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Rahul Gandhi |
Panaji:
The Goa University Monday withdrew - within four hours of issuing it
- a circular appealing to students to attend Congress general
secretary Rahul Gandhi’s student rally Tuesday after the Bharatiya
Janata Party’s (BJP) student wing protested on the campus.
The circular, dated Jan 18, issued by GU registrar Dr M.M. Sangodkar
at the request of the state youth Congress president Sankalp Amonkar,
said: “Students of all post graduate departments at the university
and in affiliated colleges may be requested to attend the
interaction with Shri Rahul Gandhi.”
It
was withdrawn within four hours of being issued, after members of
the BJP’s students wing gheraoed (surrounded) the vice chancellor’s
office.
“We
have also issued orders that no political flags will be displayed at
the rally Tuesday which is being held on the university football
ground,” Sangodkar told reporters today after the agitation. Amonkar
could not be contacted for comment.
GU’s
controversial decision to allow its campus to be used for a
political rally to be addressed by Rahul Gandhi at the behest of the
Youth Congress had triggered a controversy in the state, with the
students’ cell of the BJP claiming that it was an “attempt by the
Congress to reduce Goa University to a political circus”.
“A
university has no place for a mainstream political leader to address
students. The GU is an apolitical entity,” Atmaram Barve, convenor
of the BJP students’ cell told IANS, adding that a “surprise protest
strategy” was in store for Gandhi, when he visits the campus.
Rahul Gandhi, who is on a countrywide tour to “gauge and understand
the young minds of India”, is scheduled to have a one-hour
interaction with students at the university’s football ground
Tuesday afternoon. Afterwards, he will also address members of the
state Congress unit and Youth Congress delegates.
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