In a shocking revelation of events that seem to have become the norm in the run-up to the Lok Sabha Elections in India, students of Jain College, Bengaluru, alleged yesterday, April 3, that they are being forced to attend Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) Member of Parliament (MP) Tejasvi Surya’s re-nomination rally.
This was revealed in screenshots of WhatsApp messages from the president of the college’s student council, posted by a user who claims to be a student of the college. In the now-viral messages, the president asked the students to attend the rally of the BJP leader, which is taking place today, April 4.
The president also added that students must wear T-Shirts made specifically for the rally, and will be given attendance for participating.
The post that disclosed these messages now has over 121.6K views on X.
The message from the president reads, “Greetings members, Tomorrow all the members of the student council have to assemble near Maiyas Hotel Jaynagar at 9:00 AM for the Tejasvi Surya rally. You'll be getting a T-Shirt so don't be late. Everyone has to be there at the reporting time and no excuses will be entertained. You will be getting attendance for this.”
When one of the students questioned why their attendance at the rally was mandatory, the student council responded that the student body was “obliged” to show up at the rally.
“Before you guys get into all of this, I would like to tell you guys that at the time of our fest Tejasvi Surya was obliged by the student council to attend our fest, and now it's our turn to do the same. This is why it is compulsory for us to be there tomorrow as a council and nothing else. Anyone else having any other questions regarding this rally can text me personally,” read the screenshot.
Responding to these screenshots, several users of X tagged the official account of the Election Commission of India, urging them to take action against the BJP and Tejaswi Surya.
Similar incident in Mumbai
On March 23, students of Thakur College, Mumbai claimed to have been forced to attend a seminar delivered by Dhruv Goyal, the son of Union Minister Piyush Goyal who was also contesting for the Lok Sabha elections from the Mumbai North constituency.
In a video from the seminar that went viral, a student alleged that the college authorities confiscated their ID cards and forced them to attend this event, and asked Goyal’s opinion on the same.
This clip was shared by Shiv Sena leader and former Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray, as well as Rajiya Sabha MP from Shiv Sena Priyanka Chaturvedi, who both criticised the college administration and the BJP.
Rebutting their claims, the college administration alleged that the clip circulated by Priyanka Chaturvedi was doctored, and shared the “full” video of the incident, where Dhruv Goyal responded to the student that he was not aware of it and apologised on behalf of the college administration while praising the student for his courage.
The 18th Lok Sabha elections will be held between April 19 to June 1, 2024.
