police.
“We expect renewed pressure on the university administration to agree to a police outpost,” said a JU official.
VC Bhattacharjee said on Tuesday: “No demand has been placed before me regarding a police outpost. If such a proposal comes, we will see. The JU administration had last year whitewashed graffiti that read ‘Azad Kashmir’.”
On April 28, 2025, a section of students had demanded the removal of the graffiti.
Indranuj Ray, JU unit president of the ultra-Left Revolutionary Students’ Front, said: “The BJP supporters are trying to create a reign of terror on the campus. They are demanding that a police outpost be set up to intimidate students. We will resist.”
Ray was injured in March 2025 after allegedly being hit by a car carrying then education minister Bratya Basu during a student protest.