In an embarrassment for the ruling TMC in West Bengal, senior minister Subrata Mukherjee Saturday said the Jadavpur University vice-chancellor had committed a mistake by not calling in the police when Union Minister Babul Supriyo was heckled in its campus by a section of its students.
His statement is in sharp contrast with the position of the state government which has stood by VC Suranjan Das and supported his stand of not calling the police inside the campus during the incident on Thursday.
Reacting to Mukherjee's statement, Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said whatever Mukherjee has said is not the official stand of TMC but his "personal opinion".
Mukherjee said, "Babul Supriyo is a union minister so his office should have informed the VC's office in advance about his visit. At the same time, I think the VC committed a mistake by not calling police inside the campus to control the situation on the day Babul Supriyo was heckled," Mukherjee said.
"Police should have been called in to control the situation," Mukherjee, who is the minister for panchayat and rural development.
The police will not enter the campus on the chief minister's orders but on VC's as he is the guardian of the campus, he minister said.
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"Suranjan Das had on many occasions earlier said he will never call the police inside the campus. So when a VC makes such a statement, how can somebody from the state administration on his/her own send police inside the campus?" Mukherjee, a senior TMC leader said to buttress his point.
Supriyo, who went to JU to attend an event organised by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, was shown black flags and heckled by a section of the students and stopped from leaving the campus for several hours.
Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who is also the chancellor of the university went to the institute and came out with Supriyo with police escort.
Chatterjee, who is also the TMC secretary general, said "I don't know what he (Mukherjee) has said. Whatever we had to say, we have already said it in a statement and it is the opinion of the party. Now if Subrata Mukherjee has said something else then it is his personal opinion".
In a statement issued hours after the incident, Chatterjee had said universities are autonomous institutions and as per tradition police cannot enter the campus without the permission of the VC.
"This is most unfortunate and shocking that our Governor, the custodian of the Constitution of the State, without informing the elected government, went to the so- called rescue of the BJP leader (Babul Supriyo) from Jadavpur University," the statement said.
Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, it said, went to JU without taking the state government into confidence and on the way rang up chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who had requested him to give the government some time to peacefully solve the issue. But the governor went there to help BJP.
Supriyo welcomed Mukherjee's comment while commenting on the differing views of the TMC ministers over the September 19 incident at the university.
"Although Mr Subrata Mukherjee doesn't have much credibility I think this time he has made the right statement. And on the question of Mukherjee and Partha Chatterjee making contradictary statements - it reflects the cold war within the party," he said.