Kolkata:
There is heavy police presence this morning at the prestigious Presidency University in Kolkata, which was attacked yesterday by about 100 activists carrying Trinamool Congress flags. They roughed up students and teachers and ransacked several parts of the campus, including the 100-year-old Baker Laboratory of the Physics Department, set up by Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose in 1913.
Students say the police were there when the vandals struck at around 1.30 pm, but they just "stood by and watched, pleading that they did not have orders from above." The students described a violent mob climbing over the massive gates of the university and using a gas torch to break open locks. They allegedly carried spears and other weapons and beat up teachers and students who got in the way.
Trinamool leaders have denied that the activists belonged to its student's wing, the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad; they say it does not have a presence at Presidency. But students at the university allege that is the very reason the TMCP chose to attack their college. "It was as though we were back in medieval times," said a Presidency student about Wednesday's attack.
The Vice-Chancellor has complained to the Governor and students of the college have called a strike today in protest against the violence. "Under no political banner," they stressed.
Mamata Banerjee's party has ransacked many Left offices and attacked its leaders, exacting revenge in Bengal for her being heckled by Left activists outside the planning commission office in Delhi on Tuesday. Bengal Finance Minister, Amit Mitra, who was with her, is still in a Delhi hospital where doctors said he is better. Ms Banerjee flew back from Delhi yesterday and is now at a nursing home in Kolkata with low blood pressure and a feeble pulse, doctors said. She has been unwell ever since the attack on Tuesday and had cancelled her meetings in Delhi with the Prime Minister and Finance Minister. (
Delhi is not safe, says Mamata)
The activists who attacked Ms Banerjee in Delhi belonged to the CPI(M)'s youth wing, the Students Federation of India (SFI). They blame the Mamata Banerjee government for the death of a 22-year-old colleague in police custody.
(Mamata ignored warnings, says Delhi Police; I am LIP, not VIP, she counters)