A JNU professor was allegedly abused and the organisers of a seminar at Utkal University, the premier institution in Odisha, were attacked on Sunday when he started speaking on the Constitution of India and said national resources should not be handed over to a few people.

The alleged lumpenism, for which the organisers blamed Sangh parivar sympathisers, came in the middle of a debate raging in boardrooms and on the political landscape on the controversy swirling around the Adani group and the Prime Minister’s continuing silence. The professor said he did not know who the hecklers were.

Surajit Mazumdar, who teaches economics at JNU, told The Telegraph on Sunday night: “When I started delivering the speech and I talked about the directive principles, the fundamentals and the objectives of the Constitution and about B.R. Ambedkar, a few people shouted and hurled abuses at me. I don’t know who these elements are. Although they did not physically attack me, they attacked the organisers. They heckled me.”

The symposium was organised by the Citizen’s Forum, an intellectual platform. Convenor Pradipta Nayak said: “We had booked the PG Council Hall of the University for the symposium. Many students and lecturers were invited. When Professor Surajit Mazumdar started talking on Dr B.R. Amabedkar's principles and objectives and said national resources should not be handed over to a few people, it did not go down well with a few outsiders present at the meeting. Although he has not named any industrialists like the Adanis, they ran towards the dais and abused the speaker. When we opposed it, the situation went out of control.”

Nayak identified the attackers as “groups of non-students” led by Sangh supporters. “They beat us severely. I was injured. Another lecturer, Surendra Kumar Jena, was injured. We have lodged an FIR,” he said.