: In a university, some two hundred kilometers from the Capital, students were termed anti-national when they held a silent candle march after the death of dalit student Rohith Vemula.
This does not stop here, according to the students, they were even made to give a written agreement that they will never repeat “such activities”.
The matter was reported from Haryana Central University, Mahendergarh, where students were allegedly threatened and were labelled as “anti-nationals” when they tried to show solidarity with Vemula and took out a silent candle march in the campus on January 18.
According to students from the university, when they tried to take out a candle light vigil, some members of the right wing groups in the campus disrupted the march, tore posters and also later threatened them against carrying out any such activity in the future.
“To our shock, the university administration also supported the miscreants and made us give in writing that we will not do anything that can irk others in the future,” said Irshad, one of the students who was part of the protest.
“The students who threatened us also lodged a police complaint against us at Mahendergarh police station saying that we are carrying out ant-national activities in the campus and also published public notices about the same in two hindi newspapers,” he added.
Another student, Sarfaraz, said: “The members of the BJP affiliated ABVP are very active here and they disrupt any liberal voice trying to make its presence felt. We are also helpless in this scenarios, as they have connections with the local goons and they threaten us.”
The university administration however claimed that they did not make anyone write any letter. Sanjiv Kumar, Dean Student's Welfare told The Hindu : “There were some differences between two groups of students. When we were informed about it, we made them sit and talk to each other to sort out their differences.”
Students from various varsities across the country have been protesting on the streets for the last many days demanding justice for Vemula and his family.
Many such protests have been held in the national capital as well where students have been manhandled as well when they tried to march towards the HRD Ministry office or the RSS office.
