Kolkata: Magsaysay award winning writer Mahasweta Devi Thursday urged that student politics must be “kept apart” from the general politics.
“Politics should be kept apart from student politics,” she told the media here.
Her comments came after Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) members stormed the Presidency University campus and beat up students here Wednesday.
This was in response to the heckling of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by the SFI, the student arm of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, in New Delhi.
Carrying sticks and rods, slogan shouting TMCP activists entered the campus by breaking a gate and ransacked the compound.
They vandalised The heritage Baker’s Building, which celebrated its centenary recently.
The historic physics Laboratory – Baker Laboratory – housed in the building was severely damaged by the protestors.
Legendary scientists like Jagadish Chandra Bose, Satyendra Nath Bose and Meghnad Saha had done much of their research work in the laboratory.
Mahasweta Devi lamented the involvement of students in politics, saying they should focus on academics.
“For the last 50 years there has not been any positive effort to exclude students from politics. Students are being used in political protests, but the political parties seem to have no concern about the consequences and where the students finally land up. It should not been done.”
Meanwhile, condemning the treatment meted out to the West Bengal chief minister in Delhi, Devi said there was no alternative to Mamata Banerjee.
“As a chief minister, I do not see any alternative to her. Those who have been opposing her are increasingly getting isolated from the common man,” Mahasweta Devi told mediapersons here.
Praising Banerjee for her endeavour to fulfill the commitments made to the people, the Magsaysay awardee urged people to continue keeping faith on the chief minister.
“After assuming power, she has taken pro-people decisions most of the time… When needed, she has not spared her own party people,” she said.
Mahasweta Devi accused political parties of using students for their own interest.
“For the last 50 years I have seen political parties using students for their own interest,” the Magsaysay award winner said. (IANS)