A group of students of Jawaharlal Nehru University have alleged that they were not allowed to perform a prayer ceremony in a hostel due to "politically motivated" reasons, a charge denied by the hostel warden.
The student group has written to university Vice Chancellor alleging that the Jhelum hostel warden had on last Saturday, asked a congregation to disperse from one of the rooms where they were performing a havan.
They have also alleged that the warden's move was politically motivated to not allow prayers.
The warden, however, claimed that it was the risk of fire hazard that prompted this decision.
Jitendra, an MPhil student in Sanskrit Studies, said, "I had organised a prayer ceremony on the occasion of my birthday. We were a group of 15-20 students. We were performing havan and chanting mantras but had to halt the prayer midway after the intervention of the warden."
Ashutosh Anand, one of the wardens of Jhelum Hostel, rubbished the allegations of stopping the ceremony due to religious reasons.
"Though havans are not part of any academic activities but our major concern was the fire hazard. Also, there were complaints from other students about the chanting of mantras," he said.
The report of the five-member panel had also pointed out
lapses on part of administration and taken into account the role of outsiders into the event. However, no action has been taken against any administrative official.
"As per the committee findings, application for holding this event 'circumvented' the 'permission process' and 'the organisers disobeyed the instructions from the administration' not to hold it and that amounted to 'willful defiance'," the JNU official said.
He said disciplinary measures have been taken for not following university procedures, providing misinformation to the university, misconduct and indiscipline, causing and colluding in the unauthorised entry of any person into the campus, putting up objectionable posters, arousing communal, caste or regional feelings and creating disharmony, blockade or forceful prevention of any normal movement of traffic and violation of security, safety rules notified by the university.
Based on the preliminary report of the committee, the university had suspended eight students, however, their suspension was revoked when the panel had submitted it report on March 11.
