- Govt tells colleges to ensure ‘100% attendance’ at rally
AJAY SUKUMARAN
"The Telegraph"
Bangalore, Feb. 28: Classes were suspended at many colleges in BJP-ruled Karnataka today so that L.K. Advani could reach out to “Youngistan”.
The state’s higher education department sent out letters to colleges affiliated to Bangalore University, making attendance at a rally the BJP leader addressed compulsory for undergraduate students and faculty.
G. Ramesh, the deputy commissioner of police (central), said about 20,000 people, most of them students, attended the meeting at Bangalore’s Palace Grounds. Other estimates put the number at 50,000 as the crowd kept swelling after the rally began at noon.
The event, organised by the education department, closed a 47-day awareness campaign, “Wipe out terrorism — save the nation”, held on college campuses across the state.
Educational institutions in Bengal are accustomed to diktats from the ruling party asking students and teachers to attend political rallies. But not so in Bangalore where principals were taken by surprise.
“Creating awareness is a good idea, but there was no need for a massive rally like this,” said a Bangalore college principal who did not wish to be named.
About 2,000 students from his college attended the three-hour rally, he said, adding he had indeed received a letter from the higher education department yesterday which asked for “100 per cent attendance”.
There are around 700 colleges affiliated to Bangalore University in and around the city. It is not known if all the institutions received the letter.
The event saw government machinery being put to work, from organising buses to ferry students from the city and its outskirts, to distributing refreshments.
An engineering student said his college management had shut the gates after the students entered the campus in the morning and did not let them out. Around 20 buses arranged by the government were at their service to take them to the Palace Grounds.
Did Advani inspire him? “The speech was not oriented towards saving your country… It was basically a political gimmick,” said the student, who will vote for the first time in the Lok Sabha elections.
From blogging to lifting weights in a Gandhinagar gym to prove he is fighting fit, the octogenarian leader who is the BJP’s candidate for Prime Minister has been trying to reach out to the roughly 10 crore first-time voters and give the Congress’ leader-in-waiting Rahul Gandhi a run for his money.
The BJP leader has launched a campaign called Advani@campus to reach out to students across 5,000 colleges in the country. The tagline for the campaign: “He has the experience of 80 and the enthusiasm of 20.”
Today, though, he didn’t have anything special for the students: he spoke against terror, calling it the most important issue, and condemned the attack on women at a Mangalore pub by the Sri Ram Sene, a Hindutva group, some weeks ago.
Y.S.V. Datta, a spokesperson for Janata Dal (Secular), cried foul. “It is misusing government machinery and the exchequer.”
I have always maintained there is just no difference between
any of the political parties.
When th CPM requisitioned students to attend their rallies,
I had expressed my displeasure.
Here we have Advani, of the party which supposed to be different,
committing the same crime.
Yes, it is criminal calling the students to attend rallies
at the expense of their classes.
The BJP should realize that only good government will get it votes.
Naredra Modi has proved it.
They should stop flogging the dead horse of Mandir and Ayodhya.
We do require a change, that too very fast.
Radheshyam
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