In Kerala, six students of a leading government-aided college have been suspended for allegedly conducting a ‘beef festival’ inside the campus to protest against the Dadri lynching incident where a 50-year-old man in Uttar Pradesh was beaten to death by the villagers over rumours of eating beef.

Protesting the incident in Dadri at their college premises in Kerela, students of Sree Kerela Varma College organized a ‘Beef Fest’ in which they distributed beef and bread in college on October 1. Six students have been suspended for organizing the beef festival and all the six students are activists of Student Federation of India (SFI), the students’ wing of CPI (M).

According to the management of Sree Kerala Varma College, the action was taken against the students for serving beef inside the campus violating disciplinary rules of the institution.

The college had strictly advised the students to not conduct the protest inside the campus as non-vegetarian food is not allowed inside even during official functions.

“We are not against students’ protests. But, in this case, I had warned students not to distribute beef within the campus and advised them to conduct the protest outside the college premises if they are so particular to do so,” college Principal, C M Latha, said. “Our college has a tradition of not serving non-vegetarian dishes even for official functions. So, the management felt that it was not fair to distribute beef within the campus,” she added.

On the same day, the activists of SFI and ABVP, students’ wing of BJP, had even clashed with each other over the conduct of the ‘festival’ after which the symbolic protests were carried out on an even larger scale.

ABVP activists, who opposed the fest, were allegedly beaten up SFI members and police registered FIR against 12 ‘unidentified’ students in this regard.

Various photographs of students participating in the festival had gone viral earlier after which the police took cognizance of the matter.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a notification asking the states to closely monitor such issues and take immediate action to rein in such protests and communal activities.