Some 25 members of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a students’ organisation affiliated to the RSS, on Tuesday targeted missionary institution Ursuline Intermediate College for sending students in Rahul Gandhi’s rally on March 2 at Morabadi grounds.

Around 11.25am, ABVP members, including some girls, assembled outside the gates of the Purulia Road institution and shouted slogans against the missionary institution, alleging it was hand-in-glove with the Congress and promoted religious conversion in the name of social service. The demonstration lasted for 40 minutes till Lower Bazar policemen reached to mediate a meeting between a delegation of ABVP and principal Sister Mary Grace.

Denying ABVP’s allegations, Sister Grace said she had taken her students to Morabadi because Rahul Gandhi, as Congress president, was a national figure and young students had every right to meet him.

Contacted, Sister Grace said she had taken 60 girls to Rahul Gandhi’s rally. The school has 4,600 students.

“I had taken 60 students to the Rahul Gandhi’s rally on the invitation of Rama Khalkho and Prabhakar Tirkey, two tribal leaders affiliated to the Congress. My intention was to give students an opportunity to meet a national figure as they are young and have voting rights also. I would have sent them to Narendra Modi’s rally too if they had got an invitation from the party (the BJP). I don’t think I did anything wrong,” Sister Grace said.

She also said the ABVP demonstration on Tuesday was “uncalled for”.

“Many of the those participating in the demonstration were our old students against whom I had taken disciplinary action. They know me very well for my strong discipline,” she added.

Contacted, state organising secretary of ABVP Yagya-walkya Shukla justified the demonstration saying they we-re protesting an attempt to po-liticise an educational institution towards one political party.

“The institution, which does not hoist the national flag on Independence Day and Republic Day and hardly organises condolence meeting in case of deaths of national leaders, is sending students to attend a political rally? That is a matter of concern. We will take up the matter before Jharkhand Academic Council to cancel the affiliation of such an educational institution,” Shukla said.

Asked, Lower Bazar OC Satish Kumar said the situation had been controlled. “The demonstration was peaceful. No property was damaged. Delegates (ABVP members) returned after a dialogue with school principal,” the OC said.

ABVP had, in the wake of the February 14 Pulwama terror attack, compelled St Xavier’s College, also on Purulia Road, to postpone its annual fest Xavier Utsav on February 20.