Intellectuals condemn police action in Jadavpur University

Kolkata: Condemning the police action on Jadavpur University students, eminent educationists and intellectuals on Wednesday said the state administration and university authorities should have been sympathetic while dealing with the students.

"The police should not have resorted to lathi charge on innocent students. They should have been more sympathetic towards the students movement.

"I myself have been part of students movement during my student days. But I have never witnessed such brutality, that too inside the campus," noted film director Tarun Majumdar said.

Majumdar, along with several other intellectuals and educationists had gathered inside the JU campus to address a citizen's convention condemning the police brutality on students last week, when the police forcefully tried to free the Vice-Chancellor from a gherao of the students.

Singer Rupam Islam had penned a song condemning the police action and expressing his solidarity with the students' protest.

Thousands of students had marched through the city's streets on Saturday last demanding the resignation of JU VC Abhijit Chakrabarti.

West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi who is also the Chancellor of the University, has already intervened to end the stalemate in the prestigious institution, where students continue to boycott classes demanding the VC's resignation. Those in the mass communication department boycotted their examination on September 18.

Students from Presidency University, Calcutta University and other educational institutions had joined the Saturday march in a show of solidarity with JU students.