Hyderabad: Middle finger shown to protesting students at right-wing event in UoH

Hyderabad: Mild tension prevailed in the University of Hyderabad (UOH) when a programme was allowed to be held by right-wing think tank Pragna Bharati in the campus. After got students got to know of it, many of them were prevented from entering the event. The situation got more tense after a man, alleged to be an RSS member, showed protesting students a middle-finger while walking in.

At the event in UoH, known speakers such as right-wing ideologue Rajiv Malhotra and BJP Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy attended the event. Malhotra is most infamous on social media for featuring in a video with rape-accused Swami Ntiyananda, and discussing about a bizarre idea of how to get money from the billionaires in world to deliver it to them in the next life.

During the program organised by Pragna Bharati on Monday, several students were prevented from entering the talk. Students claims that only people who are affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were let in. Many who were unhappy with the presence of the right-wing speakers in UoH turned up to protest at the event.

Over the last few years the University of Hyderabad administration has also prevented various speakers from entering the campus to speak with the students (like Yogendra Yadav).

Pragna Bharati organised an interactive session with Rajiv Malhotra, Subramanian Swamy and Vijaya Viswanathan on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. in the Zakir Hussain lecture hall.

Among vidoes shot during the protest in UoH, one of those shows a man in kurta who was being escorted into the lecture hall. In that video, he responded to the sloganeering students by whistling at them and pointing his middle finger towards them.

“We were stopped from attending the session under the pretext that we did not register for the program. We only came because we wanted to listen to the speakers and interact with them,” said Kripa, the general secretary of the student union while speaking to Siasat.com.

She said a complaint against the man was given to the Gachibowli police and the University of Hyderabad administration also. In another video the police and UoH security were seen pulling the students away and preventing them from entering the hall.

The program organisers from Pragna Bharati said that they did not invite him to the sessions and that they had no clue about the incident until the police had informed them later. Speaking to Siasat.com, One of the organisers from Pragya Bharati, who identified himself as Sharmaji, called the students “anti-nationals”.

Various university students shared the video of the incident on social media, accusing RSS and ABVP of bringing the man (who showed the middle finger) into the university.