Kolkata: A day after the JU incident, tensions escalated on College Street as ABVP supporters staged protests outside Presidency and Calcutta Universities on Friday.Around 4 pm, ABVP activists staged a protest outside the locked main gate of Presidency University, triggering tension in the surrounding area. A group of demonstrators carried a photograph of Aurobindo and shouted “Shame Shame” at SFI supporters, who responded with counter-slogans from within the campus.Ananta Barui, a spokesperson for ABVP, said: “We are protesting against SFI supporters engaged in anti-national activities in these educational institutions. We want to ensure that anti-national activities are not permitted inside colleges and universities. Today’s protest on College Street is against the incident at Jadavpur University, where our members were attacked.”Presidency University’s students gathered at the university gate stated that it was nothing but an attempt to instigate students into a confrontation to create chaos, just like at JU.Ushashree Mitra, a political science student, said: “ABVP has opened a unit, but our general students did not bow down to them, and they have not been able to spread communal hatred inside the campus yet. They tried to instigate trouble, but they couldn’t succeed. We held an ‘Azadi Week’ against all the fake ideology they have been trying to spread, and today we had a programme as well. We are dedicated to resisting fascist attacks by them.”Zaad Mahmood, a Presidency professor, said: “As a part of the teaching community of Presidency University, it is with deep concern that we are looking at the events unfolding at Jadavpur University, where external political forces vandalized university space. The ethos of a university is its diversity. When that diversity is sought to be trampled through brute force and not the power of intellect, that causes alarm and concern. I think it should cause alarm and concern among all of us who want an educational revival.”Arnab Haldar, another professor, added: “The govt should take action to stop the tendency of outsiders, who have no connection to education, from entering educational institutions to create unnecessary trouble.”After protesting at Presidency, supporters blocked the main gate of Calcutta University and shouted slogans in a similar manner. ABVP supporters warned that such ‘surgical strikes’ would continue until they eliminate anti-national activities run by SFI supporters across educational institutions.
