Members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad – the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh – barged into the campus of Jammu University and disrupted the final match of a football tournament, alleging disrespect to the national anthem. They held a sit-in protest and forced the authorities to call off the tournament on Friday, reported PTI.

ABVP supporters were protesting against an incident that had allegedly taken place on April 3, when the inter-university sports event had kicked off. The activists claimed that students of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture, Science and Technology had shown disrespect to the national anthem.

Advertisement

“We have cited a photograph, which is being circulated on social media, purportedly showing two students from Kashmir talking to each other during the national anthem at the inaugural function on April 3, disrespecting the national anthem”, an ABVP member told PTI. However, Friday’s match was between students of Jammu University and the Islamic University of Science and Technology.

University authorities have set up a committee to look into the allegations. “We cannot allow anybody to disrespect the national anthem. A committee has been set up to probe the allegation,” Vice Chancellor RD Sharma told PTI.

However, Jammu ABVP Secretary Deepak Gupta told CNN-News18 that the men who had barged into the varsity were not members of the outfit. “Those who stopped the match are not from the ABVP. They might be students from the university. We saw the video of the students who were not standing in a proper position. We demand action against them by university authorities,” he told the news channel.

Around 700 students from 12 universities of Jammu and Kashmir are taking part in the inter-university sports championship. “We had to cancel some of the competitions because we have three venues on the campus, and it is difficult to organise and control a situation like this created by such elements,” the vice chancellor said.