ABVP-SFI clash: CPM claims RSS shakhas held at Himachal university, VC rejects charge

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Days after a clash between members of the student wings of the BJP and the CPM near the Himachal Pradesh University, the Left party Wednesday alleged that RSS shakhas' were being held on its campus.

The charge was rejected by the HPU vice chancellor Sikander Kumar.

Seventeen students of Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) were Sunday injured in a fight between members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Students Federation of India (SFI) near the campus, police said.

The clash erupted over sharing of a ground where the ABVP activists held a 'shakha' and the SFI members played cricket, police said.

At a press conference Wednesday, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders Sanjay Chohan, Kuldeep Tanwar and Vijendra Mehra alleged that RSS shakhas were being held on HPU premises and other educational institutions.

They demanded that this should end.

Later, state Youth Congress president Manish Thakur also made the same charge.

When contacted, the HPU vice chancellor Sikander Kumar rejected the allegation. No RSS shakha is organised on HPU premises, he told PTI, stressing that the shakha was at Potter Hill, which is near the university.

On the Potter Hill clash, the SFI claimed their members were attacked for playing cricket there.

The ABVP alleged the SFI activists attacked the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) shakha with sharp-edged weapons.

The CPM also alleged that some RSS workers carrying sticks held a march near the HPU hostel the same day to intimidate SFI activists.

The VC said a three- member fact-finding committee headed by Pro VC Rajinder Singh Chauhan has already been constituted to probe the clash.

The police have registered FIRs on the complaints of the two groups.

The CPM and Youth Congress also claimed that people affiliated to the RSS were being recruited by the university.

Sikander Kumar was the state president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's Scheduled Caste Morcha, before his appointment as vice chancellor last August.

The VC said all rules are being followed, adding that similar allegations were levelled against the Congress when it was in power in the state.

The university probe committee has sought the CCTV footage to look into other fights between the two groups in the campus itself, following the clash at Potter Hill.

Meanwhile, the university has banned students from wearing badges showing their affiliation to any group.

It has also warned students staying unauthorisedly in the hostel that they will be handed over to the police.