Trying to soothe the Presidency students, he seemed to hint at the failing of the West Bengal government at reining in the goons.
KOLKATA: West Bengal governor MK Narayanan while addressing the students at Presidency College in Kolkata apologized to them saying, "I'm sorry and I apologise for what has happened."
Narayanan, who is also the Chancellor of the Presidency University, said the violence at Presidency was a blot on all of us. "I will use the word again -- criminals -- entered this place. I'm sorry and I apologise for what has happened. Never ever in the history of Presidency college should this ever happen again. Presidency is a dream project and as Chancellor I have been unable to fulfill my responsibility to you."
Trying to soothe the Presidency students, he seemed to hint at the failing of the West Bengal government at reining in the goons, allegedly from the ruling Trinamool Congress, who were responsible for vandalising the premises of Presidency University and also threatening the girl students with rape.
Reacting to reports of girl student being molested by goons, Narayanan said that the incident was unfortunate as he thought Bengal was the safest place for women and such incidents were a blotch on the state's culture.
"I'm not here to blame parties. Politics in India has become coarser. But the incident should never have happened. But there is no conscious effort to harm the university. The chief minister has assured us support," he added.
Taking questions from students he says he will wait the report to be out, though arrests have been made. "I will closely monitor the situation. You may want to ask me how can I be sure this will not happen again. I will work with the police and administration, it goes beyond my constitutional duty as a governor, but I assure you I will put in place a system that ensures an incident like this never happens again," he says.
Meanwhile, under attack from all quarters, the Trinamool ministers tried to undo the damage by calling the incident trivial, while one minister indicated that the CPI-M was behind the vandalism.
A day after the violence, students kept away from the classes responding to a strike by the Communist Party of India-Marxist affiliated Students Federation of India and Independent Consolidation.
Hundreds of students, teachers, employees of Presidency University, and distinguished alumni of its former Avatar Presidency College staged a silent protest march, condemning the vandalism and demanded punishment for the miscreants.
Describing the vandalism of Presidency University as a trivial matter, the Trinamool Congress castigated the media for not giving due importance to the heckling of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Delhi.
"We are shocked at the behaviour of the media for showing trivial incidents like how many offices were destroyed and which university was intruded, especially in the wake of the heckling of the chief minister, who deserves a Z-plus security," Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee said.
Chatterjee, also the state industries minister, though, was quick to condemn Wednesday's vandalism of the prestigious Presidency University here.
Banerjee and her Finance Minister Amit Mitra were Tuesday heckled by activists of the Students Federation of India, the students wing of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, when she went to the Planning Commission office in Delhi for a meeting.
The Trinamool leader saw a conspiracy behind the incident in the university, allegedly perpetrated by Trinamool student activists to "avenge the insult" of their leaders in Delhi.
"Why will the Trinamool supporters vandalise a university which is so dear to their leader (Banerjee), don't they love her? They (vandals) are not from our party," insisted Chatterjee.
The incident is being seen as a backlash to what happened in Delhi, where Mamata and one of her minister were roughed up by activists of SFI who were protesting the death of the 22-year-old student leader, who died allegedly due to police brutality.
Source: Yahoo! India
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