GUWAHATI: The North East Cell of Sri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) on January 23 cancelled a scheduled panel discussion on the Citizenship Act protests because of the “possibility of violence on campus”. The discussion was titled: “Why the North East India is protesting?”
“In an emergency meeting held mere hours before the event, the administration and the principal informed us that the event is cancelled due to unavoidable circumstances,” the organisers said in a statement.
The college under Delhi University had to cancel the discussion after it reportedly came under pressure from the ABVP, the student wing of RSS.
The event, titled 'Why is the Northeast Protesting', had speakers like the editor-in-chief of North East Today’s Padyot Manikya, The Wire’s deputy editor Sangeet Barooah Pisharoty, research scholar, trade unionist and activist from Assam Nayan Jyoti, independent researcher Leki Thungon and Delhi University Prof Amrapali Basumatary.
A student associated with the group told “This discussion was the need of the hour which garnered immense support and we were expecting a large number of students all from over the campus.”
Addressing the matter, Gajendra Chaudhury, a member of the politically neutral SRCC students union said, "We checked the background of the speakers and found that they were all from one ideology. So we requested the administration to cancel the event. Also, they had not routed the event through the students union."
Students of the NE cell are extremely disheartened and feel the eminent individuals who were supposed to speak at the event were disrespected.
“We are appalled by the message circulated by the students union that claims that our event would ‘indulge in violence and spread misleading information among students.’ This was extremely disrespectful towards our speakers, two of whom are professors of this very university,” a student said.
