ABVP protests against Ilaiah

Lucknow: The Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of RSS, on Tuesday staged a protest against Kancha Ilaiah's statement that Dalits don't believe in goddess Saraswati and the Gita.
Ilaiah, a former professor at Osmania University of Hyderabad, had also said that those who don't eat beef are dullards. He made the comments on April 14 at a function at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University.
The ABVP members had even lodged a police complaint against Ilaiah for hurting religious sentiments.
Led by Rahul Valmiki, the protest at BBAU went on for two hours resulting in heated exchange between two groups of students. ABVP members submitted a memorandum to vice-chancellor RC Sobti demanding action against the organising secretary of the event KC Mallaih and Ilaiah.
"Even the police at the spot called us names and threatened us with dire consequences," said a Dalit student.
The university has constituted an eight-member committee to probe the incident. A university student recalled a similar incident that took place in the university on September 17, 2015, on the occasion of Periyar Jayanti. Some speakers at an event had allegedly shown disrespect to Hindu gods. The university had constituted a committee to probe the incident but no report has been submitted till date, said students.