Student leader Aishe Ghosh says Trinamool Congress strengthening BJP & RSS by censoring other political parties

Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Aishe Ghosh on Friday urged the Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government to not obstruct the opposition political parties from organising protests on the citizenship issue.

The state government is strengthening the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in trying to prevent opposition political parties from staging protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), she said at a rally in Howrah district. Aishe added that the decision to not let her enter Calcutta University for holding a meeting was not a right.

She led a rally against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) in Howrah on Friday. On Thursday, she was not allowed to enter Calcutta University premises for holding a meeting opposing various Central government policies on issues such as citizenship, increase in fees in academic institutions and privatisation of public sector units (PSUs). On Wednesday too, she was denied permission for leading a rally on similar issues in her home town Durgapur.

Police did not grant permission to the Durgapur rally apparently on the grounds that the chief minister was to lead a rally there from 2 pm, although the Left rally of which Aishe was a part, was scheduled at 5 pm. Left leaders later criticised it saying that the state government was being discriminatory towards the opposition. They also said that the ruling party didn’t want to let others continue with the protests and instead wanted to take all the credit.
Aishe Ghosh added that there were various other democratic forces along with the Opposition political parties in the state and the ruling party Trinamool Congress should let them too put up a fight against the BJP and the RSS.