A war of words erupted on Friday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticised the Trinamool Congress (TMC) for the state-run Jadavpur University (JU) falling into “anarchy”, leading chief minister Mamata Banerjee to accuse him of insulting “meritorious students” at the centre of excellence.
The high-decibel face-off over the university came as top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the TMC addressed more than a dozen rallies and road shows across seven districts, including Kolkata, that go to polls in the second and last phase on April 29.
Addressing a rally in Jadavpur, PM Modi said the university was once held in high regard around the world.
“Its foundation was laid on the spirit of nationalism. Look at the situation now. Students face threats. Anti-national posters are put up,” Modi said at a rally in the Jadavpur constituency.
“We don’t want anarchy but an academic atmosphere. How can a government that can’t save its biggest university save the future of the state and its youth?”Modi said.
Banerjee promptly hit back in a post addressed to PM Modi on X.
“Pained to ask: is this the way how you describe the meritorious students of the esteemed Jadavpur University? Is this your concept of decorum and courtesy? Jadavpur University has been receiving top ranks from your Government’s NIRF ranking framework year after year, and you descend to insult that centre of excellence? You stoop so low?” she said.
She said JU students had earned their place through merit and walked out with degrees, with intellect, with the ability to question.
“That is not anarchy. That is education and that is excellence. Anarchy is not students raising their voices. Anarchy is using bulldozers as instruments of power instead of justice. Anarchy is when farmers die and their voices are crushed. …Anarchy is dividing a nation along religious lines for votes…,” Banerjee wrote.
She followed up at a rally in Howrah district hours later, insisting that PM Modi had insulted the entire student community.
JU has been a seat of Left politics for decades, and has seen demonstrations against the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in Assam and various actions by the Centre as well as the Mamata Banerjee government. In recent years, the students’ body has resisted attempts by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), to establish a base on the campus.
In the urban areas of the seven south Bengal districts, including Kolkata, JU is among the top choices for students pursuing higher education in the humanities, science, and engineering because of its low course fees.
JU construction engineering department professor Partha Pratim Biswas, who is contesting Kolkata’s high-profile Tollygunge seat for the CPI(M), said JU students raised questions against the Left Front too when it was in power.
“Year after year, JU has topped the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) merit list as a state-aided institution. It topped the list this year as well. Such performance is not possible without an academic atmosphere.The Prime Minister shouldn’t have dragged JU into electoral politics,” Biswas told HT.
PM Modi started his day early with a boat ride on the Ganga at Kolkata’s Babughat and posted photos and videos on social media.
Mamata Banerjee targeted him for this as well.
“Did he check the pollution level in the Yamuna river in Delhi? Will he take a dip there?” Banerjee said at a rally in Howrah, declaring that the BJP was a party that could not be trusted.
“They fought the Bihar elections keeping Nitish Kumar in front. After the polls they removed him. This is BJP,” she said.
The back and forth between the BJP and the TMC came a day after the Election Commission of India reported 92.35% voting on the 152 seats that went to polls in the first phase on April 23. The two sides also sparred over what this record voting implied.
Union home minister Amit Shah said they had made an assessment.
“Out of those 152 seats, we will win 110. After March 5, Anga (Bihar) Banga (Bengal) and Kalinga (Odisha) will come under BJP rule. This will ensure development in the entire eastern India right up to the north-east,” he said at a Press conference.
Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, also made similar claims.
“TMC hit the century yesterday. See what comes next. I have a message for the Home Minister: If you have the courage, stay in Bengal on the afternoon of May 4,” said Abhishek on Friday.
Later in the evening, Mamata said the TMC would win seats that it never even expected to win.
“I monitored the polls till 2.30 am. People voted in such large numbers because of the torment they faced during SIR (special intensive revision of electoral roll). They voted to protect their democratirc rights. Some seats that we never expected to win will come to us now,” Banerjee told voters at her Bhabanipur constituency,
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