A clash between students, which also involved a number of outsiders, took place at North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) during a celebration of Holi, with both sides blaming the other.
NEHU’s Students Union (NEHUSU) claimed that its vice-president, Easterson Sohtun, sustained injuries in the clash with members of right-wing Hindu groups, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
Those celebrating Holi, the World Organisation of Students and Youth (WOSY), said that the claim of the RSS’s and ABVP’s participation is false. WOSY blames NEHUSU for starting the fracas.
The incident reportedly occurred at around 12:30pm when NEHUSU disrupted the celebration on the grounds that NEHU rules prohibit celebrations and political activities on campus. WOSY, however, argued that it had the requisite permission.
Sohtun, who later filed an FIR at Mawkynroh police outpost, alleged that around 200 RSS and ABVP members entered the campus with the intention of celebrating Holi, a Hindu spring festival.
In his FIR, the NEHUSU vice-president alleged that three individuals, who he named as Kamlesh Singh, Amit Tripathi and Anubhav Pandey, had assaulted him. Sohtun was reportedly treated at a hospital for his injuries.
WOSY Meghalaya chapter member Sumarlin L Mawlong filed a counter complaint, saying that the Holi celebration had received “proper permission” from the university authorities and that international students, friends and well-wishers were invited to participate.
“The event was going on very smoothly until the vice-president of NEHUSU along with some of his friends created a disturbance during the programme by hitting some of the common students who had come to attend the Holi programme,” Mawlong said, adding that the interference had all the hallmarks of a premeditated “attack”.
She also said that the ABVP was “not at all involved” in the incident and she also described the FIR against Singh, Pandey and Tripathi as “fake”.
The WOSY member described the NEHUSU intervention as an “incident of hatred” that has defamed the university in front of the international students invited to take part. It has also brought a bad name to the varsity and to the state, she added.
Without using the word itself, Mawlong said that the incident was communal in that it used local sentiments for personal gain to create differences within the student community of NEHU.
