Attacks on me, members of professors' association orchestrated: Bengal education minister

NEW DELHI: A day after being heckled by Left student activists on the Jadavpur University campus, West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu on Sunday claimed that the attacks on him and members of TMC's professor wing were orchestrated.

Talking to a Bengali TV channel, the minister said there was so much chaos and a "gang of 40-50 students" had broken the windscreen of his car and the broken glasses left him and the car driver injured.

Basu claimed that the vice-chancellor of Jadavpur University wanted to bring in the police on the campus as the noisy protests by the students intensified.

40-50 students attacked minister's car

"I was ready to talk to some of the students' representatives and told them to choose their nominees as I cannot meet 40-50 people at a time for any constructive dialogue. But they did not want to talk," he said. The minister also alleged that the protesting students climbed on the bonnet of his car.

"As their number was increasing, they turned more aggressive. The broken glasses of the car injured the driver of my car. He got panicky and started driving the vehicle after it was detained for over three hours. It was an orchestrated attack," Basu said.

The minister said he was sorry that a protesting student was injured as the tyres of his car grazed him. Basu also said he did not have any chance to see if someone from behind fell on the ground as he was being chased by a belligerent crowd of 40-50.

Basu Criticizes SFI's Call for Strike During Higher Secondary Exams

"You can say I should have waited for more hours. In case they had gheraoed me for hours, I would have shown more patience...Several members of the West Bengal College and University Professors' Association (WBCUPA) were assaulted. But the injury to a young boy is sad and unfortunate. It should not have happened," he said.

Asked whether he should have gone to visit the injured student, Basu said "Yes, I could have. But have you seen how they physically attacked the VC when he went to a hospital to meet the student? I will take some initiative to talk to his father sometime later." Basu claimed he had, in the past, asked the CPI(M) student wing SFI to sit for talks over student union polls in the presence of VC but they had backed out. "Holding a discussion with 40 people at a crowded place on such an issue is impossible," he said.

The education minister said he would hold talks with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the issue of holding student union polls, including that in Jadavpur University, as soon as possible. H

e deplored the call of student strike by SFI at university campuses and colleges on March 3, the first day of higher secondary examinations, and said, "the TMC has refrained from any big rally during the first half of the exam days so that students are not inconvenienced".