New Delhi: Violent clashes broke out in Delhi University’s North Campus on Wednesday between the RSS student wing Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and protesters led by the left-leaning All India Students’ Association (AISA).
The protests were triggered a day after ABVP protested violently against a seminar where Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) research scholar Umar Khalid and former JNU Students’s Union (JNUSU) vice-president Shehla Rashid were scheduled to speak at Ramjas College. The police had allegedly informed the College that they would be “unable to provide security” for Khalid at the event.
Khalid was scheduled to speak in the afternoon on ‘The War in Adivasi Areas’, the event was organised by the Literary Society of Ramjas College. However, the ABVP started protesting even before he could arrive. Khalid made the news last year when he was booked for sedition, alongwith fellow research scholar Anirban Bhattacharya and then JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans on the JNU campus.
A video of Tuesday’s events, that has gone viral on social media, shows stones being pelted at the College allegedly by ABVP activists. Professors in Ramjas College had claimed that Khalid was invited due to his “academic credentials”. Police had to cordon off the College.
On Wednesday, a protest march was organised at 1 pm from Ramjas College to Maurice Nagar police station to protest against the ABVP’s actions. The protests turned ugly as the ABVP clashed with agitating students. A journalist covering the event was also manhandled during the clashes.
Shehla Rashid claimed that the police did not react when the ABVP activists allegedly turned violent. “The police are giving protection to the ABVP. We were lathi-charged even though we were protesting peacefully. ABVP was pelting stones and Delhi Police was standing silently,” she said.
Comments
0 comment