The students of Bangalore University have said that the ruling BJP government was trying to saffronise the university campus by allowing the construction of a temple of Hindu deity Ganesha inside the veracity premises.
The students have been staging protests for the past three days against the construction. The issue took a serious turn when the university officials filed a police complaint against the protesting students.
Dr Jayakara Shetty, Vice Chancellor of Banga-lore University said that the decision to construct the temple was not taken during his tenure. “The decision was made earlier and the construction work has begun now. The students can’t protest about the matter of the temple,” he said.
Dr Shetty had directed to stop the construction work of the temple in the backdrop of protests by students. However, when the construction work continued, he visited the spot and got the work stopped.
The students and organisations, including Post-Graduation and Research Students’ Federation, have warned the university officers that if they continued with the construction of the temple they would file a police complaint against them. The student organi-sations have also been enraged with the filing of a police complaint against them for attempting to preserve the property of the university.—KMS
