Students stage a play at St Xavier’s College in Ranchi on Tuesday. (Hardeep Singh)

The third day of Xavier Utsav saw drama both on and off stage. While one-act plays dealing with socio-political issues fetched wide applause, an unexpected search operation by police on the campus raised questions and fear.

The short intervention, however, failed to dampen spirits and with the uniformed men confirming that all was well, students went back to having fun.

Among the one-act plays staged at the auditorium were Democracy ka Mahabharat and Sapnon ka Khoj. While the former drew a parallel between Indian politics and the game of chess in Mahabharata, Sapnon ka Khoj trained the lens on the conflict between poverty and aspirations. At the centre of the play is a poor family where the father is a habitual drinker and does not get his daughter a doll. The wish to acquire the toy drives the child to turn a rag picker so that she can earn some money to buy it.

Besides drama, singing, dancing and mimicry conditions were held too.

Bands from the college and outside strummed up the audience’s mood, too.

Police entered the campus around 3pm. They headed for Fr C DeBrouwer auditorium and started searching it. An officer appealed to the audience to report any suspicious object they found. A little later, the men in uniform also brought in a sniffer dog and scanned the stage.

Later, city SP Manoj Ratan confirmed that they had received information that there could be trouble on campus so

“We did not find anything unusual,” Ratan confirmed.