Ramjas scare

different colleges) which were supposed to be staged had anti-national themes,” said Ghosh.

When contacted, DUSU president Amit Tanwarclaimedthecollegeprincipal,jaswinder Singh,calledhimuponthursdaymorningand askedifitwasagoodideatoholdthefestival.“i told him that if the plays contained anti-national themes, the competition should be cancelled.wedidnotthreatenanyone.theprincipal decided to cancel the event,” said Tanwar.

But the college principal said the festival was not cancelled, and he had not read the scripts of the plays. “The programme has not been cancelled, it has only been postponed. There is no question of it being cancelled because of an anti-national theme, as I have not gonethroughanyscript.wewillholdthecompetition at a later date, when the environment is more peaceful,” said Singh.

Thisisnotthefirsttimethatkhalsacollege has been forced to cancel a theatre performancefollowingthreats.in2015,thecollegehad to cancel the staging of a play called ‘Welcome to the Machine’, which was based on communal riots and polarisation. “The DUSU members called the play anti-hindu, though it was completely inaccurate,” said Ghosh.

Meanwhile, the campus remained peacefulonthursdayamidtheheavydeploymentof police personnel. Classes were suspended for half-a-day because of the university flower show. University authorities expect the situation to return to normal next week, as Friday is aholidayandmanycollegesdon’thaveclasses on Saturday.

Theclashesonwednesdaytookplaceaday after Ramjas College authorities withdrew an invitation to JNU students Umar Khalid, who was booked for sedition last year, and Shehla Rashid to address a seminar on Culture of Protests.therss-affiliatedabvpmembershad clashed with students and teachers at the college, objecting to the invitation to the two JNU students. The Left-wing AISA protested and demanded an FIR against the ABVP members for alleged vandalism.