TMC-aligned professors' body takes out rally outside JU protesting vandalism attacks

    Kolkata, Mar 4 (PTI) Three days after violence rocked Jadavpur University here during an annual general meeting (AGM) of WBCUPA, the TMC-aligned professors' body on Tuesday brought out a rally near the institution protesting the vandalism on the campus and assault on their office-bearers allegedly by Leftist and ultra-Leftist student activists.
    Members of the West Bengal College and University Professors Association (WBCUPA) vowed to organise more programmes on the JU campus.
    WBCUPA state committee member, Professor Pradipta Mukherjee, said the rally was taken out to assert the democratic right of the professors' body to hold its programme on the university campus after obtaining requisite permission from the authorities concerned.
    "WBCUPA should be given space... we are not against any student protester even if he or she had misbehaved, assaulted, heckled and abused us and the education minister during the WBCUPA meeting on March 1. After all, they are our students. They are young and have a great career ahead.
    "But we are here to protest the game plan of the Left and ultra-Left to erode the space for other organisations such as TMC in JU. We will fight it till our last breath," Mukherjee told reporters as the rally ended at Dakshinapan area in Dhakuria.
    Holding placards, around 200 WBCUPA members participated in the rally which started at 8B bus terminus in Jadavpur.
    Another WBCUPA member and senior faculty member Omprakash Mishra said, "The rally has been taken out to counter the false narrative built by CPI(M) and certain other camps about the alleged entry of thousands of TMC outsiders from the city and suburbs on the campus on March 1 to create trouble."
    "Instead, over 3,000 respected teachers from colleges and universities had attended the AGM and there were panel discussions on the threat of 'saffronisation' to education, besides other programmes," he said.
    "The provocation came from the Left and Naxal elements who are scared of losing the space to TMC on the campus," WBCUPA senior functionary and Professor of JU, Manojit Mondal, alleged.
    Protests erupted on the campus on March 1, when two students were injured after a car in Education Minister Bratya Basu's convoy allegedly grazed past them during a melee.
    The incident occurred as Left-leaning students attempted to prevent the minister from leaving the campus, demanding discussions on the conduct of student union elections which were not held for several years. Basu had gone there to attend the AGM as the WBCUPA president.
    Basu himself sustained injuries when his car's windshield was damaged during the protest. An office of the Trinamool Congress-backed non-teaching employees' union on the campus was also set on fire.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)