'Azad Kashmir', 'Free Palestine' Graffiti At Kolkata's Jadavpur University Sparks Row

Graffiti proclaiming "Azad Kashmir" and "Free Palestine" was found on the wall of Jadavpur University has sparked a major controversy.

Jadavpur University.

At one of India’s famous universities in Jadavpur, 'Azad Kashmir' and 'Free Palestine' graffiti were spotted in one place, which has triggered a massive row. According to news agency PTI, most of the exams and classes were held in Jadavpur University as per schedule on Monday.

According to the report, the alleged entry of the 'plainclothes police personnel' on the university campus, coinciding with that of a professor linked to the ruling Trinamool Congress, also did not go down well with a section of the students and teachers.

In the varsity campus, protests were being held for the past few days where two students were injured after the car of state Education Minister Bratya Basu and another accompanying vehicle allegedly grazed past them during a left protest on the campus on March 1. According to PTI, an FIR has been filed against Basu and professor and TMC leader Om Prakash Mishra in connection with the violence.

On the wall near gate number three of the university, graffiti in black proclaiming 'Azad Kashmir' and 'Free Palestine' was seen. However, it is still unknown who or which organisation was behind it.

JU's Trinamool Chhatra Parishad unit president Kishalay Roy told PTI: "Some ultra-left student outfits are behind this, and more such graffiti can be spotted if one goes around the sprawling campus." SFI's JU unit leader Abhinaba Basu said, "We don't support secessionist views though we are against the repression of minorities in BJP-ruled states." He asserted that SFI, the student wing of the CPI(M), has a clear stand on the Palestine issue.

Senior faculty member and functionary of the TMC-leaning forum of academics, Om Prakash Mishra, said, "We are against any poster and graffiti that support secessionist views." When Mishra entered the campus for the first time after the March 1 incident, he was greeted with slogans like "BJP-TMC dictatorship se azadi" and "go back" by a section of left-leaning students.

Meanwhile, the activists of SFI and AIDSO, along with leaders of professor unions—JUTA and ABUTA, according to news agency PTI—claimed that around 30 police personnel in plain clothes entered the campus at around 1 pm on Monday shortly after Mishra arrived and stayed till the afternoon hours when the classes were over.

The All Bengal University Teachers Association (ABUTA) office-bearer and senior JU faculty member Goutam Maity also said that there were reports about the presence of police in plain clothes inside the varsity campus during the presence of Mishra "which was unfortunate".

A senior university official said the police were not called to the campus, and the authorities had no information about their presence inside.

"Police have been present outside the campus and keeping vigil since March 1," he said.