Kolkata, (Samajweekly) Tension mounted at the iconic Presidency University (PU) in Kolkata on Friday afternoon as power connection was disrupted within the campus while the screening of controversial BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on.
The documentary was screened at the badminton court within the university campus and the event was organised by Students’ Federation of India (SFI), the students’ wing of the CPI-M.
It is learnt that the screening started on Friday afternoon in presence of a large number of people. However, after around 30 minutes since the beginning of the screening, suddenly the power connection got snapped and the screening process stopped.
The SFI activists said that the power connection was deliberately snapped by the university authorities, following an instruction from the state government. Following the development, the SFI activists protested within the campus and raised slogans against the PU authorities and the state government.
According to SFI’s national General Secretary Mayukh Biswas, the PU incident proves that as regards to the anti-student stand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee follow the same path.
“Electricity connections was snapped at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus in New Delhi following the instructions of Delhi Police. In the case of Presidency University, the same thing happened following the instructions of the West Bengal government,” Biswas said.
He claimed that the PU authorities were informed in advance through an email about the screening of the documentary. “Presidency University is a state university and hence, it cannot be construed that the incidence of power service disconnection was done without the nod of the state government.”
Till the time the report was filed there was no reaction from ruling Trinamool Congress on this count. On Thursday evening, the same documentary was screened at Jadavpur University here but without any hindrance or trouble.
