Baba Saheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar University mess has banned non-vegetarian food.
Highlights
- Non-veg food banned in BBAU mess following protests by students
- Tension after Dalit thinker Kancha Illaya's remarks on beef being healthy
- Congress said the move was 'undemocratic'
Non-vegetarian food has been banned in the Baba Saheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar University (BBAU) mess in Lucknow, officials said on Today.
The decision was taken after "tension prevailed" in the varsity following a statement by Dalit thinker Kancha Ilayya in the Osmania university, at Hyderabad, that eating beef was beneficial for health.
There were protests in the BBAU after April 14, the day when the statement first appeared.
The ban has been enforced and only vegetarian dishes would be served in the varsity mess. Special occasional demands for non-veg food would also not be entertained, said the university's spokesman Kamal Jaiswal.
Protests were staged soon after Kancha Illaya's statement. Vice-chancellor RC Sobti went through the protest rally's CDs and accepted the proposal to ban non-veg food on the campus.
Today, student leaders led a protest march of about 200 students to demand restarting of the serving of non-veg food at the mess, terming the decision to ban it as anti-Dalit.
Dwijendra Tripathi, of the Congress, billed the move as anti-democratic and questioned the authority of the university to decide what students should eat.
Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak defended the decision of the university administration, saying anything disturbing harmony on the campus must be done away with.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)