A violent confrontation broke out between two groups of students at Delhi’s South Asian University on Wednesday about meat being served in the university canteen during the Hindu festival of Maha Shivaratri.

The Students’ Federation of India and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad accused each other of instigating the clash. While the Students’ Federation of India is affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad is the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

The SFI claimed that members of the ABVP attacked students who did not comply with its “draconian and undemocratic demand” that no meat should be served in the canteen on Maha Shivaratri. The ABVP alleged that members of the SFI “forcibly tried to break students’ fast by forcing non-veg on them”.

Videos posted on social media showed a physical altercation taking place in the university premises, with a group of students, including a female student, involved in a scuffle.

A day earlier, ABVP members had requested that only vegetarian food be served in the canteen on the day of the festival, The Indian Express quoted an unidentified second-year masters student as saying.

“There are two messes in the university,” the student said. “Today, in one of them, fish curry was being served. Some students, allegedly associated with ABVP, entered and attempted to snatch the fish curry away. A female student, part of the mess committee, objected, but they manhandled her.”

The SFI alleged that when the female student and her friends complained to the office of the Dean of Students, the officials “attempted to dispose of the matter and turn it on its head by implicitly shifting the blame on the attacked students”.

The university said that the incident was being investigated and action will be taken, The Indian Express reported.

However, ABVP State Secretary Saarthak Sharma said that students had the right to follow their beliefs. “When the university administration itself arranged for satvik food in the mess, trying to forcibly serve non-vegetarian food is not only insensitive but also ideological terrorism,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.