Karnataka Home Minister MB Patil on Monday said “moral policing is not acceptable” after a professor of a Vijaypura district college was forced to kneel down and apologise by ABVP activists on Saturday for his Facebook posts that were critical of the BJP amid the simmering tensions with Pakistan.
The ABVP activists had objected to the Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, Sandeep Warthar’s Facebook posts, which they claimed were “anti-national”. The college— Dr PG Halakatti College of Engineering and Technology, incidentally is run by non-profit Bijapur Lingayat District Educational Association of which the minister is the president.
“The institution is looking into it. I am also looking into the matter. He (the professor) said only one thing - about the destruction that war could bring. But there is nothing wrong with that. I have asked the college and the police to look into the matter because this kind of moral policing is not acceptable. The police is there, the law is there,” Home Minister Patil told TNM.
“Even if someone had posted something, which offended people or which people think is seditious, the police is there to look into it. This kind of moral policing is not acceptable. I have seen the professor’s post and there is nothing wrong with it,” he added.
On Saturday, Sandeep Wathar was forced to kneel down inside the college premises by the ABVP members in the presence of even the police. In his Facebook posts, Wathar had criticised the BJP-led Centre’s stance in the aftermath of the Indian Air Force’s preemptive strike in Balakot and apparently praised the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
In one of the posts which has now been deleted, Wathar had written, “Who sounds more intelligent in all this? You **** all bhakts. You will [be] the reason for [the] destruction of millions of lives if this tension escalates. BJP is **** all party absolutely zero shame.”
Speaking to TNM on Monday, Vijaypura SP Prakash Nikam said, “We cannot take any action now. There is no complaint yet. If a complaint is there, we will take action. It is between two groups, I cannot take any suo motu action, the person has to give a complaint. I have already contacted him.”
Defending its action, the ABVP in a Twitter reply to a journalist said, “Being responsible student wing, we always stand with National Security, lecturer of particular college gave an anti-national statement which was condemned by the student community.”
ABVP forces Karnataka lecturer to kneel, apologise for abusing BJP, praising Imran Khan in "anti national" social media post, while police look on in college run by Congress home minister. Police chief: whatever happened was wrong but can't act without complaint! #NewIndia pic.twitter.com/GgQBFakwBm
— Samar Halarnkar (@samar11) March 3, 2019