Hundreds of people, mostly Dalits from different parts of Kalaburagi and surrounding districts, took out a 5-km padayatra from Kadaganchi village to Central University of Karnataka (CUK) in Aland taluk of Kalaburagi district on Wednesday, condemning the alleged saffronisation of the university campus.
Organised under the banner of ‘Komuvada Alisi – Karnataka Central University Ulisi’, an umbrella organisation with different Dalit, progressive, democratic and left outfits and individuals, the protesters garlanded Dr. B.R. Ambedkar statue in Kadaganchi village and began their march.
Throughout the 5-km protest march, the protesters raised slogans against “communalising” the CUK campus. They levelled allegations against Vice-Chancellor Battu Satyanarayana, Registrar R.R. Biradar, former Registrar and English professor Basavaraj Donur and faculty member Rohinaksha Shirlalu.
As the procession reached the CUK campus, police prevented the protesters from entering. They later staged a demonstration on the inter-State highway connecting Kalaburagi with Aland in Karnataka and Omerga in Maharashtra. The traffic movement came to a standstill on the inter-State highway for over four hours.
Addressing the protesters, D.G. Sagar, a Dalit leader and the president of the umbrella group, alleged that organisations like RSS were gaining grounds in CUK after Mr. Satyanarayana assumed office.
“The people of Kalyana Karnataka had fought for years demanding the establishment of a Central University in the region hoping that it would help eradicate educational backwardness of the region. But the Vice-Chancellor is doing everything to defeat the very purpose of the establishment of the university. He is running RSS and ABVP branches in the university instead of focusing on academics. He is encouraging superstitions and regressive Hindutva ideology instead of imparting scientific education. He is implicating Dalit, left and progressive students who question him,” Mr. Sagar alleged.
Activists Meenakshi Bali, K. Neela, Ashwini Madankar, Mahesh Rathod, Maruthi Gokhale, Bhimashankar Madiyal, scholar R.K. Hudgi, Koli community leader Lachhappa Jamadar, Congress leader Renuka Singhe, and many more leaders participated in the agitation.
