BY now, we all have become familiar with RSS attacks on premier educational institutions of India. In most of them, the ABVP doesn't garner much popular support when it comes to student union elections. Yet, time and again, the RSS-BJP keeps on coming back to them, vilify the students as “anti-national” and forcibly impose their own fascistic ideals on these institutions. 

Why? Because obviously, it is of utmost importance to the BJP to capture the institutes of eminence. They aren't a mere physical force. They have a cerebral agenda in mind, and that is what neo-fascistic tendencies are all about. They very much want to utilise the infrastructure of the universities and research institutes to further their divisive agenda in academia, policymaking strata and society at large. That is why, it is a must for them to get hold of these universities, by hook or by crook, so that their ideas are validated without being questioned through the best institutions of the country.

And this is where places like Jadavpur University fail them. These university spaces are centres of debate, discussion, dissent and deliberation for decades. Quite a few of them had active roles to play in India's freedom struggle. The battleground of student politics in such institutions have always been based on conflicting ideas and ideals. Institutions like Jadavpur University are known for accommodating varied streams of knowledge through rigorous exercises of debate and discussion. They just don't blindly abide by narratives imposed by the people in power. Students here need to be convinced through dialogue. 

And dialogue, is what, the RSS-BJP fear the most. Because they know the best that their whole ideological narratives are structured on illogic and irrationality. Those are regressive, unscientific, communal, casteist, patriarchal, and quite definitely, anti-humanist. Hence, what do they do? There's a known French proverb, if you want to kill a dog, give it a bad name. Knowing that engaging in logical exchanges won't make it possible for them to win over the students, they first target the university spaces as centres that brew "anti-national" sentiments. 

Then, after spewing venom enough through propaganda media to tarnish the image of such universities in the eyes of the common masses, they launch physical attacks on such spaces and the students there. They do it because they think their acts will be validated by a portion of the society who too have by now started believing that these students are "tukde tukde gangs". In the process, they would corner the dissenting voices, create fear psychosis, and gradually occupy the spaces left by the dissenters. Once they capture the universities, it is easier for them to disseminate their ideas of illogic and irrationality through already established and recognised institutions, without much resistance.

But Jadavpur resists. Every time they come to vilify Jadavpur, and attack its soul, Jadavpur University resists valiantly. During the TMC regime in Bengal, Jadavpur University was consistently won by either SFI or some other anti-establishment forum. The TMC also had a lot to badmouth about JU students and their apparent chaotic and anarchical character. Many a time it was seen that the BJP and TMC were almost on the same pedestal when it came to bashing Jadavpur University students‌! The difference is that, the TMC termed JU as anarchic, and tried to “tame” it, but did not label it as a hub of "anti-national" activities. JU had seen major upsurges against TMC atrocities. This time, with the BJP coming to power in Bengal, it was obvious that Jadavpur would be attacked, sooner or later, with newfound zeal by the people at the helm of affairs.

It is reported that on August 19, past evening, students of Engineering Faculty convened a General Body meeting among themselves to discuss certain issues pertaining to their causes. During the TMC tenure, regular student union elections have been done away with in West Bengal. Jadavpur also has not seen a student union election in years. Hence, all student unions are officially dissolved. But that cannot deter the students from calling a GB meeting for and among themselves. When the students were having the GB meeting, a few ABVP goons reached the spot and started abusing the students by calling the GB meeting illegal. They threatened to beat the students down with sticks. The unnecessary provocation was followed by a verbal scuffle between two sides. ABVP, led by a researcher who was taken to jail for molestation cases against him previously, falsely alleged that their men were beaten up and went to a hospital nearby.

The real attacks started from here. The local BJP MLA rushed to the hospital and started uttering provocative statements against JU students. She even put the blame on SFI and CPI(M) leaders who were nowhere even remotely related, and kept threatening the Left forces for encouraging "anti-national" activities on the campus. In front of the media she was heard to say, "sararaat tandob hobe aaj" (vandalism will go on all night today). Following her reckless, irresponsible and provocative speeches, during the midnight hours, a large group of RSS-BJP thugs were seen to enter Jadavpur University campus, and vandalise the premises.

The goons were all BJP outsiders. They had no relation with the Jadavpur campus ever. These were musclemen who use to intimidate people on behalf of BJP. They were unleashed on 20^TH August past midnight to ransack Jadavpur University premises in a way so that genuine fear could be instilled in the minds of students. They tore down all tifo and flex that they could get hold of. A lot of university property was damaged. Flags of different organisations including SFI were burnt. General students who got stuck in the chaos were pushed to administrative offices and stones were pelted on them. Some innocent students were beaten up mercilessly by the uncontrolled mob. Later it was found out, the goons were guided and endorsed by a few people from within, including an ex-VC of JU, who now heads the RSS-led teachers' organisation. 

It was a complete nightmare. Jadavpur has withstood many attacks in the past. But this one probably surpassed all previous instances in terms of cruelty. The BJP thugs had no respect for the institution that has given so much to India. Jadavpur University was initially formed as a college, borne out of Swadeshi movement during the British era. Arobindo Ghosh, then an 'extremist' in the Congress during the moderate-extremist debates in early 1900s, a fearless freedom fighter before transforming to a saint, headed the institution. The college was home to many revolutionaries and freedom fighters during anti-British days. After independence, it transformed into one of the finest universities in the country over decades, with massive academic work done in all three of Science, Humanities and Engineering faculties.

The next morning, protests erupted everywhere. Thousands of Left activists and democratic people gathered near Jadavpur University in protest. The masses were blocked by BJP's police with all strength. At the same time, an ABVP rally was allowed to reach JU gates. Hundreds of students led by SFI gathered inside the campus premises, ready to resist another onslaught on their second home. The BJP-ABVP thugs on the other side of the gate tried to forcibly push in, but looking at the number of students went back in no time. Before going back, they kicked and broke the historic emblem of Jadavpur University stuck on the outer front of the gates, a logo designed by eminent painter Nandalal Bose, the same person who painted the front cover of the Constitution of India. 

Ironically, Nandalal's kin and successors were excluded out of the electoral list in the latest SIR revisions in West Bengal. For people who don't value the constitutional ethos, it is very natural that they would attack a person like Nandalal Bose, who was very close to Rabindranath Tagore. In the four months of coming to power in Bengal, the BJP has time and again belittled and insulted luminaries of our freedom struggle and progressive social movements, including Subhash Chandra Bose, Titu Mir, Sidho Kanho and poet Sukanta Bhattacharjee. Them ransacking Jadavpur University, has to be judged, in continuity with their pevious deeds. We have seen the Home Minister of India insulting Ambedkar inside the Parliament of India. We are seeing how BJP elements are gradually trying to replace Jana Gana Mana as the national anthem on India. An attack on JU, is not merely an attack on free thought, but also, an attack on the progressive legacy of our patriotic traditions. What else can be expected, from the people who played the role of bootlickers of British during our freedom struggle!

But, Jadavpur is not receding from its stance. Students and teachers of various hues and opinions, are all coming together out on the streets, hand in hand, to save their precious institution from the Fascistic RSS. RSS-BJP have been trying to tighten the rope on JU's neck for quite some time now, by blocking funds and not granting infrastructural dues to the university. The message is clear, budge or die. Jadavpur, resiliently says, No Pasaran! A public funded university has the autonomy to decide its own courses. The government cannot snatch Jadavpur's democratic legacy so easily. Jadavpur is resisting still.

We request the people of India to stand firmly in solidarity with spaces like Jadavpur University. It does not necessarily have to be an educational centre. It can be a book club, or a coffee house, or a workers' meet. Any space, that encourages debate and celebrates democratic values, can be a beacon of hope against today's authoritarian regime. The BJP has started to lose ground among the newer generations of the country. The politics of hatred and exclusion is very firmly being resisted with demands pertaining to livelihood. Soon, they will taste defeat in every corner of India. 

And spaces like Jadavpur will have a role to play in uniting the people in their journey to save our sovereign secular socialist democratic republic.