Artistes join students' protest against JNU violence in Kolkata

The protest rally, that began at College Street which is also known as "boi para" and ended at Jorashako Thakurbari in north Kolkata, was almost wrapped by the banners and posters slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government which rules the Centre.

Singer-filmmaker-actor Anjan Dutt, who walked the stretch, said, "I feel all people need to stand against the BJP-VHP at any cost. I will be present at any meetings of any political party to protest against the BJP. It is our responsibility to fight against BJP."

Dutt's son Nil, who is a singer by profession, fully subscribes to the statement of Nobel Laureate economist Abhijit Banerjee who said the JNU violence echoed the days when Germany moved towards Nazi rule under fascist Hitler.

"The seeds have been sown. This egoistic government just wants power," Nil said.

About 20 odd people including JNU Students' Union president Aishe Ghosh and Professor Sucharita Sen were on Sunday injured after a huge number of people armed with sticks, rods and sledgehammers barged into the university campus, girls' hostel and carried out an attack at a time the students were protesting against the fee-hike. 

Young actors Riddhi Sen and Surangana Bandyopadhyay, who didn't witness the emergency period in 1970s under then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, feels the ongoing situation is the worst they have been into in their lives.

National Award winning actor Riddhi told IBNS, "We are almost moving towards a period which we haven't seen and that is the emergency period. I was listening from my father and my parents about the emergency period.

The important thing is when a government attacks educational institutions, nothing can be more shameful than that."

In similar words, Surangama said, "This is the worst I have ever seen in my life. They (BJP) want to repress people who do have minds. This is because they want to spread religious extremism in the country."

Though Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students' wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is blamed for the violence, far-right wing Hindu Raksha Dal claimed responsibility for the attack and said they will repeat Sunday's action if "anti-national activities" in universities continue.

Reacting to it, actor and theatre personality Kaushik Sen said, "There have no other way but to threat."

In an unsparing attack on BJP state president Dilip Ghosh who has justified the vandalism in JNU and the attack on students, Sen said, "The BJP and RSS fear the students. Dilip Ghosh is a tremendous uneducated person. It is better to speak less about him."

Considering the filing of a First Information Report (FIR) against JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh, a resident of West Bengal's Durgapur, for allegedly vandalising JNU's server room as even more than "arrogance", filmmaker Anik Dutta said, "We are quite accustomed to see the attacker is framed and put into police custody while the genuine culprit gets escorted. We have also witnessed this in our state continuously."