Boucher, who is on a visit to New Delhi, was invited by the JNU’s Centre for Canadian, American and Latin-American Studies to speak on India-US relations.

But the varsity authorities had to cancel the programme following protests by the JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU), which is dominated by the All India Students’ Association (AISA) and Students’ Federation of India (SFI).

The AISA and the SFI are student wings of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) respectively.

“We cancelled the programme to avoid any untoward incident in the campus. Mr Boucher instead met nearly 30 students in the US embassy and had an interaction on bilateral relations between the two countries,” said Prof Chintamani Mahapatra of the Centre for Canadian, Latin-American and American Studies – a unit of the JNU’s School of International Studies.

“It (the cancellation) is a victory not only for the students of the JNU, but also for all those who have been raising voices against US imperialism,” said the JNUSU president Sandeep Singh.

Boucher reached New Delhi on Monday – ostensibly to revise the draft proposal to the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) for a waiver for India.

He was likely to speak on the new dimensions in the India-US relations in the light of the civilian nuclear agreement and coordinated efforts by New Delhi and Washington to get a nod from the international community to operationalise the deal.

“The JNU has a tradition of raising voices against imperialism. We cannot allow an official of George Bush’s administration to justify the imperialist agenda the US is pursuing around the world,” said Pallavi Deka, AISA leader and general secretary of the JNUSU.

The varsity has since long been a bastion of the leftists, with the students’ organisations affiliated to the communist parties controlling the JNUSU.