‘India will stop being India if protests stop’, says Mamata Banerjee on Jadavpur University fracas

india

Updated: Sep 23, 2019 16:42 IST

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday waded into the Jadavpur University controversy where Union minister Babul Supriyo was allegedly assaulted last week, saying the people of Bengal have seen what they BJP and its students’ wing ABVP did at the institute.

“I believe protests are important in a democracy. The day protests lose their value, India will stop being India. Democracy still exists in Bengal while there is no democracy at a few places. We have seen what happened in Jadavpur University,” ANI quoted her as saying at a trade union meet in Kolkata.

“They try to use wield power everywhere, bulldoze everything,” Banerjee said, according to PTI.

Supriyo’s visit to Jadavpur University on September 19 sparked a five-hour drama with the Union minister being heckled and manhandled by a group of students. He was also stopped from leaving campus before West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar rescued him.

But Dhankhar’s rescue operation came under fire from the TMC which described his intervention as “most unfortunate and shocking”.

On Monday, Banerjee who also heads the Trinamool Congress criticised the BJP for “undermining democratic values” in the country and said the BJP is not talking about job losses or the economic slowdown and only wants to serve its own political interests.

The university’s Arts Faculty Students Union has filed a police complaint against Supriyo, accusing him of misconduct during his visits on Thursday.

Supriyo on his part, tweeted the picture of his alleged attackers pulling his hair and then assured the student’s mother that he won’t take any step against her son.