What started with a literary event for the students of Delhi University affiliate Ramjas College soon became a nightmare for the participating students. Several students got injured in the brawl that broke out in and outside the college premises between the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the students protesting ABVP vandalism.
It all started on February 21 when the ABVP activists created havoc over a talk organized by the Literary Society that invited Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Umar Khalid which later led to the cancellation of the event in order to maintain the ‘law and order’ on the campus. The activists stood guard with bamboo batons at the gate of the conference hall to prevent JNU students Khalid and Shehla Rashid from even entering the campus premises.
While Khalid was among the students charged with sedition in connection with an event at JNU last year where anti- national slogans were allegedly raised, Shehla was instrumental in the movement against the students' arrest.
The student’s protest on Wednesday was a mark of protest against the goondagardi and ‘lumpenism’ of ABVP, a student who resides in the campus tells Outlook. “It was not a party protest. It was a peaceful protest from Ramjas to Police Station,” said another student.
A lot of students were seen carrying hand-made posters to join the protesters in solidarity towards the closest Maurice Nagar police station, humming Hum honge kamyaab (We shall overcome…) in unison, only to be attacked by the right-wing students group raising loud slogans of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Vande Mataram’.
“We had not even stepped out of the college campus and suddenly these people came in and started abusing us- pushing, slapping- for no reason,” said one of the protesters to Outlook on the condition of anonymity after being warned by officials not to talk about the incidences of violence with anyone. Consequently, the students were not allowed to move out of the college premise.
Renowned DU Professor Prasanta Chakravarty was left injured in a brawl that hit many otheres.
Thick police presence was seen in the college and around the canteen area, recalls student. Yet the ABVP students successfully breached the security wall and a scuffle broke between them. “They took are videos in our college and the police did absolutely nothing to stop them despite several complaints. The police certainly did not help them, but it did nothing to stop them!” said an angry protester.
A couple of students – one from the Economics department and another from History -- were reportedly injured.
Later in the day, when the students sat trapped in their classrooms for safety reasons, the Parishad activists again popped up with ‘nationalist’ slogans and allegedly forced everyone sitting there to repeat after them. “We are not anti-nationals. We don’t have any problem in saying ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. These people are ‘anti-nationals’ who are denying us our fundamental rights to have a dialogue,” said a member of college’s Literary Society.
“We were both angry and scared at the same time when one of these ‘goons’ threatened our professor and said that ‘kal se yeh sab nahin chalega…’( all this will not work from tomorrow, your life is in your hands,” she said.
