Ghazanfar Abbas, IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, Feb 22: Around the first anniversary of infamous anti-national slogan controversy of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the flashpoint between Hindu-Right youth group Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and left-aligned student groups seems to have shifted to a new location. The Delhi University, another central university in Delhi, has witnessed violent clashes between the groups twice in the last two days.
On Tuesday, a two-day seminar titled ‘Culture of Protest’ was organized by the Dept. of English, Ramjas College of Delhi University. Among others, the seminar was to be addressed by JNU research scholar Umar Khalid, who, along with Kanhaiya Kumar, was arrested and sent to jail last year for allegedly shouting anti-national slogans.
The ABVP, which dominates the students union in Delhi University, raised slogans denouncing Khalid as an “anti-national” and forced the organisers to suspend the day’s event on Tuesday.
The seminar was suspended and invitation to Umar Khalid was cancelled as a large group of ABVP activists disrupted the first session on Indian tribals — a subject on which Khalid is writing his PhD thesis at JNU.
Before the suspension of the seminar, clashes erupted between the ABVP and left-aligned students. ABVP allegedly pelted stones and assaulted teachers and students. Consequently, some teachers and students got injured. Among them Prof. Prashanto Chakrabarty of English Department, Ramjas College got seriously injured and was admitted at Hindu Rao hospital.
To protest against the violence allegedly by ABVP members, Ramjas College students on Wednesday planned a march to the nearby Maurice Nagar Police Station demanding action against the activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated ABVP.
But ABVP activists who surrounded the college and stopped the students from marching to the police station. Clashes again erupted between them outside Ramjas College and some students and journalists got serious injuries.
The clashes continued while a large number of policemen and policewomen were deployed at the college.
Anyhow, the students reached Maurice Nagar Police station in the afternoon and sat in front of it demanding action against ABVP members. They wanted to lodge a mass FIR against the ABVP activists but were detained by the police as Section 144 was imposed in the area. Late in the evening, all of them were released.
A protesting student said, “Such incident happened in Jodhpur University recently. Citing the propaganda that the students of JNU are anti-nationals, ABVP is creating an environment so they could suppress ideas and voices.”
“University is a place where we learnt and debate different ideas to understand the issues,” he said.
Another undergraduate student said, “Due to these incidents, students will be afraid of expressing their thoughts. And such incidents are also deteriorating the environment of education at the campus.”
“I think this is fake nationalism if in the name of Bharat Mata, someone is deprived of his/her right to speak,” he maintained.
During the protest Kawalpreet Kaur, President of AISA (All India Students Association) of Delhi University addressed the students.
“I am totally aghast by the state of affairs our academic institutions have got into. It is still difficult to believe that stones were being pelted in a DU college just for organizing a literary discussion,” Kaur said.
“How can we let our Universities be controlled by few hooligans who go on rampage to cut down all the spaces of discussions and free speech?” she questioned.
