The Jadavpur University Union room that was ransacked and vandalised by miscreants, allegedly supported by the BJP and ABVP, on September 19 is being salvaged slowly. The students have been putting the pieces back together — one at a time. But it will probably take the Durga Puja vacation — October 5 to October 13 — for the damaged rooms to be reinstated to its previous state.
"The furniture had been damaged, the computers in the room were destroyed completely, they defaced the wall and even a part of the ceiling had been affected. The repairs alone should take a fortnight," said Debraj Koley, a student of the Department of Film Studies. The miscreants allegedly broke into the Arts Faculty Students' Union room on September 19 and destroyed pretty much everything. They had written ABVP on the walls and a local BJP leader, reportedly, shared the photo on social media, calling it 'purification'.
"The goons had burnt our books, torn certificates and documents which were in the bags. We had thought that the union room is a safe place to keep our belongings but they invaded that safe place as well. We are still recovering from the shock. The authorities know about the damage that has been caused and they will take steps soon. Maybe the week we have our Durga Puja vacation will be used for the repairs," added Debraj.
The vandalism and violence happened in the backdrop of Union Minister of State Babul Supriyo's visit to the university. He was invited for a freshers' meet organised by the ABVP. The left student organisations demonstrated against his presence calling him 'fascist' and thus began the scuffle that led to Babul being detained on campus by the students for three hours. The minister was physically assaulted, his hair was pulled and he retaliated. Things went out of control in no time and the Governor had to intervene to get Supriyo out of the university.
As he was about to be rescued, some unidentified individuals vandalised shops outside the campus that the students frequent assaulted students who were present there and burnt bicycles outside Gate 4. Some of them, allegedly, got in and vandalised the union room. Bystanders confirmed that these people were definitely not students. "There were people around 30 years old. Some even looked 40. They were definitely not students. I have seen them loitering around the locality before," said Ananta Choudhuri, a local businessman who was witness to the whole ordeal.
