Members of Brahmin community and Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad stage a protest against the removal of Janivara (sacred thread) of a student, appearing for the NEET exam, in Kalaburagi on Sunday.
Credit: DH Photo
Kalaburagi: A few weeks after the Janivara row that marred the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET), a student was asked to remove his sacred thread at the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) examination centre in Kalaburagi on Sunday.
Furious over the incident, members of various Brahmin outfits, along with activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) staged a demonstration in protest against the invigilator’s conduct.
Shripad Sudheer was told by the staff, deputed for the examination duty, that he would not be permitted inside the examination centre if he did not remove the sacred thread.
“Another student was also asked to remove the sacred thread. I told the invigilator that there were no metals attached to the Janivara and it could, in any way, be used for malpractice, But my pleas fell on deaf ears,” a distraught Sudheer told journalists after the exam.
Sudheer, a native of Betabelakunda village in Basavakalyan taluk, Bidar, is pursuing studies at a private college in the city.
He said he removed and handed it to his father, who had accompanied him to the examination centre.
“I was so anguished over the incident that I could not even focus on the test,” said Pateel, adding that it was with tears in his eyes that he had divested himself of the sacred thread.
The angry protesters, who tried to barge into the examination centre, were stopped by the police. However, members of several Brahmin outfits and ABVP activists assembled on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel-Sharanabasaveshwara Road in the city.
They set a tyre on fire to express their outrage and demanded a public apology from those who had asked the student to remove the Janivara.
Amid chanting of hymns, Sudheer put on a new Janivara on the spot.
Former minister Bhagwanth Khuba said that the incident at the Kalaburagi examination centre was yet another illustration of the Congress government’s communal politics, besides its continued suppression of Hindu society.
He also demanded swift action against the errant officials who had forced the student to remove the Janivara.
Meanwhile, Ramesh Kulkarni, president of the Bidar district chapter of the Brahmin Mahasangha, called for action against the college in Kalaburagi.
Kulkarni also demanded that the government offer some form of compensation to Shripada Sudhir, who had to bear the brunt of the invigilator’s actions.