Once upon a time, there were Left Front governments in three states—West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala. We used to say that communism was still alive in these three states, while half a province existed in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the other half in Jadavpur University.
But after decades of political change, West Bengal has now been taken over by the BJP. The Left Front ruled Bengal for 34 years, followed by Mamata Banerjee’s 15-year tenure. In Kerala, the Congress is now in power, while Tripura is ruled by the BJP.
At JNU, too, the political culture began to change gradually after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014. The installation of a statue of Swami Vivekananda on the campus sparked considerable controversy. Some sections of the ultra-Left opposed the move because Vivekananda was a Hindu monk, despite his own writings and speeches containing references to socialism. The JNU administration has also undergone significant changes since the BJP came to power. In student elections, although the Left remains influential, the ABVP has managed to establish a presence.
But today’s discussion is not about JNU. It is about the other university of West Bengal that is now at the centre of a major controversy: Jadavpur University.
Before turning to the present controversy, it is worth recalling how Jadavpur University became a Left bastion from the 1960s onwards.
Jadavpur University was born out of the Swadeshi movement of 1905. In 1955, the National Council of Education transformed it into a university. But in 1967 and 1970, when the Naxalbari movement was raging across Bengal, Jadavpur University and Presidency College emerged as two of the major centres of Naxalite activity in Kolkata.
In 1970, Vice-Chancellor Gopal Sen was killed by Naxalite students after he refused to postpone examinations. The incident further cemented Jadavpur University’s image as a radical centre of student politics.
Then came the long Left Front era, from 1977 to 2011. The CPM ruled Bengal for 34 years. During this period, Jadavpur University’s student unions and its teachers’ association, JUTA, came under Left control.
Even the student union of the famous engineering faculty, FETSU, was controlled by the Democratic Students’ Front (DSF), an ultra-Left organisation. In the Arts Faculty, FAS and SFI were dominant, while the Science Faculty had a Left-leaning presence through WTI and various independent groups.
The Trinamool Congress’s student wing, TMCP, was never able to win control of Jadavpur University, even after Mamata Banerjee came to power in 2011. The TMC made repeated attempts to break the Left’s hold but failed.
Jadavpur is famous for its history of political protest. The university witnessed anti-Emergency protests and, in 2007, protests against the violence in Nandigram. In 2014, it became the centre of the “Hok Kolorob” movement, when the Vice-Chancellor was kept under siege for around 150 hours following allegations arising from a molestation case. The movement eventually became a national issue.
In 2019, BJP minister Babul Supriyo was also “gheraoed” at Jadavpur University.
The Left has retained considerable influence over the hostels, while teachers have traditionally remained under the influence of JUTA. The administration has also maintained the convention of a largely police-free campus, with police entry generally requiring the Vice-Chancellor’s permission. These factors have helped Left groups retain their influence.
The TMC and the ABVP—the latter affiliated with the RSS—have repeatedly tried to establish themselves at Jadavpur but have struggled to break the Left’s dominance.
The latest clash, however, took place this week between the ABVP and Left-leaning student groups. The immediate dispute centred on a general body meeting of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students’ Union. The ABVP questioned the legitimacy of the meeting, while Left-leaning groups defended it. The disagreement eventually turned violent, with several students injured. Both sides have traded allegations of vandalism and of outsiders being present during the confrontation.
But the BJP’s strategy here is not simply about whether external students were attacked or whether Left-leaning students held an unauthorised meeting. The larger issue is that there has been no authorised student union election at Jadavpur University for a long time. Even during Mamata Banerjee’s tenure, the government could have held elections but did not. The prolonged absence of student elections is unfortunate.
Mamata Banerjee, too, has not taken to the streets in a particularly active manner after the incident. She has issued a statement. But it is also true that her government never seriously attempted to confront the ultra-Left character of Jadavpur’s student politics directly.
The BJP’s intervention, therefore, cannot be viewed as something that happened abruptly.
BJP MLA from Jadavpur Sarbari Mukherjee became directly involved in the political controversy surrounding the incident. She went to the area and made strong statements against what she described as Maoist, Naxalite and “anti-national” elements. Several students and opposition leaders accused her of provoking the violence. Mukherjee later denied entering the university campus or provoking the crowd, saying that she had merely accompanied BJP youths during a peaceful assembly near the Jadavpur police station. She also said that the BJP has never been associated with the ABVP.
The BJP leadership has similarly sought to distance the party from the ABVP. State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya said that the ABVP is not the BJP’s student wing but an independent nationalist student organisation.
At the same time, a major controversy erupted over the university’s emblem. ABVP members were accused of damaging the Jadavpur University emblem and trampling on it. The emblem carries a significant memory of the country’s freedom movement, and the alleged incident inevitably became part of the larger political confrontation over the university’s Left-wing legacy.
Education Minister Jagannath Chattopadhyay has said that strong action would be taken at Jadavpur University. BJP leader and Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, meanwhile, has sought to project the university as a centre of Maoism and ultra-Left politics.
The language of the “tukde-tukde gang”, which Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders have used in the past to describe what they see as an anti-national political tendency, has also entered this debate. In other words, the BJP is once again attempting to frame the conflict as a battle against ultra-Leftism—a theme the party has also raised in connection with the recent Gen Z movement.
Therefore, the BJP appears to have a political action plan for Jadavpur University. Its objective is not merely to intervene in the latest clash but to change the university’s existing political and cultural identity and establish a different form of Hindu nationalist politics and nationalism there.
That could eventually involve a change of Vice-Chancellor. If necessary, student union elections could also be held at an appropriate time. Before that, however, there appears to be an effort to create a mood, build an atmosphere and generate a wider debate across the state over what Jadavpur University should represent.
A section of civil society has also taken out marches against the violence and alleged political interference. The BJP has argued that some of these protests were essentially Left-wing demonstrations, pointing to slogans and placards associated with Left student organisations. At the same time, a counter-march was organised under the leadership of BJP MLA Sarbari Mukherjee, which the BJP’s opponents have described as a BJP-sponsored civil society mobilisation.
The result is essentially a confrontation between two political forces, with Jadavpur University becoming the battlefield.
But the larger question remains: What is the future of Jadavpur University?
The academic standard of Jadavpur University remains strong. From comparative literature to international relations, and across several faculties in the arts and sciences, the university continues to perform well and produce strong academic results. That is precisely why the present political extremism is damaging Jadavpur University’s reputation even further. Its academic achievements should not be allowed to disappear beneath a layer of political confrontation.
Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta has also argued that instead of turning the issue into another political rivalry, there should be an effort to restore the university’s image and bring both sides to the table for discussion and dialogue so that a solution can be found.
Ultimately, Jadavpur University’s greatest strengths have always been its academic excellence, intellectual tradition and culture of debate. Political contestation has been part of its history, but the present conflict should not be allowed to destroy the very qualities that made the university important in the first place.
