Kasaragod: The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the RSS, on Friday, July 22, burned an effigy of Central University of Kerala Vice-Chancellor Prof Siddu P Algur after he suspended classes following a demand by the SFI. The Students' Federation of India (SFI), the student wing of the CPM, had called for a nationwide protest in solidarity with the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), and demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the scrapping of the National Testing Agency (NTA).

The ABVP state committee member R Adarsh said suspending classes was against university rules and accused Prof Algur of acting in favour of the SFI. "The Vice-Chancellor should explain the decision to the students," ABVP demanded.

The ABVP also alleged that the SFI's protest disrupted examinations on the campus. "They entered the classrooms and disrupted examinations that were underway," said Adarsh, who is also a student of CUK.

When contacted, university officials said no examinations were disrupted, as postgraduate classes had only just begun and the university was busy with admissions to its four-year undergraduate programmes.

SFI unit secretary Syed Ali S said his organisation had called the protest after the Delhi Police used lathis, tear gas, rubber bullets and pellet guns to disperse protesters marching towards Parliament on July 20.

He said SFI activists went from classroom to classroom explaining the reasons for the protest, and some students joined them when they walked out. The SFI students then marched from Milma Circle to the Administrative Block and staged a sit-in until the Vice-Chancellor came out to meet them. “He asked us what our demand was, and we said classes should be suspended. He agreed,” Ali said.

At 1.45 pm, the Registrar issued an order suspending classes. University officials said the Ministry of Education was in regular contact with senior university officials, with one specific instruction: peaceful protests should be allowed and maintaining peace on campus should be the priority. “The Vice-Chancellor gave priority to maintaining peace on campus,” a university official said.