‘Won't harm your son’s career’, Babul Supriyo assures mother of student who attacked him at Jadavpur University

Kolkata: Union minister Babul Supriyo on Saturday assured the mother of a student, who allegedly pulled the hair of the BJP leader at the Jadavpur University during his heckling on Thursday, that he will not harm the career of her son. The student Debanjan Ballav’s ailing mother Rupali had urged Supriyo “with folded hands” to pardon her son as handing him over to the police would ruin his career. “Dear auntie, don’t worry. I will not take any action that will harm the career of your son,” the minister said in a tweet on Saturday, and attached to it a newspaper clipping about the request of the woman who lives in Barddhaman town. “I wish he learns from his mistake. Neither had I lodged any FIR against anybody, nor allowed anyone to do the same. Get well soon,” Supriyo said in the micro-blogging site. The newspaper clipping attached to the tweet carried a photograph of teary-eyed Rupali Ballav with her hands folded.

চিন্তা করবেন না মাসিমা - আমি কোনো ক্ষতি করবো আপনার ছেলের !! ওর ভুল থেকে ও শিক্ষ্য নিক এটাই চাই ! আমি নিজে কারো বিরুদ্ধে কোনো FIR তো করিইনি - কারোকে করতেও দিইনি - আপনি দুশ্চিন্তা করবেন না - তাড়াতাড়ি সেরে উঠুন মাসিমা ! আমার প্রণাম নেবেন 🙏 pic.twitter.com/Owfg1FQGAp

— Babul Supriyo (@SuPriyoBabul) September 21, 2019

In a video, her son Debanjan was seen arguing angrily with the minister and pulling his hair at one point of time in the university campus. The BJP MP from Asansol had on Thursday expressed outrage over “the behaviour” of the agitating students describing it “absolutely deplorable”. Ballav, a student of Sanskrit College and not of Jadavpur University, however, said, “I only wanted to convey to the minister my misgivings about NRC exercise which will render crores of people homeless. But the minister became agitated.” Supriyo came to the university to attend a programme of the ABVP. The general secretary of Arts Faculty Students’ Union (AFSU) Debraj Debnath said he has no knowledge about anyone named Debanjan Ballav taking part in Thursday’s agitation. “Mainly the students of the Jadavpur University took part in the protest on Thursday against the entry of BJP leader Babul Supriyo into the campus, who is known to have made inflammatory statements in past,” Debnath told PTI. The protest rally on Friday “against the bid of fascist forces like ABVP to enter the campus” was attended by thousands of students from various colleges in the city to express their solidarity, he said. The AFSU had on Friday alleged that ‘outsiders’ vandalised its union room and broke windowpanes of the Arts faculty building. The AFSU could not explain why a student of Sanskrit College, affiliated to the Calcutta University, was present during an agitation at the JU. A source in the Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) said to his knowledge Thursday’s agitation was mainly organised by AFSU, SFI and All India Students’ Association (AISA) members of the institute. However, some students from other colleges and universities also attended an AISA programme inside the campus earlier in the day and some of them might have joined the JU students during their protest against Supriyo, the source said.