‘They think they can beat us into submission,’ Neha Bora says in Kolkata

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All India Students' Association (AISA) national president Neha Bora at a convention at Jadavpur University, in Kolkata, West Bengal, on October 5, 2026. | Photo Credit: PTI

The authorities think that they can beat dissenters into submission and bring them to their knees, All India Students Association (AISA) national president Neha Bora said in Kolkata at a convention of students from different academic institutions who protested against the crackdown on dissent on Monday (October 5, 2026). Participants called for action against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the recent ‘voter crisis’ in West Bengal and elsewhere in India. 

Students from the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), the Indian Statistical Institute, and the Jadavpur University, and various student organisations, participated in the convention to protest against what they termed multiple attacks on the institutions. 

“West Bengal has always defended itself and the entire country... It is now upon Bengal to defend not just itself but our country’s democracy,” Ms. Bora said. The mandate that had brought the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power in West Bengal had proven to be a lie, and needed to be challenged, she added. 

People in power have been shown what it means to speak truth to power, and that in the coming days, even the highest authorities would be brought to justice and would lose their chairs when people come together to fight the wrongs, she said. 

“They think they will rule Bengal with an iron hand; to do that, they designed something special and built the SIR [Special Intensive Revision]... The common people of the country have one power, it is the power to vote, but that has been stripped from us through a lie,” Ms. Bora said. 

This is the first time Ms. Bora has made a public appearance after she was detained on three consecutive days in Delhi during the protests against the CEC, Mr. Kumar. 

“They think they can beat us into submission and bring us to our knees with the use of brutal force. But they do not understand that we have come from the legacy of the Left and we have never been beaten into submission,” Ms. Bora said. Throughout history, they (the Left) had always shown what people’s power can do, she said. 

“As students of art and cinema, we will continue to fight against every sense of oppression and fascism, and against every government that tries to promote fascism,” Blossom Hazarika, SRFTI student union president, said. They were now living in a state of fear, the attack on educational institutions was a repeated pattern undertaken by the current government, he said. 

The authorities wanted to silence the voices of students and the marginalised, which is why there were repeated attacks on multiple educational institutes. Mr. Hazarika said.

On Sunday (October 4), a group of miscreants tried to force their way into SRFTI as students stood guard at the gate. This was the second time in 10 days that the film institute in Kolkata had come under attack. 

Various wall paintings and murals in the institute were whitewashed on Monday (October 5). 

“You can attack our bodies, but you cannot attack our art and our imagination,” Subham, vice president of the SRFTI student union said. 

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