The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Vadodara on Wednesday expelled a student of fine arts for painting Hindu deities.
“The student [who made the painting in question] has been expelled,” Vice Chancellor Vijay Kumar Srivastava told PTI news agency.
This comes a week after members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad held a protest at the university’s Faculty of Fine Arts, where an art exhibition was slated to take place.
VC Srivastava said that show-cause notices were issued to other students and a professor for their involvement in the “objectionable” project, the head of fine arts department and the dean of the faculty.
A nine-member fact-checking committee had submitted a report on Tuesday, following which action was initiated against them.
“Other students have been issued show-cause notices, and action will be taken on the basis of their responses. The teacher under whose guidance the project was carried out, as well as the HoD and Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts have also been issued show-cause notices,” he said.
One of the artworks in the exhibition used clippings of newspaper reports about rape to create cutouts of gods and goddesses. Another design was a photo collage, in which saffron students activists alleged that the Ashoka pillar had been positioned in an obscene manner.
A student was booked after ABVP member a complaint. The case has been filed under Sections 295A (acts intended to outrage religious feelings) and 298 (uttering words with intent to hurt religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code.
