Jagrut Gadit asks MSU Baroda to ban campus religious events
Jagrut Gadit, who heads electrical engineering at MS University of Baroda, has asked the university to stop all religious events on campus.
He wrote to the vice chancellor, pointing out that India's constitution calls for secularism and saying public universities should stick to that.
Gadit believes taxpayer-funded spaces need to be free from religious influence.
Gadit objects to aartis and priests
He's specifically calling for a stop to rituals like aartis, pujas, Satyanarayan kathas, ritual lamp-lightings accompanied by Sanskrit shlokas and camphor, and festivals such as Ganesh Utsav organized by students.
Gadit also criticized having priests at university functions and images of deities in classrooms.
To make his point clear, he refused to participate in a lamp-lighting ritual at a recent event.
He says these practices distract from learning and wants rules that protect critical thinking and keep the campus secular.