Last month we reported the massive student movement that followed the crackdown on students in Jadavpur University , who were on hunger strike demanding revocation of the unjust suspension of 5 students of the Engineering faculty. Then, the authorities were upholding the students’ suspension as just punishment for ‘violence’ in an agitation two years back. In what is a major vindication and victory for the student movement, the suspension of those 5 students has now been revoked. However, the LF Government continues to deny the police brutality and sexual harassment on student activists. Answering the accusations in the Assembly, CM Buddadeb Bhattacharya claimed that an enquiry had been conducted, and that no police excess had occurred. In fact, he said, the police had acted to safeguard the health of the hunger- striking students. As for the accusations of sexual abuse by police, he denied that too. He insinuated that the girl in question, Chandrasmita, had been found at midnight on the hunger strike spot ‘clinging to one of the male students’, and that the police had to apply some force to separate them!
However, the students’ struggle for justice continues. When the President of India visited Jadavpur recently, AISA activist Chandrasmita broke the security cordon to give him a letter from the students, demanding justice and punishment for the guilty University, Government and police officials.
Soumitra Bose recreates the spirit of the student movement of Jadavpur.
“The man of the government fears the man on the street, because the man of the street is always on the verge of becoming a political man” - Blanchot
The university of Jadavpur, for at least a hundred years or so, has been the hot bed of consciousness, and now again students created a “festival of protest and upsurge” on the campus, which spilled over onto the streets of Kolkata.
Since the time the social democrats came to power in West Bengal , very interestingly the elite colleges of the state never toed the government’s line. Jadavpur and especially the Engineering faculty had always left a radical mark among the students. The social democrats could not manage it, could not contain it and therefore wanted to quell all movements within Jadavpur University . The suspension of 5 students for a two-year-old agitation and the proposal for a ‘code of conduct’ banning political activity and free movement on the campus was part of this plan. Students, however, protested it and began a fast unto death.
The day after the police crackdown on their hunger strike, the students started gathering even though it was a weekend. Students outside the realm and pale of any organization came together spontaneously. The cadres of the social democrats were thrown out, they were publicly heckled and had to leave the premises. The Arts Faculty traditionally ‘belonged’ to Students Federation of India - students wing of the social democratic party, but this time the entire Arts Faculty rejected that organization, and formed a different forum. Spontaneous rallies and impromptu conventions took place almost every hour. Jadavpur became a veritable pilgrimage of civil society. All academic activities and classes were brought to halt. The next day West Bengal saw a spontaneous student general strike throughout the state.
Students of all the premier institutions joined in; painters came in, creating graffiti, singers sang in the streets, poets recited their poems in protest, celebrities joined the sit-in with the students and even top echelon employees of the students walked on the streets in the scorching heat. Those who despised politics came out on the streets- “Rastai yakmatro Rasta! [The highway is our only way!] .
Kolkata writes history again, the history of rebellion, of protest, of standing for a cause, of standing up against atrocities and repression. Once again we saw Jadavpur up there with Sorbonne of 60s, Berkeley of 70s, Presidency of 70s and those of the entire world of once-upon-a-time.