Days after clashes broke out at Jadavpur University that left a student, Indranuj Roy, injured, Trinamool Congress (TMC) supporters dug up his Facebook posts professing Maoist ideology and glorifying Maoist guerillas killed by security forces to highlight how the SFI-the student wing of the CPI(M)–was collaborating with the Maoists.
While the students’ protests were centered around demands for conducting student union elections, which have not been held since 2020, the identity of the injured student, Indranuj Roy, soon became the focal point of the TMC’s narrative. Roy belongs to the Revolutionary Students’ Front (RSF), which adheres to Maoist doctrines.
What followed was a concerted campaign branding Jadavpur University as a breeding ground for anti-national activities. The TMC, BJP, and right-wing groups seized the opportunity to vilify left-leaning student activists, while sections of the media amplified the narrative by portraying the campus as a hub of extremism, drug abuse, and separatist sentiments.
The intense media scrutiny, fueled by sensationalist narratives, further distorted the situation, overshadowing the original grievances of the students and misrepresenting the protests as part of a larger, dangerous agenda.
After Republic Bangla labeled Jadavpur University (JU) a hub of pro-Pakistan separatists, its crew members began chasing JU students, staff, and officials, demanding answers about alleged "anti-national activities." In response, some crew members were forcibly removed from office rooms they had entered without permission.
Some students also filed police complaints against Republic crew members, accusing them of physical harassment. Student activists shared video footage showing Republic journalists attacking individuals who were recording their activities on mobile phones.
What Really Happened At Jadavpur University?
Jadavpur University, one of India’s top academic institutions, has been in turmoil since March 1, when clashes broke out between leftist students and supporters of the state’s ruling party, chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s TMC.
The TMC alleged that an ‘ultra-left Naxal gang’ heckled education minister Bratya Basu on the campus. Leftist students claimed that Basu’s car tried to run over demonstrators demanding long-pending student body elections. An office of the pro-TMC non-teaching staff was set on fire, allegedly by leftist students.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliates, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), quickly entered the fray, branding JU as a “hub of anti-nationals” and a den of drug addicts.
On the day of the incident, Indranuj Roy, sustained serious injuries, including deep cuts near his left eye and fractures in his leg and hand. Students alleged that he fell under the wheels of Basu’s car. Basu, on the other hand, claimed that he had to escape an attack on his vehicle. The acting vice-chancellor, Bhaskar Gupta, who visited Roy in the hospital, later went on leave after being heckled by students.
A viral photo of a student lying in front of the wheel of Basu’s car was cited by leftist groups as proof of an attempted run-over, drawing parallels to the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri incident in Uttar Pradesh, where a a BJP leader was accused of running over protesting farmers, killing four of them.
However, TMC leaders contested the claim, alleging that the image in circulation is suspicious, arguing that the original video footage from which the screengrab was supposedly taken has not been found. “It’s a screengrab, but where’s the video footage?” TMC spokesperson Debangshu Bhattacharya asked.
Meanwhile, TMC supporters circulated videos allegedly showing leftist students attacking Basu’s car.
Basu was on the campus to attend the annual conference of the TMC-backed West Bengal College and University Professors’ Association (WBCUPA), which included discussions on resisting the BJP’s saffronisation of education at the national level. Following the incident, multiple FIRs were filed against both leftist students and pro-TMC professors, including the education minister.
The last action came following a court order.
As leftist student groups staged statewide protests demanding Basu’s arrest, TMC and right-wing factions intensified their campaign against JU.
‘Urban Naxal’ and ‘Surgical Strike’
A barrage of screenshots of the injured student’s Facebook posts started going viral —painting the student as a Maoist sympathiser—soon after senior politicians like the CPI(M) state secretary Mohammad Salim and CPI(ML)(Liberation) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya visited him at the hospital.
Speaking to BOOM, Arnab Saha, WBCUPA, associate secretary, alleged that extremist students had planned the attack on Basu in advance. He drew attention to Roy’s Facebook post on March 1 afternoon, calling upon “all democratic and progressive organisations, human rights defenders” to rush to the campus to “resist”.
“About 3,500 professors from all parts of the state had gathered at JU for the conference, but Roy alleged that more than a thousand ‘TMC goons’ and ABVP cadres had gathered at the campus. Tell me, what does he mean when he refers to the professors as ‘TMC goons’?” Saha asked. “It’s unfortunate that the CPI(M) supported the ultra-left’s agenda just to stay relevant.”
It was a perfect political opportunity. Not wanting to miss the chance, two new players joined the anti-Maoist bandwagon and pitched their anti-JU rhetoric much higher than the TMC’s.
On one hand, ABVP threatened to conduct a “surgical strike” to weed out “anti-nationals.” Surgical strike refers to the Indian army’s September 2016 military action targetting terror bases in Pakistan in response to the terror attack in Kashmir’s Uri.
In a social media post on X (formerly Twitter), BJP legislator and state unit general secretary Agnimitra Paul wrote that Roy had called for the “destruction of our country BHARAT” and was “clearly supporting the Maoists.” She pointed out that Salim visited Roy at the hospital in a show of solidarity and criticised the TMC for failing to act against the alleged Maoist influence on the campus. Paul contended that the Maoists, the CPI(M) and the TMC “are hand in gloves.”
Meanwhile, the CPI(M) pointed out the hypocrisy of the TMC, which had allied with Maoists during the 2008-2011 Lalgarh movement to weaken the Left Front government.
The Media Jumped In
The media joined the chorus, spearheaded by Moupiya Nandy, deputy editor of Kolkata TV, which is known for its pro-TMC coverage. Journalists of Republic Bangla, known for its pro-BJP coverage, were not far behind.
In a Facebook post on March 2, Nandy wrote, “In the name of free thinking, a campus is being turned into an urban Abujmarh.” Abujmarh refers to the dense forests in Central India's Chhattisgarh, where the banned CPI(Maoist) has long had a strong base.
Nandy highlighted JU’s leftist students’ confrontations with former BJP Union minister Babul Supriyo in 2019, former Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the state Assembly, to argue that by prohibiting all opponent politicians’ entry to the campus, the JU students had created a Maoist ‘liberated zone’ like Abujmarh.
Among leftist organisations active on the campus are the SFI, the Democratic Students’ Front (DSF),the Progressive Democratic Students’ Front (PDSF), the All India Students’ Association (AISA) and the RSF. JU students and teachers, however, say that Maoist-linked students are fringe forces on the campus.
On March 10, TV news channels like Republic Bangla, Zee 24 Ghanta and Calcutta News focussed their coverage on one particular slogan that they spotted among a sea of slogans and wall graffiti on the campus: They found “Azad Kashmir” written on a wall of the technology building.
Republic Bangla ran a series of news and opinion capsules, alleging that the tukde tukde gang (the Hindu nationalist lingo for separatist forces) was planning to split India sitting on the JU campus. A show descriptor said, “SIMI, ISIS connections are being found” and asked if JU was “the biggest threat to India’s sovereignty.” It also asked whether the central paramilitary forces should not close down the campus and clamp down. A March 10 show was headlined: “When will the authorities act to uproot the trees of venomous ideology?”
Another Republic Bangla report showed what they claimed to be empty liquor bottles found inside the campus. They also claimed to have found empty foils of contraceptive pills.
On March 11, Republic Bangla lead anchor Mayukh Ranjan Ghosh said, “One Jadavpur can create 100 Kasabs. Educated devils are dangerous. Is JU working for Pakistan’s ISI?” Ajmal Kasab was a Pakistani terrorist, the lone surviving member of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack that killed 166 people, who was executed in 2012.
Old Trend
The trend of branding JU’s left-leaning students as addicts started in 2014 when CM Banerjee’s nephew and TMC youth wing leader Abhishek Banerjee alleged that the JU administration’s crackdown on consumption of liquor and ganja on the campus was the real reason behind protests against the vice-chancellor. He was referring to the student agitation that became known as the Hok Kolorob movement and resulted in the vice-chancellor’s resignation.
The ABVP began pushing the "anti-nationals” hub narrative aggressively from 2016 onward, with frequent clashes between right-wing groups and JU students. By 2019, demands for a "surgical strike" on JU became a recurring theme in right-wing discourse.
BJP state unit president Dilip Ghosh, who was then a Lok Sabha MP, called for a “Balakot-like surgical strike,” referring to India’s military action on terror groups in Pakistan following the Pulwama terror attack.
In 2023, following the death of a student in the hostel allegedly due to ragging, TV channels like Zee 24 Ghanta, Aaj Tak Bangla and others showed condoms at some corner of the campus and empty liquor bottles in some other, dubbing the JU campus as ‘oporadher muktanchol’, a liberated zone for criminals.
In 2023, Suvendu Adhikari demanded a crackdown like the one on Khalistani separatist movement to free the campus from “anti-national tukde tukde gang and rackets of alcohol, ganja, charas and opium.” Adhikari also petitioned the Calcutta high court, seeking a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into Maoist networks on the campus. The court, however, did not entertain his plea.
According to a JU professor Partha Pratim Roy, general secretary of Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA), the main reason the institute faces such adverse campaigns despite consistent academic excellence is that the political activism on the campus has kept the autonomous institute beyond the control of all ruling parties.
“JU students have traditionally remained anti-establishment and criticise all governments. JU was not under the ruling forces’ control during the CPI(M)-led Left Front’s rule and has not been under the TMC government’s control either. That’s what ruling parties dislike,” said Roy.
He thinks the key reason behind the adverse campaign is to divert attention from the government's failures.
“These people never raise concerns when JU lacks funds for infrastructure or when research grants are cut. They remain silent when student body elections are stalled. Instead, they manufacture controversies to distract from the real issues plaguing the university,” he said.
