Liquor party bust near Ahmedabad: Action awaited, universities issue ‘warning’ to international students

In the meanwhile, the Ahmedabad office of Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) under the Ministry of External Affairs has submitted a factual report to its headquarters in Delhi.

“The concerned officials co-ordinating with the foreign students under ICCR fellowship programme have verbally warned and sensitised them not to get involved in any such activity in the future as they might face serious consequences,” a senior university official told The Indian Express.

On Tuesday, Gujarat University in an official statement, coming out for the first time since the incident on October 24 night, stated that “necessary action will be taken as per the rules”.

“In the interest of maintaining international relations in Gujarat University, students from different countries are studying through official institutions of the Government of India. Regarding the information received by the media regarding the incident that took place outside the university campus with foreign students, necessary action will be taken as per the rules after receiving official instructions. The remaining students have also been urged again regarding the same,” the statement read.

The Gujarat Technological University (GTU), too, is waiting for any communication to take action against its students. It is learnt that three students each from these two universities are under the ICCR fellowship programme.

“The office is waiting for any official communication from concerned universities and police to take any action against foreign students under the ICCR programme. Though we have submitted the factual report in this matter to the headquarters,” ICCR Gujarat’s sub-zonal officer Subhash Singh told The Indian Express.

Further speaking on the orientation of foreign students, Singh said, “The opening lines of our orientation of our students is that this is the land of Mahatma Gandhi and it is different from other states. Students are clearly informed how Gujarat with its prohibition law is different from other states and every one of them have to abide by the law of the land.”

So far, as the admissions under the fellowship programme are still open, ICCR’s orientation programme has already been conducted at Gujarat University, which constitutes the highest number of these students.

At present, over 1350 students are enrolled in various programmes across Gujarat’s public universities including GTU, MSU Vadodara and National Forensic Sciences University Gandhinagar.