Rajasthani students knock on MSU’s doors

Vadodara: Two days after a large number of students from Manipur urged MS University to end racial discrimination they face at the campus, students from Rajasthan approached the varsity officials on Wednesday calling the allegations baseless.
The students from Manipur had gathered in large numbers at the university head office on Monday following a clash between student groups belonging to Rajasthan and Manipur at the Manubhai Mehta Hall of MSU’s Halls of Residence.

While Manipuri students had claimed that they live in constant fear and face racial discrimination not only from Rajasthani students but also from the warden of the hall, Rajasthani students blamed them for repeated incidents of violence at the hostel campus.

Demanding that the university authorities should expel three students from Manipur who they alleged were directly responsible for the clashes, the students from Rajasthan demanded justice for Anshuman Singh Shakatawat, a second year student from Faculty of Arts, who got severely injured on March 11 after being allegedly attacked by a group of six students from Manipur.

The students from Rajasthan claimed that the violence on the intervening night of March 1 and March 2 had also started because of infighting between two students from Manipur – a claim which Manipuri students have already refuted in the past.

The students from Rajasthan also claimed that it is not for the first time that Manipuri students have created nuisance in the hostel.

“They live in an unhygienic way, making food which makes the lobby smell very bad, dump the leftover food in the common bathrooms and sinks which makes them clogged with dirty water (sic),” states the memorandum that students from Rajasthan submitted to Neerja Jaiswal, MSU registrar .

“They don’t take care of the hostel. They dump their waste and garbage in the hostel lobby and kick the dustbins around,” the memorandum further states, adding that “they drive around the hostel recklessly, speeding and swerving, several times injuring others.”

“They have the advantage of framing anyone with the “racial discrimination” tag. That makes them think that they can do anything irresponsible with anyone and in the end when the authorities ask them, they can easily say that the person abused them racially,” the representation states, adding that such false allegations will only pollute atmosphere at the hostel campus.