A talk by visiting US Assistant Secretary of State Richard A Boucher was put off in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Wednesday following protests by JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU). Today’s agitation was preceded by a protest march late Tuesday night that aimed at stopping the event.

The talk, on “US-India relations”, had been organised by the School of International Studies. “A representative of the US administration cannot come and speak in the JNU campus. It is a part of the government’s attempt to forge an alliance with the US and lobby support for nuclear deal,” said Roshan Kishore, secretary of the CPI(M)-backed SFI’s JNU unit.

Despite the cancellation, sources said a group comprising a few students and faculty members of the Centre for Canadian, US, and Latin American Studies kept their date with Boucher through an interactive session.

Khalid Abdallah, a Sudanese national and Convener of the School of International Studies, said, “India should not be used as a puppet, like the Arab countries.”