Students of the Students Federation of India (SFI), a student wing of the Marxist Communist Party (CPI -M), gathered for a strike at the University premises of West Bengal on Monday morning to demand the resignation of Education Minister Structure Basu.
On March 1, two students were injured when a car collided with a car in Basu’s convoy during an uproar at Yadavpur University. The students associated with the leftist organization demanded a discussion on holding the student union elections and tried to stop the minister from going out of the campus. He suffered injuries due to the protesters damaged the glass of Basu’s car.
The campus of Yadavpur and Presidency Universities in Kolkata remained deserted on Monday morning as common students, faculty members and other employees did not arrive here while SFI members gathered in campuses for a day strike which started at 10 am.
Officials said the campuses of other higher educational institutions like Calcutta University, Rabindra Bharti University, North Bengal University and Burdwan University were partially impressed and some classes were not held despite the semester examinations were held.
However, unlike Yadavpur and Presidency Universities, the number of SFI workers was seen in these premises.
Activists of Trinamool Students Council, a student branch of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), were also seen in the premises.
The strike has not yet affected the movement of vehicles as SFI activists have not disrupted road traffic and school students reached various examination centers across the state without any problem. The 12th grade examinations of the West Bengal Board also started on Monday.
Basu went to Yadavpur University to attend the annual general meeting of ‘West Bengal College and University Professor Association’ (WBAPA) on Saturday.
SFI State Committee member Shuwajit Sarkar alleged, “Outsiders who have been sheltered by TMC on Saturday in the presence of Basu, provoked violence and sabotage in the Yadavpur University campus during the annual general meeting of WBAPA.”
The Shuwajit government said to ‘PTI’, “The students wanted to discuss the education minister only in the presence of the Vice Chancellor, but he (the minister) behaved indecently and tried to go out of the campus in anger.”
