A protest to drive out “commercial interests” from Delhi University’s North Campus went awry on Friday when members of the Delhi University Students’ Union who entered the Nirula’s outlet in the DU Conference Centre were allegedly roughed up.
Two female members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad-controlled Union were allegedly slapped by the outlet’s female manager and then manhandled by the employees. After the incident, Union members gheraoed the outlet for some hours.
“We first went to the IRCTC canteen and asked the students there to boycott it since the prices were too high. We had no trouble there. When we went to the Nirula’s outlet, the employees started behaving badly. We decided not to barge in together but to send two girls to talk to the students eating there, but the manager and the employees behaved badly and we had to intervene,” said ABVP spokesperson Saket Bahuguna
A complaint has been lodged with the Delhi Police against the manager and a written appeal has been made to the Vice-Chancellor asking him to immediately intervene and shut down the Nirula outlet.
Meanwhile, DUSU president Aman Awana said that the Union will not “tolerate” such symbols of commercialisation on the campus and they will be working towards getting both these outlets banned from the university. They will have to be replaced by proper canteens that normal students can eat in. The Union will be fighting for this to be implemented, he said.
