Telangana: Twelve EFLU students detained during protest against RSS leader's talk
Police took the students, six of them members of the campus student union, to the Osmania University police station, after which the event went ahead as scheduled.
Twelve students, including six Student Union members, were placed under preventive detention at Hyderabad's English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) on Wednesday while protesting against a talk by Telangana RSS prant pracharak (state-level organiser) Lingam Sridhar.
Police detained the students around 5 pm and took them to Osmania University police station. The event continued as scheduled.
The protest was organised by a student union comprising groups including the Fraternity Movement and the NSUI (National Students' Union of India), against an event held by the Bhagat Singh Youth Club on campus. A union member told media organisations the students protested after the administration declined to withdraw permission for the programme.
The programme, "Yuva Sankalp: Empowering Youth for Nation Building", was scheduled from 4.30 pm to 7 pm. Professor Satyabhan Singh Rajput, head of the Department of Russian Studies, and Vivekananda Youth Forum member Vinit Vaddepally were also to speak.
The Student Union said it opposed allowing an RSS leader to address students under the banner of what it described as an RSS-linked organisation. It alleged the administration had denied permission for events with academicians, human rights activists and student leaders while permitting RSS leaders, calling it an attempt to "saffronise" education.