MLA Bharat Shetty urges colleges to avoid festival-time exams, condemns police action against students

MLA Bharat Shetty urges colleges to avoid festival-time exams, condemns police action against students

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Oct 13, 2026: Educational institutions should function without discrimination based on caste or religion and respect festivals of all faiths, BJP MLA Dr Y. Bharat Shetty said. He said institutions need not necessarily declare holidays during festivals, but should avoid scheduling examinations on such occasions.

Speaking at a press conference at the district BJP office in Mangaluru, Shetty said conducting examinations during festivals causes inconvenience to students. He recalled that when examinations at Mangalore University were scheduled during Christmas in the past, student organisations had submitted representations and succeeded in getting them postponed.

He stressed that the same policy should be followed for festivals of all religions and said the situation should not arise where the district administration has to be approached every time examinations clash with festivals.

MLA condemns police action against girl students

Shetty also criticised the police action against students of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), alleging that girl students had been manhandled during the incident.

According to him, five or six ABVP students had informed the authorities in advance that they would submit a memorandum. He said the students had gone to submit their representation and were not there to stage a protest. However, when they were returning after submitting the memorandum, some girl students sat down in protest.

Shetty alleged that the police had dragged the students away even before they could submit their representation. He questioned why women police personnel had not been deployed when girl students were participating in the protest.

Instead of listening to the students and resolving their grievances, the authorities had attempted to suppress their voices, he alleged. He described the alleged manhandling of girl students as unacceptable and accused the district administration of failing to handle the situation properly.

Criticising the Congress, Shetty alleged that while the party spoke about issues in Delhi, it was suppressing students’ voices in Karnataka and Kerala.

He said the district administration should clarify the matter if it was unable to obtain answers from the educational institutions concerned. He also questioned the purpose of obtaining bond papers from students, alleging that the move was intended to control them.

Shetty claimed that the practice of obtaining bonds was discontinued after the issue was raised. He questioned the rationale behind seeking bonds from students after they had allegedly been manhandled by the police.