PUNE: Fergusson College (FC) reverberated with a sudden battle of slogans for and against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) between two political youth wings on Monday.
Students of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Youth Wing and BJP Yuva Morcha and workers contested with aggressive slogans face-to-face, with the former protesting and later supporting NRC and CAA.
Soon after, heavy police bandobast was deployed in and outside the campus.
Around 20 students of the NCP Youth Wing were waiting outside the principal’s office to submit a memorandum demanding the college shut down for a day.
About 25 volunteers of BJP Yuva Morcha and Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) sat opposite and started raising slogans in support of CAA.
The sloganeering match stopped after half an hour when the police intervened.
Later, the NCP Youth Wing handed over the memorandum to college Principal Ravindrasinh Pardeshi and both the groups dispersed.
“In protest against the Delhi police violence against students and against NRC and CAA, we demanded a close down of all colleges in the city on Monday. We came to give our memorandum letter to college principal. As he was not there we sat outside the office silently. But soon the opposing group of students came and started raising slogans. We too in return raised slogans against CAA and NRC. We had not planned any protest or march but all the things happened suddenly,” said NCP Pune Youth Wing President Vishal More.
Punit Joshi of BJP Yuva Morcha said, “We learnt that students of the NCP Youth Wing were to approach the college authorities appealing for a shutting down of the functioning of the college on Monday. They had in fact displayed a few boards demanding the same in various Pune colleges.”
“Anyone can protest or oppose CAA and NRC as per the Constitution, but if they are trying to shut down the college for their own political interests - where thousands of students are studying -- we won’t tolerate,” said Joshi.
Pardeshi stated that the college received their memorandum and will forward it to the higher-ups in the government agency.
He said the college was functioning normally on Monday.
POLICE INTERVENTION
Senior Police Inspector Deepak Lagad of Deccan Gymkhana police station said, “As soon as we were informed about the protest between two student groups inside FC campus, our policemen reached the spot. We interacted with both groups and calmed them down and asked them to vacate the campus immediately. No one was arrested or detained by the police for the protest.”
