BENGALURU: For the past three days, followers of Buddha and Saraswati have engaged in a bitter war of words asking the University to choose between the Lord and the Goddess. However, on Wednesday, in the midst of police security at the administrative block, a truce was brokered.
The statue of Gautama Buddha will now sit beside a new statue of Saraswati, which was originally planned to be installed at the block. Both idols will be installed at the same time and a new pedestal will be created for the Buddha statue, the University authorities decided.
Students and faculty have been at loggerheads with the administration for the past few days as unidentified persons snuck the statue of Buddha into the campus and installed it in a place meant for a new Saraswati idol. Since then, groups have been threatening to protest at the site, leading the police to cordon off the area around the idol.
On Wednesday, a sub-committee tasked with finding the right place for the Buddha statue, met in the morning and Vice Chancellor Venugopal KR chaired the meet. The sub-committee decided to install both statues next to each other.
As per the decision, the pedestal, costing Rs 4 lakh, that was originally meant for the Saraswati idol, will be used as planned. The Buddha statue will be temporarily housed elsewhere till another pedestal is prepared. Both statues will then be placed side-by-side.
The sub-committee also decided to consult experts about the impact to the building because of the increased weight from two idols instead of one.
With a decision acceptable to both sides reached, the administration has appealed to students, faculty and non-teaching staff to maintain peace in the University and to support the decision.