'Blood or Colour?' Bengal BJP Chief Says 'Staged' JNU Attack Attempt to Revive Anti-CAA Movement

Kolkata: A day after saying communists “deserve” to be beaten up, West Bengal BJP unit chief Dilip Ghosh on Tuesday waded into controversy yet again by calling the attack on JNU students a “staged” incident.

Speaking to the media, the BJP leader also claimed that it was not yet proven whether JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh, who was attacked by the armed, masked mob, had real blood or only colour on her head.

“It has now come to light that the JNU incident is staged,” Ghosh said, alleging it was a “conspiracy” to get wind into the sail of the movement [against new citizenship law].

“How could outsiders enter the university with faces covered, and zero in on some members to beat them up? Then they seemingly disappeared. They must have removed their masks and mingled among students. Or the students who brought them must have hidden them,” he said.

On Aishe’s head injury, he said: “One person was allegedly hit on the head. It is still to be tested whether it is blood or some colour on her head. Attempts are being made to create turmoil in the country. This shows that communists and other opposition parties are suffering from existential crisis.”

On Monday, Ghosh had said communists had started getting thrashed in India and they "deserve" it. "It is right that communists have started getting beaten up in the country. Perhaps they deserve it. The way they have behaved through the decades, this is not unnatural," he said.

Ghosh said educational institutes are not venues for violence. “But who imported violence there? The communists, the SFI (CPI-M student wing Students Federation of India). Except Tripura, Bengal and Kerala, we don't hear about violence in educational institutes elsewhere. Now it is getting evens stevens," Ghosh added.

On Sunday, violence swept JNU as a masked mob, including both men and women, thrashed students and teachers inside the varsity campus. Two officer-bearers of the Jawaharal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU), including president and SFI leader Aishe Ghosh, were brutally attacked.

While the JNUSU blamed RSS-linked student wing ABVP for the violence on campus, ABVP called it “staged”. Hostel rooms and lobbies were vandalised during the assault while several vehicles parked on the roads were damaged by the unidentified miscreants.