Students at Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) on Thursday raised objections after they were asked to attend a lecture on the topic ‘Knowing RSS’. (File)

Students at Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) on Thursday raised objections after they were asked to attend a lecture on the topic ‘Knowing RSS’, organised by Vishwa Samvad Kendra on February 15.

Several student organisations took objection to officials at Ranade Institute (journalism department) making it a part of the course timetable to attend the lecture. Following the ruckus, the administration announced that the lecture was taken off the timetable, and that a regular classroom lecture would instead be held. They further said students would not be sent out of campus for lectures on “such subjects”.

The lecture was to be delivered by RSS spokesperson Aniruddha Deshpande.

“We have a course called World View and the coordinator of the course felt that students could benefit from the lecture… By evening, a few student organisation representatives called me and warned of protests. There was no compulsion on students anyway and we decided to take it off the timetable,” said Ujjwala Barve, head of the department of communication and journalism.