Expulsion of 23 students by journalism varsity rocks Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha
BHOPAL: A day after expelling 23 students for indulging in violent protests recently on the varsity campus, the Makhanlal Chaturvedi National Open University of Journalism and Communication here revoked the suspension of three of those students on Wednesday evening.
Earlier, in the day, the issue of 23 students’ expulsion by the university rocked the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, as former CM and BJP national vice president Shivraj Singh Chouhan raised the issue during the Zero Hour.
“All the three students had earlier in the day tendered a written apology to the varsity. The varsity’s disciplinary committee taking cognizance of the apology recommended revoking of their expulsion, after which the expulsion was revoked and they were re-admitted.
The three students regretted the incident and have also submitted that they were not working in connivance with the so-called student organizations nor were they agreeing to the demands put up by other students,” said in-charge Registrar Dipendra Singh Baghel.
The three students whose expulsion was revoked included Ravi Bhushan Singh, Vipin Tiwari and Nidhi Singh, Baghel said.
Condemning the expulsion of the students and criminal case against some of them by police, Chouhan said the budding journalists were dragged from the stairs and beaten as non-living objects while they were peacefully protesting in support of their demands on the varsity campus on December 13 evening.
"The police behaved with future journalists as though they were terrorists and took them away at Bilkhiria police station that is 20 km away. Prior to that, the police used force on them resulting in a fracture in the hand of one student and fracture in the finger of another student.
Another student bled from the nose when the police threw the students down from stairs. We demand that the FIR registered against the students be withdrawn and their expulsion be revoked," said Chouhan, who was later joined by other BJP legislators, including Leader of Opposition (LoP) Gopal Bhargava over the issue.
Responding to the BJP members concern over the issue, state’s parliamentary affairs minister Dr Govind Singh said, "We’re gathering details of the entire matter, I respect your concerns and can assure you that if injustice has been meted out to students, it won’t be tolerated. Give me some time to address the issue."
Lok Sabha member from Bhopal seat Pragya Thakur also tweeted over the issue, condemning the police action and expulsion of the 23 students. "I’ve also submitted a letter to Vice President Venkaiah Naidu over the entire issue."
The 23 students of Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication were expelled until further orders on Tuesday evening.
The expelled students had reportedly protested demanding suspension of two adjunct professors, Dilip Mandal and Mukesh Kumar over the duo’s alleged caste bias on social media, classrooms and public forum.
While the agitating students had claimed their protests were non-partisan, a group of students supporting the two adjunct professors had alleged the backing of BJP and RSS behind the protests against the two adjunct professors.
On December 13 late evening, the Bhopal police had entered the varsity campus and forcibly brought the students staging a sit-in protest outside the varsity’s Vice Chancellor’s office, just a few hours before the examinations were to start.
Some agitating students had also indulged in violent protests on varsity campus the same evening.
The Bhopal Police had on December 14 registered case against 10 of the agitating students and others.