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Hyderabad: On the day when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won the assembly elections in West Bengal and Assam with a formidable margin, the tremors of the hangover of the victories was felt inside the campus of University of Hyderabad (UoH).

The student activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) supposedly drunk on power, attacked the final year students of the Department of Theatre Arts outside the auditorium, in which some of the students sustained minor injuries.

According to a student from the theatre arts, students from the Students Federation of India (SFI) and the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) belonging to the final year of the department planned to enact a play based on the famous Marathi playwright, screenwriter and actor Mahesh Elkunchwar at the GB Hall in the north campus on Sunday, May 3.

However, a group of ABVP activists had warned the left-wing activists not to hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus, as the enacted play had contents about ‘cow urine.’

“Dear Swayamsevaks and karykartas, Our university is increasingly becoming a space where disrespecting and abusing our Dharma, culture, and beliefs is treated as a matter of pride. What is more concerning is that such behavior is becoming increasingly normalized. Openly abusing Hindus and their traditions is being accepted without resistance,” a social media post by ABVP posted on Sunday, April 3, read.

The same play was scheduled to be performed again on Monday at the GB Hall at around 6.30 pm.

“I urge everyone who respects our culture and heritage to take note of this and ensure that such blatant disrespect towards our Dharma and our ancestors does not continue unchecked. “Millions of our ancestors sacrificed to protect this civilization and sanskriti that they are abusing. The least we can do is not remain silent when it is openly insulted,” the ABVP activists exhorted their cadre.

The next day, on Monday, May 4, the left-wing students decided to enact the same play in the second show at the very auditorium.

A group of over 100 ABVP activists, allegedly led by Shiva Palepu (HCU Students’ Union President), Ayush Yadav (ABVP President), and other members surrounded the auditorium and intimidated an equal number of left-wing and Ambedkarite students who bolted the auditorium from the inside, to prevent the ABVP activists from entering the hall.

There were a group of SFI students who rushed to the scene, only to be attacked by the ABVP activists outside the auditorium. The ABVP activists allegedly hurled stones at the auditorium and also broke the glass of a car parked outside.

The security personnel of the university who were stationed to guard the play, and a group of police personnel who arrived at the scene, helped the terrorized SFI and ASA students to safety, and locked the auditorium from being vandalised.

As per the affected students, no formal police complaint has been lodged against the attack as of Monday night.

Repeated calls made to the police went unanswered.