MU students’ stir backing Hyd scholars turns ugly

MUMBAI: Protests at Mumbai University’s Kalina campus in support of the dalit scholars from Hyderabad University again turned ugly on Friday, when students from the varsity’s action group opposed a satyanarayan puja organized by the staff. Students said the university, being a secular establishment, should not allow promotion of any faith or religion on the campus.
They also alleged that the crowd gathered for the puja abused and manhandled them.
A student said, “We were democratically protesting against the satyanarayan puja on the campus when those gathered for the function started abusing us and manhandled some of us.” The protesters alleged that some ABVP activists were present at the puja. The students have submitted a written complaint at the BKC police station.
But an official from the university’s Karamchari Sangh that nobody was manhandled. “The students were shouting slogans against the the puja. They were using derogatory terms following which we asked them to leave the premises. But they refused. The university’s security staff had to force them out of the campus,” he said.
On Friday, NSUI, Congress’ students’ wing and other students’ groups met vice-chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh with a charter of demands to ensure that a Hyderabad-like incident does not occur in Mumbai.