Violence broke out on Sunday evening at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute after students objected to a programme organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat, an RSS-affiliated consumer body that had booked the campus auditorium. Dozens of students were injured; two faculty members were also hurt. Hospitals treated students for cuts, bruises, stone injuries and at least one reported gash. Police later cordoned the campus and registered multiple FIRs.
The sequence, according to students and the institute union, began in the afternoon when they learned an outside organisation unconnected to film education had been given the main theatre. Students went to the venue with posters questioning how the booking was approved without informing the student body. An altercation followed. Students say they were chased across campus, punched, kicked and pelted with stones and bricks; some alleged verbal abuse including slurs such as “anti-national,” “Naxal” and “jihadi,” plus threats directed at women students. Several took shelter in the library; the librarian was also reported injured. A crowd gathered outside the gates later in the evening and stones and bottles were thrown inward while students sat in protest demanding police record their complaint on campus.
ABGP members and organisers give a different account. They say they had paid for and been granted formal use of the hall for a scheduled organisational programme. They allege students tore banners and posters, including images of Bharat Mata and Swami Vivekananda, disrupted the event, abused participants and assaulted members, including elderly people and women. The organisation has sought FIRs and said some of its members were confined in vehicles for hours and later hospitalised.
The clash comes weeks after unrest at Jadavpur University involving ABVP activists and left-leaning student groups, raising questions about whether political organisations are testing space on other Kolkata campuses.
One student, Anamika , said: “This was not some sudden scuffle over a hall booking. After Jadavpur they have come for SRFTI. The RSS and its outfits have been looking for a foothold in every institution that still thinks for itself. Booking an auditorium on a Sunday, bringing a crowd, waiting for us to object - that is a planned attempt to make inroads here. We will not let a film school become another political playground.”
ABGP organiser Anjan Sinha rejected the charge that the group arrived intending violence. “We hired the auditorium for our members after following the institute’s procedure. If our purpose was to attack students, why would we bring families and elderly people to a programme? Students came, tore our banners, abused us and turned a lawful event into a riot. We have also been injured. Let the police investigate both sides instead of treating one version as gospel.”
Police have registered cases from students, the institute dean and the ABGP. Senior officers remained at the site into the night. The campus stayed tense on Monday, with students holding a silent protest. The institute administration has so far given only brief comments while saying it is cooperating with the police.
The facts that are not in dispute are these: an outside RSS-linked body used a national film institute’s theatre; students protested; a fight followed; people on both sides were hurt; and Kolkata now has another campus standoff in the space of weeks. What remains contested is who struck first and whether the booking itself was an ordinary hall hire or part of a larger political push.
