Lucknow: Workers of right wing student organisation Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) thwarted the move of All India Student Association (AISA) to observe the death anniversary of Rohit Vemula at the Lucknow University (LU) campus. Workers of both the organisations clashed with each other in the varsity campus on Tuesday and shouted slogans. The varsity administration had to call police to avert clashes and stop the anniversary programme.
The AISA had organised the programme at the Tagore Library lawns of the university on Tuesday. The AISA had invited Professor Ravi Kant of the Hindi Department of LU as the main speaker in the programme. Mr Kant has been in controversy earlier and faced wrath of right wing organisations over his remarks on Kashi Vishwanath temple. While the LU administration did not allow the AISA workers to hold the programme, a section of ABVP activists too supported it and clashed with the organisers.
The ABVP workers justified the stand of LU administration and said that such programmes would hamper the peace and harmony on the campus.
The AISA vice-president Nikhil said that the LU administration did not allow them to observe the death anniversary of Mr Vemula and instead issued notice against organisation conveners Anjali and Samar on Monday. On Tuesday, AISA activists first garlanded the statue of Dr Ambedkar in the campus and marched towards the Tagore Lawns, however, they were stopped by the proctorial board of LU. Meanwhile, a section of students belonging to ABVP reached there and clashed with AISA workers.
The Proctor of LU, Dr Rakesh Diwedi said that prior permission is needed before organising any programme on the campus. The AISA workers were denied the permission to hold the programme as the varsity was already holding convocation week these days.
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