JNU row: Left Front, Congress hold joint protest march in Kolkata

Congress and Left Front, joined by several intellectuals, took out a protest march here today against the arrest of a student leader in JNU on "sedition" charges.

The march was convened by state Congress general secretary Om Prakash Mishra and was attended by senior party leaders Somen Mitra, Pradip Bhattacharya, and Abdul Manan.

Senior Left Front leaders Manju Kumar Majumdar(CPI), Ritabrata Banerjee (CPI-M)), Sujan Chakraborty (CPI-M)) and Naren Chatterjee (Forward Bloc) attended the march, which began at College Square and ended at Esplanade.

"We've organised this protest march against the police action and the fascist mindset the BJP government and the RSS. This rally does not belong to any political party so we are not carrying any party flags," Mishra said.

Most of the state leaders of both the parties have expressed their opinions in favour of an alliance for the coming Bengal assembly polls.

The JNU Students' Union President Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on February 12 in connection with a case of "sedition and criminal conspiracy" over an event at the varsity against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

Ritabrata Banerjee said, "We (CPI-M) have been fighting against an undemocratic atmosphere ushered in by TMC in Kolkata for the last five years. Now we are witnessing an autocratic regime in New Delhi too. So we are here cutting across party lines to protest against semi-fascist terror of BJP and RSS."

Asked why the TMC was not invited in the march, Mishra said, "We didn't invite anybody. Any party which is in favour of democracy and secularism has joined us. Had TMC believed in democracy they would have joined."

Theatre activist Kaushik Sen who was present at the march too lashed out the RSS and BJP government saying they are trying to curb the democratic rights and freedom of speech in educational institutes.