JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh’s rally request denied due to Mamata Banerjee’s roadshow

Mamata Banerjee held her roadshow against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Durgapur town on Wednesday. Ghosh sought permission to start her rally from the Asish Market area.

The West Bengal police on Wednesday denied permission to Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Aishe Ghosh to hold a rally at Durgapur in Bengal’s West Burdwan district saying chief minister Mamata Banerjee was holding a roadshow at the same spot.

JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh is scheduled to attend a series of events in Kolkata on February 13 and 14, including a march on the streets and two events at JU and Presidency University (PU). (HT PHOTO.)

Banerjee held her roadshow against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Durgapur town. Ghosh sought permission to start her rally from the Asish Market area.

“This is unacceptable,” said Mayukh Biswas, national general secretary of Students’ Federation of India, the students’ wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), of which Ghosh is a member. Ghosh is a resident of Durgapur. Her mother took part in a protest march after she was injured in an attack by alleged outsiders at JNU on January 5.

“A huge crowd had assembled for the chief minister’s rally. Another rally at the same spot would have led to chaos,” an officer from Durgapur police station said on condition of anonymity.

Interestingly, on February 9, Jadavpur University (JU) authorities said they will not allow Ghosh to address JU students on campus on February 14, five days before the students’ union elections in the three faculties of arts, science and engineering are to be held.

Ghosh is scheduled to attend a series of events in Kolkata on February 13 and 14, including a march on the streets and two events at JU and Presidency University (PU). These will be her first public meetings in Kolkata since being elected president of JNUSU. SFI controls the JU students’ union and the arts faculty students’ union.

JU teachers said the authority’s decision is an attempt to preempt any possible untoward incident, especially keeping in mind the trouble in September last year over union minister Babul Supriyo’s visit to the campus to attend an event organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the students’ organisation affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

ABVP is contesting the JU elections for the first time. In this traditional bastion of Left-wing student politics, ABVP’s presence has become visible over the past year.

Ghosh, however, held a street corner meeting later in the evening in the town.