The police thwarted an attempt by the Hindu Munnani to enter the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University (MSU) and disrupt a lecture on ‘Periyar and Islam’ on Wednesday.
The Centre for Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy and the Department of Sociology at the university had planned to organise the second lecture of the ‘Social justice and Arivoli’ series, on the topic ‘Periyar and Islam’, for which Riyaz Ahmed, joint editor of Puthiya Vidiyal was the guest speaker.
When the invitation for the event was sent to the media, the Hindu Munnani took to social media, asking if MSU was a university, a training centre for ISIS or an office of Dravidar Kazhagam.
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“What is the alliance between Periyar, Samuel Asir Raj (a professor at the Department of Sociology and director of the Centre for Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy) and Riyaz Ahmed? Is it an attempt to trigger violence at an educational institution? We, the saffron forces, should gather at MSU on October 27 to raise counter questions on ‘Atheism and the social justice of Islam’,” said K. Kutralanathan, State secretary of the Hindu Munnani.
When about 10 cadre of the outfit gathered at the main entrance of MSU on Wednesday, the police, who had already been deployed there on a request from the MSU administration, stopped the group, led by Mr. Kutralanathan, from entering the premises. After they were denied entry, the cadre left the spot, saying they would file a complaint with the Governor and the chancellor of MSU.