Left-Trinamool scuffle spreads to multiple districts in West Bengal

Jadavpur University students hold protest rally to condemn violence against fellow students and demand the resignation of West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu on March 3, 2025
| Photo Credit: DEBASISH BHADURI

Clashes erupted across several colleges and universities across West Bengal on Monday, as student activists associated with Left parties and Trinamool Congress supporters engaged in scuffle and violence.

The development came as the students’ unions had called for a strike across higher educational institutions in the State demanding the resignation of West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu

Clashes were reported at the University of North Bengal, Vidyasagar University, Murshidabad University, and the district of Cooch Behar where Left and Trinamool activists came face to face and were seen pushing and shoving each other. Trinamool workers were also seen attacking female students in Medinipur College. Several activists of the All-India Democratic Students’ Organisation (AIDSO), the student wing of SUCI (Communist) were detained by the police in Cooch Behar district

Srijan Bhattacharya, a leader of Student Federation of India said that the strike called today was part of democratic right of students and despite certain differences all the Left students union have come togather in supporting the agitation. “ The demand of holding students elections in universities and colleges is a rightful demand of student community and the SFI will support it,” Mr. Bhattachrya said.

Campus deserted

Kolkata’s premium government institutes like Presidency and Jadavpur University campuses remained deserted. Department doors remained shut; students did not enter classrooms in solidarity with their injured peers. 

A Students’ Federation of India (SFI) member makes a picture of the students who were injured when a car in the convoy of Education Minister Bratya Basu grazed past them during a melee in Jadavpur University (JU), amid a strike demanding Basu’s resignation, at JU gate, in Kolkata, Monday, March 3, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
PTI

Students at Jadavpur and Presidency also held rallies raising slogans condemning the violence against students and police action against them. 

Jadavpur University Teachers Association (JUTA) did not support the strike, but their General Secretary Partha Pratim Roy told The Hindu, “We support students’ demand for a union and condemn police harassment.” 

This comes after Mr. Basu’s car ran over a student inside Jadavpur University on Saturday. The students on campus were seen demanding a meeting with Mr. Basu to negotiate about holding student union elections which have been withheld for the past five years. 

After Mr. Basu refused to hold talks, the protests turned violent. Both students and teachers alleged that they were harassed. Mr. Basu was on campus to hold a meeting of the West Bengal College and University Professors’ Association (WBCUPA), a body affiliated to the Trinamool Congress. 

Police inaction

On Monday, a Public Interest Litigation was filed at the Calcutta High Court alleging police inaction while handling the protests and incidents of violence inside the JU campus on Saturday. 

The Kolkata Police on Sunday had already filed seven First Information Reports (FIRs), including two suo motu FIRs, and arrested an alumnus for the vandalisation of the university. 

There was anticipation that the student strikes in universities would cause disruption for class 12 higher secondary examinees whose exams began on Monday. But no such incidents of protests leading to hindrance for examinees were reported. 

Senior CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty and former MLA were locked up in their Baruipur party office by Trinamool workers. Trinamool workers surrounded the party office and put locks and chains on the doors. Mr. Chakraborty reacted to the heckling and said, “The party which can run over students, what better can be expected of them?” 

West Bengal Congress State President Subhankar Sarkar also went to meet Indranuj Roy at the hospital, the first-year student who came under Bratya Basu’s car and sustained major injuries.