On August 30th, a group of around 20 students staged a protest against foreign students offering Namaz on the football ground at GD Goenka University located on Sohna-Gurgaon road. The protesters also registered a complaint at the University registrar stating that there should be no practice of any religion in an open space.
According to the reports, the protesters raised slogans like ‘Jai Shri Ram’, ‘Ek hi naara, ek hi naam, Jai Shri Ram, Jai Shri Ram’ and objected to Islamic prayers being offered in the open space. Notably, the students who offered Namaz in an open space belonged to African countries including Nigeria and Ethiopia.
The incident is said to have happened on Tuesday, August 30 for a brief period when around 8-10 foreign students offered Namaz on the football ground of the University. The students who staged the protest complained to the registrar that students should offer Namaz either in their hostel room or in the places of worship.
“If they want to study namaz, then they have to go to their allotted hostel room… especially outsiders are not allowed for worship namaz… they should go to a nearby mosque. There should be a class on Friday for all students and no one should get a proxy if they are going (to) worship namaz (sic)”, the complaint read.
The students also demanded different plates categorized as veg or non-veg in the hostel. “There should be no discrimination between Hindus and Muslims. But there should be different plates categorized as veg or non-veg in the hostel. The plates should not be mixed”, the complaint letter read.
The incident was immediately recognized by the registrar named Dr Dhirendra Singh Parihar who amicably settled the matter within 15-20 minutes. He also directed the foreign students to offer Namaz in their hostel rooms or at the place of worship and not in the University open spaces. The registrar meanwhile rubbished the rumours that the University had allowed a special room for students to offer Namaz.
“These rumours are baseless. The university does not discriminate between any communities. There has not been any conflict in the university in the past on these issues”, he was quoted. He meanwhile also added that those students who staged the protest were not associated with any political party.
Inspector Umesh Kumar, SHO Sohna City Gurugram while talking to OpIndia confirmed the incident and said, “During our routine patrolling, we went inside Goenka University. We had received information about the incident on phone. However, on reaching there we were told by the university administration that no such dispute had occurred. They said that it was their internal matter which had been resolved”.
According to the inspector, no written complaint has been received from any side. He also confirmed that there was a misunderstanding amongst the students and that the situation is completely under control now.
