The protest against iftar dinner at the BHU took a dramatic turn as a student tonsured his head outside the vice-chancellor’s residence. The agitation, the students said, will continue until the VC apologizes.
After a day’s calm, the voices of protest were heard once again in BHU as dozens of angry students reached the vice-chancellor’s residence and started purifying the area with Gangajal. He had attended the iftar dinner.
The students claimed that the BHU is being radicalized with Islam and hence it became necessary to purify the vice-chancellor. They also demanded the arrest of those who wrote objectionable slogans on the walls.
Angered by the Iftar party and the anti-Brahmin slogans on the campus walls, the students marched to the vice-chancellor’s residence with banners and posters. They raised slogans and protested, demanding an apology from the vice-chancellor for attending the dinner.
The protesting students sprinkled gangajal outside the VC’s residence (Photo: Roshan Jaiswal)
The protests began after the VC attended the iftar dinner in the women’s college. The students even recited the Hanuman Chalisa in front of the university as a counter to the iftar dinner.
Dozens took to the streets, strongly opposing the dinner and demanded that the Vice-Chancellor come forward and apologize. According to them, for a long time, fasting during Ramzan never happened in the university and it is not right to organize it suddenly and the Vice-Chancellor attends it too.
However, the college administration has a completely different explanation: Iftar has been a tradition of women’s college and it was suspended for two years because of the pandemic.
“Iftar dinners had been organized earlier on different occasions and the previous vice chancellors have also participated. It was only during the pandemic that it was not organized. There have been several cultural and religious events at the university premises,” Professor Dr Rajesh Singh told India Today TV.
Students are not willing to stand down. Some even went on to say that they would not allow BHU to turn into JNU