Kozhikode: Unrest broke out on the campus of the National Institute of Technology - Calicut after a lone student protesting with a placard 'India is not a Ram Rajya' was assaulted allegedly by a group of students celebrating the consecration of Ram Temple on Monday.
The management had to call in the police to "diffuse the situation".
Later, based on "information and inputs from various security agencies", NIT indefinitely postponed the annual techno-management fest Tathva and the annual cultural festival Ragam, said a notice issued by the Registrar.
The Science and Spirituality Club (SNS), an "independent group" with the mission to spread spirituality and Indian culture, organised events to mark the consecration ceremony in Ayodhya on Sunday night and Monday morning, said students who are not part of the club.
On Sunday night, member students of the SNS club drew a saffron map of India at the main entrance and painted Lord Rama's bow and arrow in the middle of it. Kailas, a fourth-year BTech student criticised the saffron map on India in a WhatsApp group and he was allegedly assaulted, said a student leader.
Monday morning, Vysakh, a fourth-year student of Electronics and Communication went out with a placard that read 'India is not a Rama Rajya'. "The members of SNS club who were raising slogans of Jai Shree Ram tore his placard. Vysakh returned with another placard with the same words. They tore it again. But when Vaishak came back for the third time with the placard, they assaulted him," said the student leader from the same department.
Soon, students supporting Vysakh grouped behind him, and heated words were exchanged between the two groups of students.
SNS club members took out a demonstration on the campus raising the 'Jai Shree Ram' slogan and the other group also took out a demonstration.
The institute management called in the police as the situation was spiralling out of control. But the students supporting Vysakh said the police tried to remove them from the scene and not the SNS club members and they opposed it. Later, police held talks and dispersed the two groups.
The Registrar's notice said that there were "incidents of student unrest/ altercations based on the community, faith and belief" on the campus. "The institute authorities, with the help of the police, diffused the situation," it said.
The fallout of the clash, however, is the indefinite postponement of the students' annual events, Tathva and Ragam.
