Dear Friends, <br><br> This is a personal note form my side. <br><br>What happened yesterday was really unfortunate. It was primarily a mistake committed by <br>group of volunteers who had no clue of free software (they admitted that) or what is the <br>
issue being raised by Anivar and others. <br><br>Aroun 12 pm (dont remember exactly) we got call from anivar saying that he was thrown<br>out of exhibition and few other students managing stalls were treated badly. <br>Amarnath Raja (IEEE Chair, Kerala), myself and Vimal tried to mediate with organisers<br>
of the exhibition, we requested them to allow protesters to put posters in two stalls which <br>are managed by them. Our request was rejected and we were also treated badly. This forced <br>us all to participate in a very peaceful protest near the venue. We sat down peacefully and <br>
then(may be after 1 hr) two organisers came and said they want to discuss and resolve. <br>They said we can not sit there, we agreed.They also said they will enquire into what happened. <br>Everything ended there. <br><br>
Dont make more stories around this. Students who were manhandled and threatened are<br>going to give complaints. I hope organisers will take action to ensure that this is not repeated. <br>It is a lesson for organisers of other similar events also. <br>
<br>Had the organisers (of exhibition,) allowed putting up some small posters, none of this issue <br>would have happened. (Exhibition seems to be done separately from main event. That is what i was told.)<br><br><br><br>
regards,<br>arun. <br>