Banaras Hindu University on Tuesday constituted a probe after a photograph of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar placed in a classroom was found to be defaced.
The incident took place in the Political Science Department of the central university.
On Tuesday morning, students discovered the defaced photograph of Savarkar lying on the ground in Lecture Room No. 103, of M.A.(final) and reported it to the administration. Following this, angry students sat on a dharna and submitted a memorandum demanding action against the culprit(s).
There is a “nexus at work,” a student told reporters, drawing a parallel with the defacing of the statue of Swami Vivekananda at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“We fully oppose this,” he said and demanded that CCTVs be installed in all classrooms and the miscreant be arrested.
The department said it replaced the defaced photograph with a new one. The photographs of other national icons also adorn the walls of the department.
Ashok Upadhyay, department head, said somebody splashed the photograph with ink, causing discontent among the students.
Mr. Upadhyay said the incident was a minor one but “not an ordinary one from the national perspective”.
Three-member panel
A three-member committee was formed by the Dean of the department to probe the matter, he said.
“We will try to find out about the culprits, report and punish them,” said Mr. Upadhyay.
