A joint committee of student groups has urged V.R. Rajendran, Principal, Government Medical College, Kozhikode, to hold a meeting to discuss the controversy related to the portrayal of an interactive session held on the campus last year as an ‘anti-national activity’ by a private television channel.
The channel had quoted in its news report the minutes of a hospital development committee meeting where some of its members had raised concerns about the session in which Kafeel Khan, suspended lecturer from BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, was the chief guest.
The report also claimed that one of the assistant professors in the Department of Community Medicine was part of the ‘anti-national activity.’ The members also wanted to lodge a complaint with the police seeking an inquiry.
The students on Wednesday gheraoed the Principal for around three hours. There was mild tension there for a while.
In a memorandum submitted to the Principal, Ameen Abdulla P., college union chairman; Mohammed Asif, general secretary; Adarsh K.V. of the Students Federation of India; and Mohamed Fazil P. of the House Surgeons Association, claimed that an internal inquiry into the incident last year had found no ‘anti-national element’ in the event.
The students said the inquiry report should be made available to the District Police Chief (Kozhikode city) and the District Collector, who is the chairman of the hospital development committee. The Principal should also issue a press release clarifying these issues, they said. A meeting of the committee should be convened soon in which student representatives too should be invited, they added.