Two groups of students clashed before the School Education Minister Deepak Joshi here on Thursday at the local Motilal Vigyan Mahavidyalaya (MVM). Joshi was in the college to participate in the orientation programme of National Service Scheme (NSS) where debate was in progress over ‘Whether or not the dress code be implemented in the colleges’. This resulted in controversy and the condition became so worst that things reached to scuffle between two groups of the students.
The situation turned volatile because the slogan shouting activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) barged into the hall where orientation program was going on, by pushing and shoving NSS workers and professors.
The minister came down from the stage and tried to pacify the agitated ABVP activists, but they besieged the minister and registered their objections over dress code and other issues. They complained that students of the college are not invited in the programs of NSS.
Although, after sometime police reached the spot and took control of the situation.
Meanwhile, the state government claimed that students’ opinion regarding dress code in a college was sought by students. The students gave reasons for and against dress code, but in the end, majority of them consented for dress code. Minister of State for Higher and School Education held discussions with students opposing dress code at an orientation programme held by NSS at MVM.
The Minister said that dress gives a feeling of being student. He asked NSS students to adopt families instead of villages. Joshi exhorted them to put schemes into practice instead of raising slogans. He gave away certificates and shields for outstanding performance under the scheme.
About dress code, the students said that it erases differences between rich and poor. Students remain disciplined. Expenditure on clothes can be made on books. MVM Principal Deepti Sen and other professors also spoke on the occasion.