Jadavpur University students threaten shutdown over March 1 incident

Students of Jadavpur University are on an indefinite sit-in in front of the institute’s administrative building to press for their demands.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Protesting leftist students of Jadavpur University on Friday (March 7, 2025) threatened a complete shutdown of the institute’s administrative work from 2pm on March 10 if the management failed to immediately engage in discussions with them to resolve the impasse following the March 1 incident.

Two students were injured after the car of West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu and another accompanying vehicle grazed past them during a left protest on the campus.

The students — belonging to CPI(M)’s wing Students Federation of India (SFI), SUCI (Communist)’s All India Democratic Students’ Association (AIDSO), Naxalite Revolutionary Students’ Front (RSF), and Naxalite All India Students’ Association (AISA) — are on an indefinite sit-in in front of the institute’s administrative building to press for their demands.

Demands of students

They urged the university administration to take concrete steps to restore confidence, which they argue can only be achieved if the university becomes pro-active in addressing the situation.

SFI’s JU unit leader Russel Pervez told PTI, “If no one from the JU administration sits for talks with the agitating students after 2 pm on March 10, we will effect a total shutdown of the administrative building for an indefinite period.”

“The demands of the students include the immediate withdrawal of ‘false, fabricated cases’ filed by police against some of the student protesters in connection with the March 1 incident, the university becoming a party to the FIR lodged against Basu and his driver for allegedly trying to drive through the human chain formed by students to discuss their issues, bearing medical expenses for the two injured students and ensuring that student union polls are held at the earliest,” Pervez said.

“We have not been able to establish any communication with the university authorities since the incident. If the officiating VC is unwell, we want other institutional heads to immediately sit for talks with us. All the student fronts—except TMC’s student wing TMCP and RSS’s ABVP—remain united,” Mr. Pervez said.

Civil society members join students in protest

The students, joined by civil society members and rights groups like APDR and ‘Abhaya Manch’ a platform of activists—who were on the warpath demanding justice for the R G Kar victim—took out a rally from the administrative building on the campus to Gol Park, over 2 km away, and returned to the campus, chanting ‘we demand justice,’ and ‘JU will not bow to threats of right-wing, undemocratic forces.’ The general secretary of Jadavpur University Teachers Association (JUTA), Parthapratim Roy, told PTI, “We appeal to the students to ensure academic activities — classes and semester exams— and research work are not affected in any way.” “We wish for immediate resumption of talks between the two sides,” Roy said.

He, however, felt convening the executive council meeting without the presence of the VC is not possible as per the statute of the university.