Just the way they do in the beginning of every academic year, the students of Sree Kerala Varma College decided to welcome the newcomers. There was no fest or any pompous event but umpteen cloth banners were put up, proclaiming all kinds of outlooks including women's rights, artistic liberty and increasing suicide rates. One poster, with the photo of renowned artist MF Hussain and the image of his painting of goddess Saraswathi, however attracted trouble.Soon, Deepa Nishant , an assistant professor of this college, who had been in the news earlier for supporting a beef fest, got dragged into the issue, and her social networking pages were flooded with abuse, according to Sreedath P V, third year botany student from the college. He says, "She has always had a fair perspective towards things, and she has always pointed fingers at wrong doings in the college." Allegedly, a section of the students had even posted her morphed picture on social media and Deepa had gone on record that she would take legal action.Wasn't the whole issue unwarranted? Sreedath argues that it is not out of place to discuss issues of all kinds. "Campuses are often the best forums for intellectual discussions. That is why we thought of beginning the year in this way."Aravind, who has just left this college, agrees and adds that for the freshers, this phase marks their entry into the big bad world, and "their spirits should not be deterred by fascist and autocratic tendencies".He adds that now is the time to discuss such issues, as danger is lurking in the background, and argues that even food habits of people are being questioned.According to the students, as soon as the matter was brought to the notice of the police, they were warned that a case would be charged if they did not remove it. And so, the controversial poster was taken out. However, Ouseph V P, Station House Officer, Thrissur West, has a different version. He says, "We got to know about the incident through a message on social networking app, following which, we soon went to the college. However, when we went there, there was no such painting of MF Hussain." Hence, no case was charged against the students, he claims.

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