Kolkata: An enormous rally of at least 200 ABVP workers and BJP leaders including actress Roopa Ganguly were barred from entering the campus of Jadavpur University on Thursday.
They were stopped by the police almost 150 metres away from the campus, to maintain law and order situation in the area and Section 144 was imposed, following which roads connecting the university were barricaded.
A section of professors and students of Jadavpur University formed a human chain to put up a united front opposing the entry of the ABVP activists. “The people united shall always be victorious”, the students went round the campus for hours.
The protestors were waving the tricolour as well as party flags, and posters labelling the Leftists as “desh drohi” (traitors), slogans of “Make our campuses free of desh drohi Leftist student unions” and “Jis ghar se Afzal niklega, us ghar mein ghus ke marengey” echoed through the area. They also urged people to protest against the “Communist traitors”.
They march from Golpark in south Kolkata to the university about three km away.
The rally, held in protest when the students of Jadavpur University raised pro-Afzal slogans while staging a protest in solidarity with the JNU students on Tuesday.
The supporters of ABVP allegedly clashed with the Jadavpur University union students after they resorted to tearing posters reading “anti-national slogans” on Wednesday.
Bengali actress Locket Chattopadhyay said. “We won’t allow any anti-national activities and anti-India slogans in educational institutions.”
A student taking part in the rally called by the Leftist students’ unions said. “The way our campus was vandalised on Tuesday is unprecedented. This is not the culture of the university. We have to stand up against saffron terror and the fascism that is being brought down on the country by the Narendra Modi government in Delhi.”
Police kept a keen on the participants of the rally, and the officials were recording the each move of the rally and sending the live feed to the control room.