Kolkata: College, university teachers lend support to Jadavpur University students

Kolkata: After Sunday's massive student demonstration in the city, college and university teachers on Saturday lent a hand to their cause holding a protest-march against the Jadavpur University(JU) Vice-Chancellor's calling the the police inside the campus to break up a gherao.

Teachers owing allegiance to the Left-minded West Bengal College and University Teachers' Association (WBCUTA) marched from Golpark to Jadavpur super-market walking past Jadavpur University, a distance of two km, holding placards which condemned the action of Vice-Chancellor Abhijit Chakraborti.

Speaking from a makeshift stage at the end of the march, one of the participants in the procession said, "We have never seen teachers asking police to take action against their own students."

"We have seen bigger agitations in the past and there was a time when the protests were very aggressive, but even then the police was never called in inside the campus of universities or colleges," he observed.

"Students are like our children. Such action should not have been taken," said another participant. Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad (TMCP), the student wing of the party, has called a march to the Raj Bhavan from the Academy of Fine Arts in downtown Kolkata tomorrow to protest against 'anarchy' being spread in educational institutions.

"We will agitate against those who are trying to create anarchy in educational institutions. We have asked all our units to participate in the rally," TMCP president Sankudeb Panda said.

The TMCP leadership would give a memorandum to Governor KN Tripathi demanding restoration of normalcy at the JU and resumption of classes, TMCP sources said.

The TMCP would not use any flag of the union during the march, the sources said.

In the afternoon, state Higher Education Minister Partha Chatterjee went to the residence of the girl, who was allegedly molested by some students in a hostel room within the university compound.

Though Chatterjee did not talk to the media, the father of the girl later said that the minister had assured him that they would get 'justice'.