AU Teacher's face blackened by students

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AU Teacher's face blackened by students
As reported in DNA, PTI Tuesday, June 10, 2008

ALLAHABAD: A teacher of Allahabad University was on Tuesday assaulted, had his face blackened and a garland of shoes placed around his neck by students who resented his participation in a meeting relating to holding of examinations in which some of his relatives are candidates.

The students claimed he should not have attended the meeting in view of the fact that some of his relatives were also examinees.
Discontent has also been simmering in the campus over students' union elections not being held.

When contacted, university Vice Chancellor Prof R G Harshe said he had not been informed about the incident while police said no FIR had so far been registered in the case.

Students' leaders alleged that they came to know about Prof Srivastava's relatives being among examinees after seeking the requisite information under the Right to Information Act.

The professor himself declined to take any call.

After the Mayawati government lifted the ban on students' union elections in universities across Uttar Pradesh, the students have been agitating for polls in the university and alleging that there was a move to put in place a nominated students' council.

The students had staged a demonstration during which they acted as sweepers in the university premises to press for their demand. They had also staged a demonstration in semi-nude state over the past few days. Some of them also took a leaf out of "Gandhigiri" and offered a rose to the Proctor.

The vice chancellor said over phone from Hyderabad that no final decision has yet been taken on the formation of a students' council though there was a provision in the ordinance of the university for such a body.
He also pointed out that "the students' council is such a body in which boys, girls and even the physically handicapped are separately represented but the students are unduly apprehensive without understanding its concept".

Harshe was himself targetted by a section of students over a newspaper article he recently wrote on contributions of Jawaharlal Nehru. The agitated students alleged that he had denigrated Nehru in the article.

The students had even burnt an effigy of the vice chancellor in front of Anand Bhawan here on the occasion of the death anniversary of Nehru last month and faxed copies of the article to senior Congress leaders in Delhi demanding action against him.

Harshe said he was asking the Proctor to take necessary steps to restore peace and order in the campus

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