KOLLAM: Even as the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS) South zone Kalolsavam (art festival) got underway at the Government Medical College, Parippally in Kollam on Friday, the students alleged the varsity got a call from the intelligence officials to change the names of festival venues to avoid any kind of conflicts.
Based on the raging controversy over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act CAA, the students had named the festival venues as ‘Article 14’, ‘Article 19’ and ‘Article 21’.
“Some of the college authorities and student representatives had received a call from Intelligence officials, including an officer of the special branch, demanding these names be changed as it may lead to some conflicts among the students. In the wake of Constitution being challenged by several decisions being taken by the Centre, including the CAA, we had come up with such an idea to include Articles of the Constitution for naming our venues as a symbol of protest,” said Adarsh M, a student of Parippally Medical College.
Following the phone call, the KUHS dean forwarded an official mail to the students’ representative directing that the names be changed immediately failing which action will be initiated.
According to KUHS registrar, A K Manoj Kumar, “Based on the call received by the university requesting that the venue names should be changed to avoid any conflicts, an official mail was forwarded to the students to change or remove them. In response to our mail, the students have replied to us attaching a photo, stating that the controversial names have been removed”.
However, on the opening day, despite receiving the official mail from the varsity the student representatives decided to retain the same names.
But following repeated warnings from the university, the students covered the names of venues with a black cloth.