BJP MP Swapan Dasgupta, Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty and others were confined for six hours in a building of the Visva Bharati in West Bengal on Wednesday as hundreds of Left-leaning students staged a sit-in outside accusing the politician of promoting hatred among communities.

The students were protesting the vice chancellor’s decision to invite only a BJP spokesman to the lecture and not speakers with different points of view.

Advertisement

Dasgupta was invited to deliver a lecture titled “CAA 2019: Understanding and Interpretations” as a part of the Visva Bharati Lecture Series at the Lipika Auditorium of Santiniketan.

The students were also reportedly miffed as the lecture was conducted on a day when at least ten trade unions had called a nationwide strike against the “anti-labour” policies of the Government as well as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR).

The duo finally left the central university campus at Bolpur in Birbhum district after the students withdrew the sit-in around 10 pm, university sources said.

Following protests by CPI(M) students” wing Students Federation of India (SFI), the venue was shifted to another auditorium of the social work department at Sriniketan.

However, around 45 minutes after the lecture started, agitating students reached the department, shouted slogans and the programme was disrupted.

As he was locked-up inside the building, Dasgupta tweeted: “How does it feel to have a mob attack a peaceful meeting on CAA and intimidation students? This is what is happening to a meeting I am addressing at Vishwa Bharati now. Locked into room now with mob outside (sic)”.

How does it feel to have a mob attack a peaceful meeting on CAA and intimidation students? This is what is happening to a meeting I am addressing at Vishwa Bharati now. Locked into room now with mob outside.

— Swapan Dasgupta (@swapan55) January 8, 2020

“There is a howling mob outside itching for confrontation,” he tweeted some hours later.

There are nearly 70 people locked inside a room in Vishwa Bharati, Santiniketan, for the crime of attending an official, university-convened lecture by me on CAA. This includes the VC. There is a howling mob outside itching for confrontation. pic.twitter.com/3eLBHPdIHT

— Swapan Dasgupta (@swapan55) January 8, 2020

“Drama ends in Vishwa Bharati without the confrontation that some protesters desperately wanted,” Dasgupta again posted on his Twitter handle shortly after the agitating students dispersed.

In the evening, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya expressed concern over the situation and asked the state government to arrange for the safety of Dasgupta.

Vijayvargiya put out a video on social media warning of severe consequences if any harm was done to the BJP MP.

Taking to Twitter, the Governor said: “Such anarchy and failure of law and order is worrisome.”

“The incident is reflective of worsening situation of law and order in the State. It is of serious concern that Governance is taking a back seat. Time to take a serious look at this,” he added.

The varsity’s SFI unit leader Somnath Sau said the students withdrew the sit-in after talking to their teachers at 9 pm.

“However, members of a Naxalite student wing refused to budge from the spot. To my knowledge the Naxalite students also withdrew the stir an hour later,” he added.