Hyderabad: Following the late night demolition of the temporary memorial on the south campus of University of Hyderabad by the Administration, yesterday, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) have today installed a permanent memorial of Amar Jawa Stupa and renamed the area as Kargil Chowk.
“Initially, the plan was to install a temporary memorial. Following the administration’s move, we have decided to install a permanent memorial, which will be called as the Vijay Chowk,” a member of ABVP was quoted saying.
Abhishek Malhotra ABVP member said: “We had set up the stupa for 24 hours but when the administration took it down we realized that it fears the impact of having a nationalistic symbol on campus and decided to make it permanent.”
The university officials claimed the temporary structure was set up on Thursday 26 July without permission from the university authorities.
The security officials have earlier instructed the students to remove the structure but the students installed a concrete structure around 2 am the very same day and inaugurated it on Friday evening.
The university official said no such installation permission was granted to the students. “We will be having a conversation with student parties to ensure that no such activity takes place in the future,” said the official.
Speaking on the subject and questions raised after the university’s action, Professor G. Haragopal, ex-faculty member, said, “Limiting one’s approach and being narrow-minded about nationalism will harm the university. A stupa cannot be considered as a symbol of nationalism. Nationalism is not territorial and narrow views will prove to be counter productive to the idea of nationalism.”
Other than the controversy about nationalism that gripped the University officials, whitewashing the campus walls, also raised questions about the university’s decision.
Paintings and drawings of leaders and other personalities like Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh, Karl Marx and others were also painted over during the whitewash.
Kuldeep Singh Student Union president said, “The whitewashing was done at 3 am when they knew students would not be around. When we spoke to the administration, they were adamant that political figures not related to academics should not be highlighted.”