By Melwyn Pinto SJ
BANGALORE, Jan 30: Communal forces allegedly beat up students of St Joseph’s PU College, Anekal near Banglaore and paraded the Principal of the College to police station here on January 27, accusing the College of not hoisting the national flag on Republic Day.
The incident took place on January 27 as an unruly mob of over one hundred belonging to ABVP, VHP, Rashtra Shakti Sene and Karnatak Rakshana Vedike barged into the College campus demanding action against the Principal and the College management for not hoisting the national flag on the previous day. Some of the elected councilors of the Anekal Muncipality too were part of the mob.
Principal Fr Melwin Mendonca SJ and the Jesuit superior Fr Anil D’Mello tried to pacify the crowd, but the mob was unrelenting and demanded that the principal be arrested. The police who were present at the campus largely remained inactive even as the mob allegedly beat up a few students who came to protect their principal who was being taken to the police station. The principal was paraded for over a kilometer to the police station by the mob and was not allowed to be taken by the police vehicle.
Principal’s version
Principal, Fr Mendonca agreed that the flag was not hoisted in the present campus of the College. However, he said that a formal flag hoisting on Republic Day took place at Jnana Jyoti campus, where the office of the registered society of the management is situated and where the new college building is coming up. “We have utmost regard and respect for national sentiments and we do not in any way want to bring down national fervor. We did have a flag hoisting at the registered office of the management where the new building of the college is coming up and to which the college will be shifted in the next academic year,” said principal, Fr Mendonca.
St Joseph’s PU College, run by the Jesuit fathers, was begun in 2010 to cater to students from the lower strata of society. Presently, there are 378 students out of whom 220 are dalits from neighbouring villages. “The real reason behind the attack on our college is not the flag hoisting issue. There are several forces simmering here in Anekal who cannot stomach the rise of a college catering to subalterns. In the last one year the ABVP has come to the college eight times on different pretexts. They had demanded that the college be closed during the Anna Hazare agitation. But the management did not relent and was firm on them. They are out to look for reasons to malign the name of the college,” said Fr Mendonca.
The communal attacks on Christians in Anekal is not new. In 2010, a group of students from St Joseph’s College, Bangalore was beaten up by communal forces. The students were part of an NSS camp. A Jesuit scholastic too was stabbed when he was on his way to a village near Anekal. Stones were pelted at the Anekal Catholic Church by anti social elements.
However, for the past few years the situation was under control. But, the Jesuit fathers and Christians in Anekal are of the opinion that the quiet was just the calm before the storm and more attacks on Christians and their institutions will continue unless the law enforcing agencies took stringent measures to protect the rights of the minorities.