After JU, clash erupts at SRFTI: BJP’s ‘Dimagi Naxal’ jibe sparks political firestorm after students protest RSS-linked event
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "After JU, clash erupts at SRFTI: BJP’s ‘Dimagi Naxal’ jibe sparks political firestorm after students protest RSS-linked event")
Students injured in the clash at Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) in Kolkata
ABGP president Pankaj Roy said its members were assaulted by the students. He added that ABGP had lawfully rented the hall and was holding a legitimate event when students tore down its posters and banners and turned violent.
Blood, broken glass and accusations of a knife attack marked a chaotic Sunday at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) in Kolkata, after a programme by an RSS-affiliated consumer group erupted into a campus-wide brawl that left students besieged inside their own institute for hours, chased into the library, and at least two hospitalised with serious injuries. This came just weeks after a similar clash rocked Jadavpur University.
The trouble began after the Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat (ABGP) held a programme in the institute’s main auditorium, which it had booked with the administration’s permission. Some students objected to a private organisation holding a meeting inside a government educational institution. They went to the auditorium and staged a protest, raising slogans.
The ABGP is part of the broader Sangh Parivar affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is also the ideological parent body of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
According to the SRFTI Students’ Union, neither the union nor the wider student body had been informed that the event was taking place. Around 2 pm, students went to put up posters questioning why the auditorium had been given over to the group without their knowledge. ABGP members allegedly confronted them and tried to force them out, and the situation quickly turned physical.
Students said they were called "anti-national," "urban Naxals" and "terrorists," and that ABGP members — some of whom chased protesters into the library, where a librarian was also allegedly assaulted — attacked them with fists, stones, bricks and sticks.
Women students were allegedly manhandled, and some students claimed a knife was used in the assault. The union said students not even involved in the protest were chased down, and that professors were harassed as well.
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The students’ union said in a statement, “Several students took shelter inside the library. Members of the group followed them there as well, and the librarian was also physically harassed. The library was surrounded, leaving students and staff trapped inside their own institution in a frightening situation.”
The ABGP president Pankaj Roy countered by saying that its members were assaulted by the students.It added that it had lawfully rented the hall and was holding a legitimate event when students tore down its posters and banners and turned violent. “We booked the hall by paying ₹15,000 in rent and obtaining permission from the authorities. Our organisation primarily works on consumer protection and creating awareness among consumers. But an attempt was made to disrupt our meeting. Pictures of Bharat Mata and Swami Vivekananda were torn down. Four people have already been admitted to the hospital. All the students are intoxicated there.”
At least 27 people were taken for treatment, including 25 to Desun Hospital, including teachers and students, of whom four were discharged after first aid and two were admitted with serious injuries; two others with minor injuries were treated and released at KPC Medical Hospital.
As word spread, students blocked the campus gates and stopped a bus carrying alleged RSS supporters, while bricks and bottles were hurled from outside.
Police, led by Deputy Commissioner Arindam Sarkar, later detained a man students identified as main accused, though the union alleged officers were instead noting down complainants' details, raising fears of intimidation.
The police eventually signed the students’ complaint and assured them that the matter would be investigated. The van then left the campus. After 8 pm, the crowd outside the gate also began to thin.
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) distanced itself from the incident, calling any attempt to link it to the organisation “factually incorrect and misleading” and urging an impartial inquiry before conclusions are drawn.
SRFTI’s new vice-chancellor, who was due to visit the campus on October 1, rushed to Kolkata from Delhi on Sunday after learning of the violence and went straight to the campus after landing.
West Bengal BJP’s spokesperson Debjit Sarkar reacted by calling the students “dimagi naxal”. He tweeted on X, “A programme depicting Bharat Mata and Swami Vivekananda in Bengal is now a "communal" programme. How these naxals are kicking, spitting and tearing down the picture of Swami Vivekananda.”
West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee State president Subhankar Sarkar condemned what he called rampage by RSS-backed miscreants, invoking Satyajit Ray's own film Hirak Rajar Deshe as a warning against suppressing education and independent thought. He said the incident reflects an attempt to intimidate progressive voices and undermine free thinking in educational institutions, drew a parallel to the Gajendra Chauhan appointment row at FTII, and demanded a thorough investigation.
Filmmaker Indranil Roychowdhury, who also teaches at the institution, described the incident as concerning. He said, “The incident is very worrying. From the images I have seen, the students were brutally beaten. Whatever may have happened, they cannot enter the students’ own campus and beat them like this. If something was objectionable, there were certainly ways to inform the authorities.”
