West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Friday said his government will not allow Kolkata’s Jadavpur University campus to remain a free ground for “Maoist sympathisers” and elements seeking Kashmir’s independence, adding that he “knows the medicine to the disease”.
“You keep saying azaadi (independence). What azaadi are you looking for? Azaadi to consume heroin and ganja? You are the tukre tukre gang,” Adhikari told a large crowd that gathered outside the sprawling JU campus to attend a BJP-held mass singing of the Vande Mataram.
The term ‘tukre tukre gang’ was coined by the BJP to bracket members of Left and ultra-Left parties and intellectuals.
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Adhikari slams CPI(M), TMC
“You don’t express grief or hold rallies when 45 CRPF jawans are killed by terrorists in Awantipora and tourists belonging to a specific religion are gunned down at Pahalgam. But anti-war rallies are held when Operation Sindoor is carried out against Pakistan.”
Adhikari alleged that the CPI(M), during its 34-year-long regime, and the TMC shielded Maoist elements at JU for electoral gains. “The Maoist elements did not vote for TMC but they gave only one dividend. They raised the ‘No vote to BJP’ and ‘No vote to Narendra Modi’ slogans during elections. Mamata kept the Maoists alive for this political dividend,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Adhikari alleged that the CPI(M), during its 34-year-long regime, and the TMC shielded Maoist elements at JU for electoral gains. “The Maoist elements did not vote for TMC but they gave only one dividend. They raised the ‘No vote to BJP’ and ‘No vote to Narendra Modi’ slogans during elections. Mamata kept the Maoists alive for this political dividend,” he said.
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JU emblem damaged
He made the remarks days after a wooden JU emblem installed on one of the gates was damaged on August 20 when members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad allegedly tried to enter the campus following a clash between its members and supporters of Left student unions the earlier night.
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The university lodged a complaint, but no arrests have been made yet.
JU professor Nandini Mukherjee, who unsuccessfully contested against Mamata Banerjee in 2011 on a CPI(M) ticket, said: “He made wrong allegations. There are no Maoists in JU. It is a centre of education.”