Central University under RSS influence: DU panel

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 6

A fact-finding committee from Delhi University (DU) has concluded that the Central University of Haryana (CUH), that has put two teachers on notice in connection with the staging of Mahasweta Devi’s play ‘Draupadi’, is working under the influence of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

In its report, the committee comprising professors Anirban Kar, Sachin Narayanan and Saroj Giri, students Sameeksha Khandelwal and Deepak Gupta and social activist Jitender Dhankar said the RSS had firm control over the CUH in Mahendragarh.

The committee pointed out that the probe report the university was set to place during its executive council meeting tomorrow could not be impartial since one inquiry committee member had campaigned for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the elections and its chairman had been changed midway for reasons not known.

The team met students and teachers who had taken part in the play. The team met the head of the department of English and foreign languages and some faculty members from other departments. Attempts to meet the Vice Chancellor and protesters could not materialise, the report said.

The fact-finding committee observed that while actors and organisers had been receiving applause from the audience consisting of faculty and students, they were oblivious to the ‘dark designs of fascist forces’ coming up behind the stage when they held the play on September 21.

“The RSS and its student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), mobilised ex-servicemen, RSS activists and local residents to stage a protest against the play. A campaign selectively using video recording of the play, was carried out in Mahendragarh and nearby villages,” the committee observed.

The committee observed that the incident had both a national and a local character. While the national character was similar to the RSS designs seen in Hyderabad Central University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, the local character was specific to the academic-administrative environment.

“In March, the university organised a programme wherein a local RSS functionary delivered a speech on nationalism, praised the university authorities for disrupting a candlelight march for Rohit Vemula and was felicitated by the Vice Chancellor,” said the report.

The fact-finding committee observed that to stir up jingoism and settle petty scores, ABVP student activists had spread rumours about Kashmiri students chanting ‘Pakistan zindabad’ during the 2015 World Cup.

“We were told that the university authorities had gone overboard to please their current political masters and RSS functionaries. It has been alleged that RSS ‘shakhas’ are regularly organised on the university campus,” the committee further observed.