“Don’t want to make the university a political Akhada”: DU Proctor on Rahul Gandhi’s visit

New Delhi [India], May 7 (ANI): Besides raising security concerns over Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the university campus, the proctor of Delhi University on Saturday raised an objection to the Congress leader’s unauthorized visit, adding that they are not in favour of transforming the university campus into a “Political Akhada” (political arena).

Rahul Gandhi on Friday visited Delhi University’s Post Graduate Men’s Hostel in Delhi University North Campus and interacted with students.

Rahul Gandhi during his visit sought to know about the issues faced by the students and their career plans. He also had lunch with the students at the hostel.

On Saturday, In a telephonic conversation with ANI, DU’s proctor Rajni Abbi said, “Around 1:10 or 1:15, I got a call from somewhere that Rahul Gandhi has come to the PG Men hostel. Now, being a proctor I should have known because they should have taken permission or police protection or anything because he’s a person of national importance.”

“He has a Z+ security. So I just rushed immediately to PG Men’s Hostel and I saw hundreds of students there. He was sitting in the mess, he was eating food, and there were 100 NSUI students. They were not residents of the PG men’s hostel, and they were surrounded and it was a stage-managed kind of program. He had four-five cameramen with him, two-three girls who were giving him cues that now he can speak, five minutes left, one more question all those kinds of things. Students were asking general questions, but the problem was that there are only around 75 residents in the PG men’s hostel, and there were so many of those students.”

Expressing concerns further, Rajni Abbi said, “Secondly, the security of the hostel was compromised in the sense that when he went in with so many students, the security guards could not stop him. God forbid nothing happened wrong, but suppose there was even a single notorious student in the crowd. Suppose somebody would have touched him or something happened, then who would have been responsible?”

She said that political activities will not be allowed in the university and action will be taken against whoever is responsible for it.

“Neither did they had taken any permission from the university nor the proctor office, the hostel itself, or the area SHO was told. Nothing like this happens. So if these types of things happen, and tomorrow other leaders from other parties will also start doing this. We don’t want to make the University a political Akhara (arena). So all these things will not be allowed in the university and we will take action against whoever is responsible for it,” she remarked.

Terming it to be a case of trespassing, she said, “We’re going to take the report from the hostel. How did it happen? Who took the permission and how all these hundreds of students (who were old students from NSUI) can they barge in? We are going to see the CCTV footage, identify all those students, and see what action can be taken.”

Last month, Former Congress President Gandhi interacted with students preparing for the Union Public Service Commission and the Staff Selection Commission examinations in the Mukherjee Nagar area.