Strongly condemning the decision of the Central University of Karnataka authorities to organise RSS events on university campus at Kadaganchi, members of Samyukta Horata Karnataka, a consortium of various progressive organisations, took out a 25-km padayatra from Kalaburagi city to the university campus on Tuesday.
District convener of Samyukta Horata Karnataka Sharanabasappa Mamshetty, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha’s Nagendra Tambe, Dalit Sangharsh Samiti’s Arjun Gobbur, CPI(M)‘s Bheemshetty Yempalli and M.B. Sajjan, Jafar Khan and Shankrayya Ghanti, among others, took out the padayatra raising slogans against university Vice-Chancellor Battu Satyanarayana.
“We strongly condemn the decision of the administration, particularly the Vice-Chancellor and a few staff members, which is extending support to promoting RSS ideologies and conducting RSS activities that have nothing to do with the university,” Mr. Mamshetty said and added that “such activities violate the ethos of the institution which is meant to promote only academic activities.”
A series of events has already generated controversy between the Students Federation of India (SFI) and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on the campus, Mr. Sajjan said and accused the university authorities of “saffronising the campus” and disturbing the peaceful academic atmosphere there.
The agitators said that a group of students attached to the ABVP is making all efforts to propagate RSS agenda to saffronise education and implement its ideology and this has been done with the consent of Vice-Chancellor, they said.
Mr. Ghanti demanded that the university conduct events related to academics and protect secular fabric on the campus. Children of farmers and workers from Kalyana Karnataka region should be given preference during staff recruitment in the university, he added.
