Soldiers blocked Thammasat University marchers from entering a football stadium and seized their political satire banners on Saturday.
The incident took place ahead of the annual football match at the National Stadium between Chulalongkorn and Thammasat universities, an event famed for its colourful floats mocking political figures.
This year's event was watched with nervousness by the military government, which insisted on Friday that it did not intend to ban satirical displays. However, the National Council for Peace and Order cautioned the students against doing anything that might appear to fan social discontent.
An hour before the parade began, Bangkok police and the vice-presidents of both universities inspected the floats, according to Matichon Online.
They also asked the students to explain in detail the ideas behind each float. As well, university officials were instructed to monitor all related activities. Any act that might undermine reconciliation and national reform efforts would be banned, they were told.
The parades of both teams began entering the stadium at 2pm as scheduled. But after the Chulalongkorn contingent entered and the Thammasat team was beginning to follow, security officials closed the gate, leaving the Thammasat team outside.
The action angered several students, who tried to reason with them.
After the talks, the officials insisted they would not allow banners with political messages to be displayed inside the stadium and seized all of them. The floats were allowed to enter.
Floats displayed by students at the annual Chulalongkorn-Thammasat football match lived up to their reputation for good-natured political mockery. (Photos by Pattarapong Chatpattarasill and Jiraporn Kuhakan)
The Chulalongkorn floats focused on Thai values in the social media era. But the Thammasat floats carried much more pointed messages, such as one bearing a statue of "Lady Justice". Also drawing loud applause were displays that poked fun at the government's "12 Values" campaign and the Returning Happiness to the People TV programme.
The latter featured a sculpture of a TV screen on which Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha appeared in front of the Teletubbies cartoon characters. The image was a reference to a complaint Gen Prayut had made earlier that the backdrops for his weekly TV address were boring. That prompted a Facebook campaign that produced hundreds of humorous options, some of which tested the limits of good taste.
Inside the stadium once the match began, authorities were unable to prevent the students from expressing themselves more bluntly.
At one point, students at the top of the bleachers unfurled a banner which read, in Thai: "Down with dictatorship, long live democracy". Another read "Coup=Corruption".
The annual match is also famed for elaborate coordinated flash-card displays in the stands. One of them spelled out "We want democracy, when will you return it to us?"
The Thammasat students also created a display featuring an image of the school's revered former rector Puey Ungphakorn and one of his famous quotations: "Justice is power. It's not power is justice".
The event also featured a football game. Thammasat won the match 2-0, breaking a three-year losing streak.
