Namaz row at Gurgaon university as group objects to prayers on football field by African students

Sources said protesting students raised ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans and filed a complaint with the registrar, stating “there should not be any practice of any religion… studying namaz… in an open space”. A video of some students purportedly sloganeering ‘Ek hi naara, ek hi naam, Jai Shri Ram, Jai Shri Ram’ has also emerged.

According to the registrar, the incident took place for a ‘brief’ duration Tuesday. “8-10 foreign students, mostly from African countries (Nigeria, Ethiopia, etc), were playing football in the field. At the time of prayer, they offered namaz in the field in the open. A group of at most 20 students objected to prayers being offered in the open. There was some sloganeering in the corridor. The protesting group contended that namaz should be offered by students either at their hostel rooms or at their place of worship. The group later filed a complaint. The entire incident lasted 15-20 minutes and the matter was resolved amicably after a discussion. The foreign students were sensitised and told that they can offer prayers in their hostel rooms or at a mosque, not in the open,” said Dr Dhirendra Singh Parihar, the registrar.

The registrar denied rumours that the university had allocated a room to some students for namaz. “These rumours are baseless. The university does not discriminate between any communities. There has not been any conflict in the university in the past on these issues,” he said, adding that protesting students did not have any political affiliation.

The group of protesting students filed a complaint at the registrar’s office on August 30.

In the complaint, the students said “there should not be any practice of any religion studying namaz in one room not more than three students and not in open space (sic)”. “If they want to study namaz, then they have to go to their allotted hostel room… especially outsiders are not allowed for worship namaz… they should go to nearby mosque. There should be a class on Friday for all students and no one should get a proxy if they are going (to) worship namaz (sic),” read the complaint.

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The complaint further stated that there should be no discrimination between Hindus and Muslims. “There should be different plates categorised as veg or non veg in hostel. The plates should not be mixed,” the complaint added.

Naveen Sindhu, ACP Sohna, said, “The matter had come to our cognizance. The SHO from City Sohna went to the university. There had been some misunderstanding among students regarding offering namaz prayers. When the police team reached, the matter had already been resolved between students and the university management. We have not received any complaint in writing.”