Protest by Jadavpur University students is publicity stunt: BJP

Asserting that the slogans raised by the students of Kolkata's Jadavpur University demanding freedom from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is 'shocking', the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said the incident is nothing but a mere 'publicity stunt'.

"The protest against the RSS is nothing but a mere publicity stunt. It is strange to see everything but studies taking place in such universities across the country," said BJP MP Roopa Ganguly, condemning the protest.

Ganguly also urged students to gain recognition in the 'right light', rather than through these protests.

"The youth should start working and earn for themselves," she told ANI.

The students of the University were seen holding placards which read: "Yogi is the new Trump...Brahminical version of white supremacy" and they raised slogans like "Azaadi", "Halla Bol" and "RSS door hatao".

The Azaadi slogans were raised by the students in front of the Academy of Fine Arts where an international seminar on persecution of minority Hindu Buddhist Christians in Bangladesh is going on.

"This protest is against the RSS' conducting of seminar on the issue of minorities in Bangladesh. We think the same RSS which has been the reason for the deaths of thousands in Godhra, in Muzaffarnagar cannot address the minority issue. We doubt their credibility; rather we think they are here to evoke communal sentiments and pitting one against the other. So we are protesting here," Debopriyo Som, a student and United Students Democratic Front (USDF) member told ANI.

Posters calling for 'azaadi' for Kashmir, Manipur and Nagaland were put up at Jadavpur University (JU) earlier in February only to be torn down by ABVP activists, who allegedly vandalised the university complex on Wednesday.