Kolkata:
BJP MP Swapan Dasgupta has said that activists of a political party were behind the protest by students of Visva-Bharati University where he was confined in a building for six hours.
The journalist-turned-MP apprehended that the protest may be a dress rehearsal of “absolute mobilisation of people to disrupt the visit of PM Narendra Modi (to the city).”
The prime minister will arrive in Kolkata on January 11 for a two-day visit.
Dasgupta said he had reports that some protestors during the incident on Wednesday were carrying iron rods and bamboo poles.
“We can also presume there were activists of a political party,” he told newsmen on Thursday.
Asked to name the party, Dasgupta said “I think the political party which is predominantly present in Birbhum.”
The Rajya Sabha MP said it was interesting to note that once the activists dispersed the students too left the protest spot.
Dasgupta, Vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty and others were confined for six hours in a building of the Visva Bharati on Wednesday as hundreds of Left-leaning students staged a sit-in outside accusing the BJP MP of promoting hatred among communities.
Dasgupta and Chakraborty could finally leave the central university campus, located at Bolpur in Birbhum district, after the students withdrew their sit-in around 10 pm, university sources said.
The BJP MP had been invited to speak on “The CAA-2019: Understanding and Interpretation” as a part of Visva Bharati Lecture Series at the Lipika Auditorium of Santiniketan.
Following protests by SFI, the CPI(M) students wing, the venue was shifted to another auditorium of the social work department at Sriniketan.
However, around 45 minutes after the programme started, agitating students reached the department, shouted slogans and disrupted it.
