Opposition leader in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, has strongly criticised the Trinamool Congress after a university exam paper in Paschim Medinipur referred to freedom fighters as "militants".

In a social media, Adhikari said, "The Administrative Authorities of Vidyasagar University have again insulted our esteemed freedom fighters by addressing the courageous revolutionaries of Medinipur as 'militants' and 'terrorists' in the 2025 History Honours Sixth Semester question paper."

The BJP MLA shared images of the question paper, which included a question in Bengali asking students to name three district magistrates of Medinipur who were murdered by "militants".

Adhikari explained, "Burge (1933), Peddie (1931), and Douglas (1932) were assassinated by Indian Freedom Fighters. Peddie was murdered by Bimal Dasgupta and Jyotijiban Ghosh. Douglas was assassinated by Prabhanshusekhar Pal, who was accompanied by Pradyotkumar Bhattacharya. Burge was murdered by Ananthbandhu Panja, Mrigendranath Datta, Ramkrishna Roy, Nirmaljiban Ghosh, Brajakishore Chakraborty, and others."

Adhikari also claimed that this was not the first time such a controversial question had appeared in university exams and said a similar question had been asked in 2023 as well.

The Vice Chancellor of Vidyasagar University, Professor Dipak Kumar Kaur, said it was a typographical error and assured that the matter is being treated seriously because it concerns freedom fighters from the same region.

The exam for the subject 'Modern nationalism and India' was conducted at the university on July 9.

The Vice Chancellor has asked the Controller of Examinations and the Chairperson of the undergraduate Board of Studies of History to submit a report on the issue.