Kolkata: The Jadavpur University administration has filed a police complaint against four outsiders including 3 ABVP activists for allegedly molesting female students during a commotion over an open-air screening of Vivek Agnihotri’s film ‘Buddha In A Traffic Jam’ on Friday night.
With the campus on the boil over the screening of the movie, vice-chancellor Suranjan Das blamed the university alumni association for giving permission to use the Triguna Sen Auditorium for screening of the film.
“We have never given permission, nor cancelled it. The Triguna Sen Auditorium is owned and managed by the JU Alumni Association and we have no say in its running. We have no control over to whom and when they will rent the hall, or the money they will charge,” Das said.
According to reports, girls were allegedly molested and BJP actor-turned-politician Roopa Ganguly was not allowed to enter the university premises when rival groups of students clashed over the screening of ‘Buddha in a Traffic Jam’ yesterday night.
Alleging that 4 of the organisers had molested female students, the left-leaning students affiliated to Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students' Union (FETSU) confined them inside the campus.
“The main culprit is the alumni association. Why did they give the hall to the Pune-based organisation in the first place, and then again cancelled it? We will talk to the alumni association,” Das said.
The organisers should have taken permission from the university authorities before holding the open-air screening, he said. “If any outside organisation wants to hold a meeting on the ground, they need to take permission from the authorities. The organisation which held the screening is not even remotely connected to the university. But they never bothered to take permission,” he added.
Asked why the authorities did not stop the screening after it was started, Das said it was felt there could be trouble in such an eventuality. “There were two simultaneous screenings by this Pune-based organisation and the university students. When the screenings started, everything was peaceful. But later, there were some unfortunate incidents,” he further said.
The trouble started soon after director Vivek Agnihotri reached the campus. He was shown black flags and placards by the students of university asking him to go back. The filmmaker, on the other hand, claimed that he was manhandled and gheraoed by some students and even the glass pane of his car was left shattered in the commotion.
The agitating students said they have nothing against the screening of the film, but were protesting against the divisive content in it, which also stars Anupam Kher. "We all know Kher's views in the whole debate on whatever happened in JNU. He is acting in this film which has divisive content. We are protesting against that," Sounak Mukherjee, a first year MA student of English Department, said.
However, the authorities cancelled the screening after they learnt that the students were gathering to stage a protest. But the producers went ahead with the screening at an open-air space in the campus claiming they have support from another group of students.
"The students arranged a bed sheet and turned it into a screen to see my film. Many watched it and realised it's not what they were thinking. It is a realistic film," the director said.
Even as the screening was going on in the evening, after classes were over, the agitators carried on with demonstration near the spot.
Asked why there were protests against his film, Agnihotri said, “Because for the first time in 70 years somebody has dared to expose the Naxal-academia-intellectuals-media nexus.”
