The Delhi University’s Hansraj College will not be serving non-vegetarian foods in the hostel or canteen. Hansraj College principal Rama Sharma on Wednesday refused to withdraw an order discontinuing non-veg food in the hostel and canteen despite widespread criticism and asserted the DU constituent college follows Arya Samaj’s philosophy.
Meanwhile, a group of students affiliated to the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has called for a protest at DU’s Hansraj College against the “discontinuation” of non-vegetarian food at the institution and alleged attempts at “saffronising the campus”.
Sharma also claimed that 90 per cent of the students are vegetarian and they had earlier protested over non-veg food being served in the hostel. Hansraj College’s decision to discontinue serving non-vegetarian food at its canteen and hostel after it reopened following the pandemic in February last year has drawn sharp criticism from several quarters.
Though students claimed that no notice was issued in this matter, Sharma clarified that “a notice was issued and the hostel prospectus mentioned that no non-veg food will be served at the hostel”.
The principal claimed that non-veg food was never served in the canteen and it has been discontinued in the hostel after informing students. “Earlier, vegetarians and non-vegetarians used to sit separately. Now they can sit together and eat. Students had protested earlier about the canteen serving non-veg. They said the same utensils are being used and some students had apprehensions,” she added.
“We are not going to withdraw the notice regarding non-veg food. It is an Arya Samaj college. We have our philosophy and that is why we won’t serve non-veg food. We conduct ‘havan’ regularly. We follow our rules. It is written in the hostel prospectus that non-veg food will not be served in the hostel”.
“We don’t ask St Stephen’s (college) to conduct ‘havan’. We don’t interfere with Khalsa College rules. Then why are we being questioned? We don’t say do not eat non-veg food. We just simply ask don’t bring non-veg food in college,” Sharma added.
Meanwhile, a group of students affiliated to the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has called for a protest at DU’s Hansraj College against the “discontinuation” of non-vegetarian food at the institution and alleged attempts at “saffronising the campus”.
The Hansraj College unit of the SFI said in a statement that an uproar is scaling inside the college campus against the “ban” on non-vegetarian food and the protest will be held outside the Hansraj Hostel on January 20.
The students said Hansraj College stopped serving non-vegetarian food at its canteen and hostel after it reopened following the pandemic in February last year. There has, however, been no official order on this.