Rajya Sabha MP of BJP Swapan Dasgupta was held captive for nearly 6 hours inside a seminar room in West Bengal by student protestors belonging to Students’ Federation of India and Trinamool Congress.
Crux of the Matter
BJP Leader Swapan Dasgupta was invited to West Bengal’s Visva Bharati University by its Vice-Chancellor to deliver a lecture on “CAA 2019: Understanding and Interpretations”.
The lecture was held at Lipika Auditorium of the University. When Dasgupta arrived at the venue, students started protesting and raised a slogan of ‘Go Back‘.
Venue was then shifted to the Social Work Department. Student protestors entered the premises while the lecture was going on. They sat on dharna and locked the doors of the hall that had more than 50 people inside including Dasgupta and Vice-Chancellor.
Students agitated because they wanted the lecture to be delivered by people of varied opinions on CAA.
Few faculties of the University had written to the VC. They asked him to change the date of the seminar because of the Bharat Bandh and to change the one-man lecture into a panel discussion that contains people with diverse perspectives.
One of the lecture committee members said that the committee was not consulted while inviting Dasgupta.
“It was not a party or political platform. It was a programme as part of a lecture series. Now if somebody wants to attack this, it shows they are not interested in a democratic discussion. I had expected a good debate, and also wanted those opposed to the legislation to put forth their stand,” said Dasgupta.
The tension relieved when the University administration talked to the protestors and captives were let free at 10:00 PM.
Curiopedia
2014 Jadavpur Protests – On 16 September 2014, peaceful demonstrations by students took place in front of the administrative building of the Jadavpur University, demanding an investigation into the molestation of a female student in campus. Following several unsuccessful attempts at dialogue with the authorities, the students gheraoed some personnel of the University authority, including the Vice-Chancellor, Abhijit Chakrabarti. The Vice-Chancellor called the police. The subsequent police brutality unleashed upon the students in the early hours of 17 September triggered a wave of protests by students and teachers. More Info
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