“I am from Bangladesh and I eat fish,” Sudeepto Das told Scroll over the phone from Dhaka.
On July 15, the South Asian University in the National Capital Region expelled the 26-year-old scholar following a clash that broke out on campus in February over fish curry being served in the varsity mess. Scroll has seen the order.
A group of students, including members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, which is backed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, had stormed into the university mess on February 26 – the day of Mahashivratri – to stop fish being served. They alleged that serving non-vegetarian food on the day of a Hindu festival was “ideological terrorism”.
Das said he objected when the ABVP members tried to throw away the food and rough up the mess secretary, Yashada Sawant. “I am a Hindu. I am well acquainted with Hinduism,” said Das. “But these people wanted to impose their upper-caste notions [of food] on others.”
The scuffle led to a complaint against Das and his eventual expulsion. The proctor of the South Asian University, in an order dated July 15, found Das “guilty of serious misconduct” on the issue of serving non-vegetarian food on the occasion of Mahashivratri in the students’ mess.
Das alleged that the university targeted him, without taking any action against the ABVP members. “They know that I am a Bangladeshi and I cannot do anything.”
The ABVP welcomed the university’s decision to expel Das and fine Sawant for “her failure to uphold order in the dining facility”. It said the verdict has “decisively exposed the malicious conspiracy orchestrated by left-aligned student elements on campus”.
Das, a PhD final year student, came to India in 2009 and has studied at several institutions in the country. He did his schooling at the Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith in Deoghar, graduated from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University, with a Bachelor’s degree in economics. He had done his Master’s degree in Economics from South Asian University in 2021.
This story was originally published in scroll.in. Read the full story here.
