ABVP members on Tuesday distrupted a literary event taking place at Delhi University’s Ramjas College where JNU student Umar Khalid was invited to be a part of the discussion but due to the protests the college had to cancel another invitation to Umar’s fellow JNU college mate Shehla Rashid.
Members of the Ramjas College Student Union and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP),the BJP backed student organization disrupted the event even before Khalid could make it to the venue.
Umar Khalid was invited by the college‚Äôs Literary Society to speak in the afternoon on a subject which is related to his PhD,which he is currently pursuing at JNU. His topic at the discussion was “The War in Adivasi Areas.”
The college had to finally call off the discussion after heated protests against Shehla Rashid and Umar Khalid,who was accused of shouting anti-India slogans last year in the JNU-Sedition row.
Many students were manhandled and got injured during the protests carried out by ABVP members on campus.
Following the ABVP protests on Tuesday,students of Ramjas College planned to stage a peaceful protest in the college on Wednesday.
But Wednesday was no different since ABVP members again staged protests in Ramjas College.After some point of time,clashes broke out between the protesting Ramjas students and ABVP members.The protest turned violent and as many as 20 Ramjas students along with an English department professor Mr Prasanta Chakraborty were reported to be injured during the protests.
Students from the college decided to march to Maurice Nagar police station,demanding action to be taken against the ABVP. They were allegedly stopped by members of ABVP.
In between all the sloganeering and fights,heavy police deployment was undertaken to bring the situation under control but clashes and demonstrations didn’t stop.
Students finally reached Maurice Nagar Police Station and sat there on the road demanding FIR to be registered against ABVP members for their actions at Ramjas College earlier in the day.Most of the North Campus area was blocked with no vehicles being allowed to enter the university area,shops across Patel Chest were asked to shut down.The whole area outside Maurice Nagar Police Station was sealed with around 50 AISA and Ramjas College students protesting in front of the police station.The protest was being carried on peacefully fore more than an hour until and unless lathi charge was undertaken by police to evacuate the area.Many students were detained by the police as well for protesting at the area.
Students from Ramjas College and other Delhi University colleges have called this a “breach of freedom of expression”.The whole situation has caused widespread uproar on Social Media with the topic of Ramjas College being one of the trending topics on Facebook yesterday.
Many messages on whatsapp are being circulated which says that IPC Section 144 has been imposed in the campus area,hostels and PG’s are being raided,detained students have not been released although the validity of these messages can’t be confirmed.The students are advised not to believe such messages and take decisions based on their own judgement of the situation.
In between all this,both the groups have called for a widespread protest tomorrow in different parts of the city.While ABVP is reported to protest at Arts Faculty,North Campus today. ABVP workers have been posting on social media to not believe any rumours and situation is the campus is normal.While the opposite side led by Umar Khalid is expected to protest outside Delhi Police Headquarters at ITO today. Umar Khalid in a facebook post last night requested everyone from the student community especially from JNU to join the protest at ITO today.
