Suvendu leads Vande Mataram rally, vows crackdown on JU 'threat culture'

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Friday warned a section of Jadavpur University (JU) students against what he described as a “threat culture” prevailing on the campus and said his government would end it.

The chief minister said his government would restore nationalism and the state's cultural traditions inside and outside the university campus.

He accused the erstwhile TMC government of allowing nationalism to fade from public consciousness during its 15-year rule, while alleging that West Bengal’s traditions had been destroyed in the 34-year-long Left Front era.

The chief minister was addressing a programme in which ‘Vande Mataram’ was sung by 10,000 people outside the JU's south Kolkata campus.

Adhikari alleged that the university had long been influenced by communists who, according to him, had distanced students from Independence Day, Republic Day, Indian and Bengali traditions and the country's cultural heritage.

“In their homes, you would never find pictures of Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay or Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar," he claimed.

The CM also criticised the TMC, alleging that the party had reached an understanding with sections of students for electoral gains.

Explaining the alleged political benefit of such an arrangement, Adhikari said, “There was only one dividend. When elections came, they would say, ‘No vote to BJP, no vote to Narendra Modi’. The former chief minister, who lost to me twice, would reap the benefit. That is why this force was kept alive here.”

By "former chief minister", Adhikari was alluding to TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.

Claiming that students had been forced to participate in protests and raise slogans unrelated to their stated causes in the past, he said this practice would not continue under the present government.

He claimed that during a recent protest march linked to the NEET issue, students were taken from hostels against their wishes and threatened with consequences similar to those faced by a student from a poor family in Ranaghat.

Though the CM did not elaborate, he was probably referring to a student who died after falling from the second-floor balcony of the Jadavpur University main hostel in 2023, allegedly during ragging.

“There were no slogans about NEET in that march. There were no slogans about making India prosperous. There were no slogans against Mamata over the theft of 26,000 jobs. What was the slogan - Azadi,” he said.

Questioning the meaning of such slogans, Adhikari wondered whether they meant freedom for the tukde-tukde gang and to consume drugs.

He also criticised those students who did not protest after attacks on security personnel and civilians in Jammu and Kashmir but took to the streets during Operation Sindoor demanding an end to military action.

“When CRPF personnel are killed by terrorists, when people are killed in Pahalgam for being Hindus, they do not take out marches,” he said.

Adhikari also referred to slogans and graffiti allegedly seen on the Jadavpur campus, including “Red Salute Kishanji” and “Free Kashmir”.

Koteshwar Rao, better known as Kishanji, was a senior Maoist leader who died in a gun battle with the police in November 2011, months after the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC came to power in West Bengal.

“Kishanji called for a boycott of elections, opposed the Constitution and advocated dividing India from Gomati to Godavari,” he said.

“Are you raising slogans like ‘Kashmir mangey azaadi’ and ‘free Palestine’? Why? Before talking about Palestine, write ‘Free PoK’... Remember, we will definitely take back Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK)," Adhikari said.

Ninety per cent of the students of Jadavpur University are nationalists and patriots, yet some groups wearing Che Guevara T-shirts force ordinary students to join rallies, Adhikari said.

He warned that the government would act against anti-national and anti-social activities on the campus.

"The time for settling accounts has arrived. Either they will remain or we will. There is nothing in between. I will fly drones. I will see where cough syrup and narcotic substances are being taken. I am the police minister. I know how to clean up the garbage,” Adhikari said.

The programme, attended by thousands despite heavy rain, was organised to strengthen what Adhikari described as the bond of nationalism.

Standing barefoot with the national flag during the rendition, Adhikari said, “I called for 10,000 voices to sing Vande Mataram to strengthen the bond of nationalism. Thousands of people were standing in the rain. Respecting the national flag, I also joined them.”

He said the event marked the culmination of his Raksha Bandhan programmes, which had begun earlier in the day at Ambedkar Colony in Alipore.

Adhikari also recalled his earlier visit to Jadavpur University during a protest against ragging, claiming that some people had climbed onto his vehicle and raised “go back” slogans.

He claimed that two people detained in the incident were later released on the instructions of the then state home minister.