IC may urge Buddha to stop 'SFI violence'

KOLKATA: Independents Consolidation — the apolitical students' group that has not been able to make it to the Presidency College union this time — is likely to appeal to chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to intervene and stop the "SFI-sponsored" violence on the campus.
The college union elections were held on Friday and SFI won. Violence surrounding the elections erupted on the campus the next day when the panel for the college union was being elected.
The college follows an indirect voting system.While all the undergraduate and postgraduate students vote and elect the class representatives, it is the latter who then vote to elect the office bearers of the union. The latter process was on when trouble broke out between the IC and the SFI on Saturday morning. Two students owing allegiance to the IC were severely injured and had to be hospitalised. They were released on Sunday. IC has lodged an FIR with the Jorasanko police against three SFI students who had "brutally" beaten them up.
The IC has convened a general body meeting on Tuesday (the college has been kept closed on Monday by the principal), to decide on the next course of action. However, on Sunday, the general consensus was that IC would meet both the governor and the CM and seek their intervention. "We will appeal to Bhattacharjee to look at the problem as a former student and not as a CPM leader. Presidency College should not become identical with campuses where bombings and political violence are routine," said Chhandak Chatterjee, IC spokesperson.
The IC has complained that SFI activities on the campus are guided by former students and SFI supporters from other campuses and it is these people who help the college unit perpetrate violence. Among the names that are likely to be given to the CM are that of Saptarshi Deb, son of state housing minister, Goutam Deb, and Hiya Mukherjee, daughter of state tourism minister, Manab Mukherjee — both former students of the college and SFI leaders, who are still reportedly involved with the college union matrices. It was alleged that during Saturday's violence, Saptarshi was seen on the campus along with scores of outsiders and police did nothing to stop them.
"The principal has even said these outsiders made it to the campus on their own might. How can the supreme authority of the college speak like this?" Chhandak asked.
There is a lot of division in the SFI ranks, too, and cross-voting has reportedly happened because of this. The two SFI groups were apparently engaged in fights throughout the elections and it is said that on Saturday, one faction even voted in favour of the IC class representatives. When the IC supporters taunted the SFI over this, brawls broke out and a boy, Deborshi, was cornered by SFI supporters and severely beaten up. The SFI unit president Sushanto Ghosh has vehemently denied this and the fact that there are divisions in its ranks.
Amal Mukhopadhyay, former student and principal of the college, denounced Saturday's student conflict in the college. "This is sending a very wrong message. This is the time to show restraint and the students have behaved irresponsibly. The college is about to be upgraded into a university and I recommend a system when the college union becomes an apolitical body. Party politics has always been the bane of the college," Mukhopadhyay said.
Governor M K Narayanan is also worried about campus violence and will discuss this at a meeting on Monday with senior police officers, including commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti, special commissioner-I R K Pachnanda and deputy commissioner (special branch) Partha Sarathi Ghosh.
"A probe was initiated after we received a complaint and counter-complaint. But no one has been arrested so far," a senior police officer said.