Kolkata: Azaadi slogans raised against RSS

Kolkata: Once against Azaadi slogans were echoed by the students of Kolkata's Jadavpur University on Sunday as a mark of protest against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The students of the University were seen holding placards which read: "Yogi is the new Trump...Brahminical version of white supremacy" and they raised slogans like "Azadi", "Halla Bol" and "RSS door hatao".

The Azaadi slogans were raised by the students in front of the Academy of Fine Arts where an international seminar on persecution of minority Hindu Buddhist Christians in Bangladesh is going on.

"This protest is against the RSS' conducting of seminar on the issue of minorities in Bangladesh. We think the same RSS which has been the reason for the deaths of thousands in Godhra, in Muzaffarnagar cannot address the minority issue. We doubt their credibility, rather we think they are here to evoke communal sentiments and pitting one against the other. So we are protesting here," Debopriyo Som, a student and United Students Democratic Front (USDF) member said.

Posters calling for 'azadi' for Kashmir, Manipur and Nagaland were put up at Jadavpur University (JU) earlier in February only to be torn down by ABVP activists, who allegedly vandalised the university complex on Wednesday.

The posters had been signed by a group called 'RADICAL' and described by both the Jadavpur University Students Union (JUSU) and VC as a 'fringe' group allegedly responsible for raising 'pro-Afzal' slogans at a rally.

"Hume kya chahiye - Azadi. Kashmir ki Azadi. Manipur ki Azadi. Nagaland ki Azadi (We demand freedom. Kashmir's freedom. Manipur's freedom. Nagaland's freedom)," one of the posters said.

Some members of the group had said that they had raised slogans in favour of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during the protest the recent arrest of JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar.