5
Suvendu Adhikari’s government executed a series of aggressive administrative overhauls and high-voltage political manoeuvres, targeting entrenched Left-wing campus culture, announcing a major electoral shift for student bodies, and tightening law-and-order parameters. The fast-paced developments drew stark battle lines between state secretariat Nabanna and a fiercely resistant Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) opposition. The most visible flashpoint occurred at Jadavpur University (JU), long considered an unassailable bastion of Leftwing student politics. On Friday, Adhikari descended onto the campus periphery to lead a massive nationalist demonstration titled “Vande Mataram through 10,000 voices”—a direct response to some students raising “Azadi” slogans and painting “Red Salute Kishanji” graffiti honouring a slain Maoist leader. An estimated 20,000 people gathered for the mass rendition of the National Song. In a fiery address, Adhikari framed the gathering as a reclamation. “It pains me when ‘Red Salute Kishanji’ is written on the walls of Jadavpur.
What are you teaching the new generation? Who is this Kishanji? One who demanded the country’s partition. Kishanji, who did not accept the Constitution,” he said, adding that the Maoist leader had called for an election boycott. “Those who are conspiring to divide our country from within must be cleaned out like household garbage,” he told the crowd, vowing that n of Vande Mataram will be respected” and that the campus’ “foundational spirit of nationalism” would be restored. He accused unnamed Left-wing groups of cultivating a campus “threat culture” that intimidates dissenting students into silence. The Jadavpur mobilisation was not isolated. On the same platform, the government used a Raksha Bandhan event to announce the reinstatement of the National Cadet Corps across major state-run schools and colleges—widely read as an attempt to dilute decades of left ideological influence from the ground up. Adhikari followed with a sharper announcement: student union elections, frozen for most of the 15-year Trinamool era, will resume statewide. “I am confident that the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad will win everywhere,” he told reporters. “Saffron flags will flutter in colleges across this state, restoring democracy where it was stifled for a decade and a half.”
The move clears a direct run for the RSS’ student wing against Left-affiliated and regional bodies that have dominated campus politics for a generation. Addressing a Raksha Bandhan programme at his Bhabanipur constituency, Adhikari spoke of patriotism, Bengal’s role in the freedom struggle, and alleged internal threats to the nation. “Our armed forces deal with outside enemies. The Indian Air Force entered their homes and wiped out their name and identity. But there are many people within the country itself who are anti-national,” he said, questioning opposition to the singing of the complete Vande Mataram and urging citizens to “take a pledge on this Raksha Bandhan to clean them out like household garbage.” Away from campuses, the government continued its hardline governance template, drawing comparisons to swift administrative actions in BJP-led Uttar Pradesh and Assam, backing police crackdowns and municipal “bulldozer action” against unauthorized constructions.
The posture triggered sharp friction with the Opposition. TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien accused the state machinery of enabling violent overreach, presenting video of an assaulted regional block president. “Law and order has completely collapsed under this regime,” he said. “Our workers at the grassroots level are facing brutal attacks in the direct presence of law enforcement. We must ask why President’s Rule should not be immediately considered for the state.” While Jadavpur dominated headlines, a parallel battle unfolded on Camac Street, where the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and police moved to remove a TMC hoarding outside the building housing Abhishek Banerjee’s office. The operation triggered a scuffle that spiralled into a legal flashpoint: both Banerjee and O’Brien were booked by law enforcement in connection with the confrontation.
MAMATA’S BROADSIDE
Mamata Banerjee, on Friday, took on the BJP government. This came barely days after Suvendu Adhikari asked Mamata Banerjee to stick to Facebook Live interactions, rather than step out into the streets. Referring to his predecessor, Adhikari had said: “You do not have to leave the house. I will arrange to ensure that you do not step outside. Say what you have to on your Facebook Live 5 pm bulletins.” Mamata Banerjee, addressing a rally in south Kolkata on Friday to mark the founding of the Congress Chhatra Parishad, widened her attack beyond Camac Street to the character of policing itself. “The police had a humane, compassionate face during our regime, but the BJP has turned it into a monstrous entity,” she said. “BJP is playing deeply divisive politics in Bengal and using the police to spread fear among common people. I will stop these police atrocities on my supporters—this is my solemn pledge.” Senior officials of the city police’s Special Branch told Read that although Banerjee’s rally drew greater turnout than those organised by the Ritabrata Banerjee breakaway group or the Congress, its ranks were filled largely with the party faithful from the Topsia-Tiljala-Khidderpore belt— suggesting her traditional Muslim vote bank had not yet deserted her. These belts, significantly, have the highest density of illegally built houses from the Trinamool era; Adhikari had earlier pointed to the scale of unauthorised construction there and sent in bulldozers, triggering major angst among residents. Banerjee also pressed the government on welfare delivery, questioning why eligible women beneficiaries were not receiving Annapurna scheme payments—an issue she sought to place at the centre of the Opposition’s economic case against the Suvendu Adhikari government. Unmoved by the charges of authoritarian overreach, Adhikari maintained that his government’s actions are aimed at dismantling entrenched political syndicates and enforcing administrative accountability—a posture showing no sign of softening as Bengal’s two principal political camps dig further into confrontation.
FIR AGAINST MAMATA
Meanwhile, the Kolkata Police have filed a suo motu FIR against former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for allegedly violating a Calcutta High Court order. The Calcutta High Court had permitted Mamata Banerjee to celebrate Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad’s foundation day on August 28 on Cathedral Road in Kolkata, but had directed that one flank must be kept open. According to the police, this part of the order was violated and Mamata Banerjee has been charged with inciting her supporters to block both the flanks and preventing the police from carrying out its duties. The police also said that the time limit specified for the event by High Court was exceeded. The FIR was registered at Hastings Police Station against Banerjee and the organisers of the TMCP meeting, a police officer said.