I have been a journalist for 17 years. I have covered people with genuinely ugly reputations; I have been shouted at, lied to and stonewalled by many of them. However, Thursday, August 20, outside Jadavpur University, was the first time in all those years that someone responded to a professional question by threatening me with sexual harassment.I should declare something before going further, because it is relevant to how the day felt. I studied at Jadavpur for five years. My undergraduate degree and my postgraduate degree are both from there. Gate 4 is the gate I walked through for years without ever thinking twice. This Thursday, however, I stood outside it holding a press card, watching men I had never seen on that campus climb it and put their shoes through the emblem above it.I am not going to pretend that it made no difference to me. It did. It also did not change a single thing I did as a reporter that day – which is the only assurance I can offer.ABVP supporters had gathered near the Golpark area of Kolkata before marching towards Jadavpur University. They were carrying saffron flags and shouting “Veer Savarkar Zindabad”, “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”, “Naxal has no place here” and “SFI-er chamra, gutiye nebo aamra (We will roll up the SFI’s skin)”. Also read: Stones, Eggs, Bricks, Shoes, Fire: 12 Hours of Saffron Mob Violence at Jadavpur University After BJP MLA’s ‘Tandav’ CallI asked them what they made of the molestation case involving Nikhil Das – ABVP’s Jadavpur University unit president – the man whose alleged injuries had brought them onto the street in the first place.Das had been accused of molesting a junior student in 2014, when he was a third-year student at the university. He was arrested and held in custody. The incident, the university administration’s handling of it and the subsequent police action against protesting students became part of the unrest that led to the ‘Hok Kolorob’ movement.The first response was to try and stop the question. Men moved in to talk over me, to wave it off, and to make sure it did not get asked twice.Then, two men from the crowd said: “Naam ki mamani? Raate dekha kori? (What’s your name, dear? Should we meet at night?)”I did not react. There is no version of reacting that ends well for a woman alone in a crowd of a few hundred men who are already in the mood for it. So, I said one line and moved on: “I have my answer regarding the molestation allegations.”I did. The response to the question I had asked said more about the political culture of the ABVP protest than any formal statement has. For a group of men in the crowd who were asked about an accusation of sexual harassment, the instinct, in public – in front of their own colleagues – and in broad daylight, was to sexually harass the person asking the question. Nobody in that crowd told them to stop either. Nobody looked embarrassed. It wasn’t a slip by a man who lost his temper. It was the crowd’s reflex, intended to shut a question down rather than answering it.It did not end there.Later, outside Jadavpur police station, I was photographing police preparations. In one frame, I caught two men in a serious conversation with officers. I did not know who they were. I still don’t.Seconds later, a man charged at me aggressively, demanding to know what I had shot.I asked him what authority he was asking under. I asked whether photography had been prohibited. I asked him to show me an official order.He could not. But he continued trying to intimidate me.So I told him, “If you can’t show me an order, I’ll assume you’re hiding something improper. Send whoever sent you to intimidate me, or take me to him. You can’t aggressively confront an unknown woman for photographing street activity. Try this again, and I will lodge an FIR against you.”He went away. That is usually how it goes when you refuse to be small about it.These two incidents were separated by only a short distance and a few minutes. Their message was the same: Do not ask inconvenient questions. Do not photograph what is happening. Do not demand accountability. And if the journalist is a woman, remind her that the threat can become sexual at any moment.I filed my copy at night. I will keep asking about Nikhil Das. The answer I got outside Gate 4 was more revealing than anything I would have got if they had simply talked to me, and I think readers should know exactly what it sounded like.I will add one more thing – as an alumna rather than as a reporter – and then I am done.I have spent years walking in and out of that campus, at all hours, often alone, often late. It never occurred to me that I needed to think about it. That freedom is not incidental to Jadavpur University, it is one of the things the place is actually known for, and women who have studied elsewhere will tell you how rare it is.Jadavpur is not perfect. Its administration has failed students before. But when that happened in the past, the campus did not shrug. It erupted. Hok Kolorob began as a demand for justice for a woman, and it cost the vice-chancellor at the time his job.That is the university these men marched at, vandalised. And when a woman standing outside asked them about the previous case, what she got back was a suggestion that she meet them at night.They can keep it to themselves.