The Meghalaya units of the World Organisation of Students and Youth (WOSY) and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) have both condemned the disruption of a celebration of Holi on the campus of North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) here yesterday.
While the exact timeline of events is still in dispute, NEHU’s Students Union (NEHUSU) claimed that its vice-president, Easterson Sohtun, sustained injuries in the clash with members of right-wing Hindutva groups, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and ABVP.
WOSY organised the function and it said yesterday that the claim of the RSS and ABVP’s participation is false. WOSY blames NEHUSU for starting the fracas.
Sohtun has also filed an FIR with police and said that NEHUSU’s intervention in the function was because it broke university rules. WOSY denies this.
Today, in separate press releases, the ABVP and WOSY criticised Sohtun for the disruption while also naming two other NEHUSU members, Aditya Sourav and Gurudutt Tripathi.
“This appalling incident, which occurred on March 25, 2024, was not only an attack on the cultural integrity of our institution but also a politically motivated act aimed at sowing discord and chaos,” WOSY’s local convenor, Sumarlin L Mawlong, said in her release today.
WOSY accused Sohtun of acting because he harbours political aspirations and for also lying to the media, distorting facts and creating a false narrative. It also called on the authorities to take action against the perpetrators of the violence.
The ABVP press release, signed by one “Bomsing Khongtir” largely covered the same ground. In fact, the two statements share much of the exact same language and were emailed to the press within 3 minutes of each other.
