logo
Ruckus at Kerala University event: Raj Bhavan seeks report from VC

Ruckus at Kerala University event: Raj Bhavan seeks report from VC

Time of India2 days ago

T'puram: Raj Bhavan has sought a report from Kerala University vice-chancellor (VC) Mohanan Kunnummal regarding attempts to disrupt an event attended by governor
at the university senate hall on Wednesday.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
Following this, the VC issued a show-cause notice to university registrar Anil Kumar seeking an explanation from the official who allegedly filed a complaint against the organisers of the controversial event without the knowledge and consent of the VC.
SFI and KSU workers protested against the organizers of the event at the senate hall which marked the anniversary of the Emergency where a portrait of Bharat Mata was used.
Following this, the university registrar asked the organizers to cancel the programme after they refused to remove the portrait as demanded by the registrar. It was argued that the portrait was a religious symbol, and no religious symbol can be used in the hall owned by the university.
The VC asked the registrar to explain in detail the circumstances that led to lodging a police complaint against the organizers without his knowledge.
It is alleged that the registrar filed the complaint on the instructions of the university syndicate.
The registrar, who reached the senate hall, told the organisers of the programme to remove the Bharat Mata portrait or else cancel the programme. However, the Padmanabha Seva Samithi office bearers refused the demands and went ahead with the programme. The VC has also asked the registrar to present the copy of the cancellation order issued by the registrar.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

BJP ‘first party' to push for caste census: Union Minister
BJP ‘first party' to push for caste census: Union Minister

Hans India

timean hour ago

  • Hans India

BJP ‘first party' to push for caste census: Union Minister

Bengaluru:Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav claimed on Saturday that the BJP was the 'first party' since Independence to push for a caste census. He said that under the 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' (Together with all, development for all) policy, the BJP aims to bring change to all sections of society based on scientific data. He said that over the past 11 years, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, numerous developmental and welfare schemes had been implemented for the benefit of the poor and marginalised. He noted that it was PM Modi who gave constitutional status to the OBC Commission. Yadav emphasised that the Registrar General of India was empowered to conduct caste censuses and said that for the first time since Independence, such an exercise was being carried out to responsibly collect data on social, economic, caste-based, and educational indicators. He recalled that after the end of the Emergency, a non-Congress government, the Janata Party, came to power at the Centre and constituted the Mandal Commission. Yadav asserted that the BJP was the first party since Independence to push for a caste census. He mentioned that the Congress mouthpiece 'National Herald' had even published an article advocating for one-party rule in India. Following this, BK Nehru had written a letter, and a committee was reportedly formed within the Congress on this matter. Yadav alleged that Congress had long been engaged in a systematic effort to equate the party with the family, and the family with the nation. This ideology, he said, led to the declaration of Emergency. He concluded by saying that the Emergency was remembered as a dark chapter in Indian democracy, one that ignited a people's struggle driven by national self-respect and democratic values.

Insider track: Three in race to replace Delhi police chief
Insider track: Three in race to replace Delhi police chief

New Indian Express

timean hour ago

  • New Indian Express

Insider track: Three in race to replace Delhi police chief

Emergency, Constitution & Bihar polls Where else than poll-bound Bihar for a political showdown on Emergency and the Constitution? Politicians are shovelling deep, looking for shining gems from the archives to blind their rivals. The Congress' 'Samvidhan Badlav' battles with the BJP's 'Samvidhan Hatya'. The latter's campaign against the Congress' Emergency-era clampdown faces the former's accusation that the saffron party is secretly plotting to amend the Constitution. The RJD has also found a weapon, in the form of the recent statement by senior RSS leader Dattatreya Hosabale regarding 'Socialism' and 'Secularism' in the Preamble — terms he claims shouldn't be there — to push back hard. 'This statement is gold,' an RJD strategist said. 'We don't even have to say much. The RSS is doing it for us. The public will see through it.' To recall, in the last assembly polls, Lalu Yadav used to hold up a copy of 'Bunch of Thoughts' — a compilation of speeches by RSS founder M S Golwalkar — at rallies. He didn't need words — just the book and a knowing look. That was enough to rattle the BJP's messaging. New buzz around BJP ex-ministers In BJP circles, there's quiet chatter about a group of once-prominent Union ministers who are now absent from both the government and Parliament. Names like Smriti Irani, Raj Kumar Singh, Ram Kripal Yadav, Ashwini Choubey, Shahnawaz Hussain, Ravi Shankar Prasad, and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Party insiders suggest that Shahnawaz Hussain, Raj Kumar Singh, and Ram Kripal Yadav—one of the few influential Yadav leaders in the Bihar BJP—may get roles in the organisation or on key committees. Ahead of Bihar's assembly polls, There's also talk of some returning to electoral politics, where their regional clout could help the party. Choubey and Naqvi are reportedly in line for gubernatorial posts, while Irani and Prasad may be given crucial organisational responsibilities.

Indira Gandhi endgame: What impelled her to call elections?
Indira Gandhi endgame: What impelled her to call elections?

Indian Express

time2 hours ago

  • Indian Express

Indira Gandhi endgame: What impelled her to call elections?

Prodipto Ghosh has vivid recollection of the evening of January 18, 1977. He was listening to the radio when he heard Indira Gandhi announce that fresh general elections will be held in March that year. The then 28-year-old additional district magistrate (ADM) in South Delhi, Ghosh had gone through a tumultuous period during the Emergency, uneasy about several detentions he had to carry out. That evening's broadcast came as a huge relief to him – also as a surprise, since at the local administration level, no one had any inkling of Mrs Gandhi's move. In the higher echelons of power though, the buzz of the Emergency being relaxed had been doing the rounds. Kuldip Nayar, who was then an editor with The Indian Express, had just two days ago broken a story in the paper, published under the headline 'Lok Sabha elections likely in March'. 'The Indian Express took a massive risk by publishing it,' remembers Devsagar Singh, 76, who was the university beat reporter at the Express at that time. Nayar, who had got a tip-off from a Punjab Police officer, was aware of the consequence – that he might be again sent to jail. Once Mrs Gandhi called the Lok Sabha polls, Devsagar recalls, the Express newsroom rejoiced. Like Ghosh, even 50 years later, a crucial mystery remains as to why Mrs Gandhi called the elections when she did. Over the years, several scholars have proposed various theories. Historian Srinath Raghavan, who recently came out with the book Indira Gandhi and the years that transformed India, points to two assessment reports prepared for Mrs Gandhi between June and October 1976 outlining the Emergency's impact during the previous year. 'The thrust of both these reports was to suggest that the first year of the (Emergency's) anniversary has gone off well – popular unrest and protests have come to a halt, economy has been stabilised, inflation is kept in check, the 20 point programme has given hope to the poor in rural India, and that political opposition continues to remain in disarray,' says Raghavan. However, the reports also suggested that the benefits of the Emergency might be tapering off due to some of its more coercive programmes such as the forced sterilisation campaign. The October 1976 report in particular, , Raghavan says, flagged that the Congress was losing support in Uttar Pradesh among its traditional voters, including the poor and minorities, due to the sterilisation drive. 'In the broader context of things, the Prime Minister had come to internalise that the benefits of the Emergency might be slowly wearing off and, before things turned adverse, it was better to go into elections,' Raghavan states. Others suggest that the only reason Mrs Gandhi declared fresh elections was because she was confident she would win. In his book India after Gandhi, historian Ramachandra Guha notes that the gossip in Delhi coffee houses then was that the PM's intelligence chief had assured her of being re-elected with a clear majority. Guha also cites the criticism Mrs Gandhi drew from western observers as a reason. What particularly stung was criticism by those who had known her father Jawaharlal Nehru, and made comparisons between the two. British socialist politician Fenner Brockaway, for instance, writing in The Times, deplored the conversion of 'the world's greatest democracy' into 'a repressive dictatorship'. He appealed to Mrs Gandhi to end the denial of freedom and liberty in memory of her father. Another British writer, John Grigg, recalled Nehru's commitment to free press and elections. 'Nehru's tryst with destiny seems to have been turned into a tryst with despotism – and by his own daughter,' he wrote in The Spectator. Raghavan also says Mrs Gandhi was disturbed by the negative reportage in the international press. In his book, he cites a letter that she wrote to the Indian High Commissioner in London, in which she rebuked the British press for 'maligning' her and her son Sanjay Gandhi. However, Raghavan doesn't believe the negative press affected her much. 'The objective fact is that neither the British government nor the American government actually put any pressure on her to end the Emergency.' Historian Gyan Prakash, however, believes that Mrs Gandhi was conscious of her international image. 'The Emergency had broken many of the ties she had, including friendship with American writer Dorothy Norman, as one can see from their exchange of letters,' he says. Mrs Gandhi's secretary P N Dhar, writing several years later, offered another explanation — that, being the PM, she had started yearning for the public connect she had established. 'She was nostalgic about the way people reacted to her in the 1971 campaign and she longed again to hear the applause of the multitudes,' Dhar wrote. Arguing along similar lines, Prakash says: 'Indira Gandhi, in the end, wanted legitimacy to her role and thought that the elections would legitimise her power, including the Emergency… If one thinks of Indira Gandhi's long career, it is true that the way she had ruled was to try and secure popular support for her power. She was not prepared to rule as an authoritarian figure in the long run.' Given that Gandhi's private papers have yet to be made accessible, there is no conclusive way to know what persuaded her to begin the process of ending the Emergency. However, as she spoke on the radio on January 18, 1977, her opponents were being released from jails across the country. The following day, the leaders of four Opposition parties — Morarji Desai's Congress (O), Jana Sangh, Bharatiya Lok Dal and Socialist Party — met at Desai's residence in Delhi. The next day Desai announced to the press that they would fight the elections under a common party and its symbol. On January 23, the Janata (People's) Party was launched in the presence of Jayaprakash Narayan or JP. The speed with which the Opposition parties merged to form the Janata Party stunned Mrs Gandhi. She had calculated that there would not be sufficient time for these parties to fulfill legal and technical requirements meant for creation of a new party. 'JP had been trying to bring everyone together since 1974 itself,' says Abhishek Choudhary, who authored the book Vajpayee: the Ascent of the Hindu Right 1924-1977. In 1977, however, they were desperate, and scared that unless they presented themselves as a united force, they would be defeated. Choudhary states that despite being united, the Opposition was far from sure of victory. What shifted the mood in the Opposition camp was the resignation of Jagjivan Ram from the Congress. One of the country's tallest Dalit leaders, Jagjivan, popularly known as 'Babuji', was a Congress stalwart whose defection dealt a blow to the party and boosted the Opposition's morale. The newspapers called it the moment when the 'J-bomb' exploded. Much has been written about the election rallies that turned increasingly fiery and eventful in the ensuing days. So was the day of the results. Journalist Coomi Kapoor, who was a reporter at the Express at the time, recalls, in her memoir on The Emergency, the evening of March 20, 1977, when the poll results started pouring in. Outside the Express office, she notes, there was a billboard where the latest results were put up manually. Each time a fresh Janata Party win was shown on the board, wild cheers erupted. Coins were showered on the man updating the results. 'Some people were doing the bhangra, while others were laughing and joking, 'Mummy meri car gayi', 'Beta meri sarkaar gayi',' writes Kapoor. By late evening, when the Express announced that Gandhi was trailing in her Rae Bareli constituency, the crowd burst firecrackers. 'Old-timers said they had not witnessed such public exuberance since Independence Day in 1947,' Kapoor adds. The election outcome saw the Janata Party emerging as the victor, which set the stage for the formation of the country's first non-Congress government. Most of the ministers lost their seats. Next day, at an early-morning Cabinet meeting held by Mrs Gandhi, the Emergency was revoked. Adrija Roychowdhury leads the research section at She writes long features on history, culture and politics. She uses a unique form of journalism to make academic research available and appealing to a wide audience. She has mastered skills of archival research, conducting interviews with historians and social scientists, oral history interviews and secondary research. During her free time she loves to read, especially historical fiction. ... Read More

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store