After incidents of statue vandalism at JNU and DU, BHU has witnessed the latest act of vandalism on a photograph of Veer Savarkar. In the latest, some miscreants have defaced the photograph of Veer Savarkar in the political science department of Banaras Hindu University on Tuesday.
The incident came to light on Monday morning when students of M.A. first year reached their classroom and saw the photograph of Savarkar lying on one of the benches. The photograph had ink smeared on the nationalist leader’s face. This picture was amongst the various other pictures of several national leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi and BR Ambedkar that adorned the walls of the classroom.
Angry over this despicable act, the students sat on a dharna (sit-in-protest). In a letter to the Dean, the students said that they would file an FIR regarding this matter with the police on Tuesday. Calling it disrespect towards national sentiments and the hero of freedom struggle, the students demanded a speedy and effective probe into the incident.
The HOD who reached the spot after getting the information about the sit-in-protest has assured that a three-member committee would be constituted to probe the incident and strict actions would be taken against the culprits. He also promised that Savarkar’s photograph would be mended and put back on the classroom wall.
As tension continued to prevail in the campus, a heavy deployment of police has been made on the BHU campus to prevent fallout of the incident.
The students of the political science department of Banaras Hindu University have alleged that the left-wing members of All India Students’ Association (AISA) were behind this condemnable act as previously they had threatened to do so.
In August this year, a member of the All India Students’ Association, Ashutosh Kumar had taken to Facebook and exulted over a similar incident that took place in Delhi University wherein NSUI goons had desecrated the statue of Veer Savarkar by blacking its face and putting a shoe garland around it.
Read: NSUI goons vandalise Savarkar statue inside Delhi University campus, put shoe garland
Kumar, in his earlier post, had hurled expletives and warned that something similar was been planned for Veer Savarkar’s photo in the political science department of Banaras Hindu University. Due to this, the BHU students are reportedly convinced that AISA is behind the act.
Meanwhile, speaking to OpIndia, the co-convenor of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad at BHU, Abhay Pratap Singh said that even in the month of September, Veer Savarkar’s photo was removed and thrown in the classroom. They had then overlooked the matter, thinking it was a mistake. Pratap was of the belief that the leftist students, who have for long been carrying out such acts in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Delhi University (DU) are now targeting their University.
