‘I know the disease and the medicine’: Bengal CM’s message to Jadavpur University students

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, on Friday, warned that the campus of Kolkata's Jadavpur University will not be a safe haven for "Maoist sympathizers" and those advocating for Kashmir's independence. He claimed to know the remedy to the problem at hand. Adhikari addressed a large assembly outside the expansive JU campus, which had gathered to participate in a BJP-hosted Vande Mataram singing session.

The phrase "tukre tukre gang" was coined by the BJP to describe individuals associated with left-wing and ultra-left parties as well as academics. Also Read | Sing four stanzas of Vande Mataram: TMC's major challenge to Suvendu Adhikari and BJP

Adhikari accused the CPI(M) and the TMC of enabling Maoist elements on JU's campus during their 34-year rule, for their own electoral gains. He stated that the Maoists did not cast their votes for the TMC, but only sought a "no vote to BJP" and "no vote to Narendra Modi" during the elections. Mamata kept the Maoists in power for this political advantage, he added. Also Read | Return to Bengal, CM Suvendu urges skilled professionals from state working outside

The remarks came in the wake of a wooden JU emblem on one of the gates being damaged on August 20 when members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) attempted to enter the campus after a brawl between its members and supporters of left student unions the night before. JU professor Nandini Mukherjee, who contested against Mamata Banerjee in 2011 on a CPI(M) ticket, stated that there were no Maoists present at JU, describing it as an educational institution.

Tanmay Chatterjee, a journalist who has spent over three decades reporting on regional and national politics, internal security, intelligence, defense, and corruption, was one of those present at the event.