Police clash with residents of Darbhanga on Wednesday. Picture by Mukesh Kumar Jha

Darbhanga, Oct. 3: Some residents’ gatecrash bid to take a glimpse of President Pranab Mukherjee at the convocation of Lalit Narayan Mithila University today snowballed into a clash between police and citizens.

A few police vehicles bore the brunt of the stone-pelting mob while the men in uniform tried to shoo people away from the convocation venue at Nagendra Jha Stadium. Inspector-general of police (Darbhanga range) R.K. Mishra said: “Local residents wanted to see the President but we could not allow anyone inside because of entry restrictions. The residents should have understood that the President was not here to deliver a public speech.”

But the enthusiastic residents failed to find logic in Mishra’s statement. “In 2005, too, we were denied to see the President then, APJ Abdul Kalam, who was also here to attend convocation. We did not have any ill intention but to see Pranab once,” said Vinod Kumar, one of the protesters.

The police had to resort to lathicharge to disperse the crowd, who gathered just 200m from the convocation venue.

At the ceremony, Mukherjee called for “carefully drafted” curriculum and importance to autonomous research by universities to face the competitive international environment in higher education. “Over 70 per cent of Indians will be of working age in 2025. Our young demography is an asset and we should prepare this population for their future role by giving them a solid foundation,” he told the degree recipients.

Stating that a National Innovation Council had been set up to prepare a roadmap of innovation in India, Pranab said: “The process of setting up innovation councils in each state and sectoral innovation councils aligned to central ministries is underway.” He said strengthening of research activities in universities would be undertaken in the Twelfth Five Year Plan.