The authorities of a private law college here have shot off a memo to one of its students, who is a Students Federation of India (SFI) leader, accusing him of “cooking and distributing beef on the campus.”
The SFI leader, however, refuted the charge and alleged that he was being targeted for his involvement in students’ issues.
A.T. Sarjas, a seventh semester student of the five-year LLB course at Bhavan’s N.A. Palkhivala Academy for Advanced Legal Studies and Research (Bhavan’s PALSAR), Ramanattukara, was served the memo by Principal T.P. Rajalekshmy on April 4.
It said that Mr. Sarjas had been acting in collusion with outside forces and communal elements to destroy the reputation of the college. “It has come to our notice that you have cooked and served beef on the campus on March 20, which has hurt the sentiments of a section of students and is likely to precipitate a communal crisis.”
It also alleged that Mr. Sarjas had organised girl students to create tension on the premises. He has been asked to give an explanation within a week.
Mr. Sarjas, however, denied the allegations and said that he had been involved in various students’ issues as the Feroke area committee president of the SFI and as a former chairman of the college union. “The college canteen was shut for around three weeks. We organised a symbolic protest and cooked and distributed rice, sambar, fish curry, and chicken curry. There was no beef,” he said.
P. Parameswaran, director, Bhavan’s PALSAR, claimed that non-vegetarian food was not allowed in institutions under the Bhavan’s group as a policy issue. “If non-vegetarian food is allowed, stray dogs and such animals will enter the campus and create problems for us. Actually this issue is being blown out of proportion by some outside forces who are trying to create problems in the college,” he alleged.
“We are not aware of any rule prohibiting non-vegetarian food. Teachers and students have non-vegetarian food on the campus on many occasions earlier,” Mr. Sarjas claimed.
He said that a couple of weeks ago, an inebriated person had entered the hostel bus for girls and behaved improperly with students. A video of the act shot by one of the students had gone viral on the social media. A group of students staged a sit-in protest on March 21 seeking security for girls at the hostel and he was part of it. Mr. Sarjas claimed that the management had been targeting him for long and he had been dismissed from the college earlier too.
