Kathmandu, June 24

A group of student leaders representing Nepal Student Union, the student wing of the main opposition Nepali Congress, today set fire to the chair of Dharma Kanta Banskota, vice-chancellor of the country’s largest university — Tribhuvan University.

A TU official said that around a dozen infuriated students, who were using abusive language against the VC, barged into the office of the VC and brought his chair down to the street and set fire to it. They have also padlocked the offices of the VC, rector, and registrar of the varsity.

Hari Acharya, chair of NSU TU Unit, said that the students were forced to resort to such action after the university administration did not bother to discuss the ongoing mismanagement of the university with them as promised earlier.

Around 10 days ago, NSU leaders had submitted a letter to VC Banskota seeking clarification on the ongoing erroneous activities of the university.

The NSU has been largely protesting against the arbitrary appointments of various university officials on the basis of political affiliation with the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP). They are also protesting against the varsity’s expenditure of millions of rupees on online classes even though it has not shown eagerness to start such classes.

Acharya said, “Despite our written requests, the VC turned a deaf ear to our requests. Even today, when we went to his office for talks, he misbehaved with us and called the police.”

He further said that today’s incident was just a reaction to the VC’s misbehaviour.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on June 25, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.