Clashes broke out between members of the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the left-affiliated All India Students’ Association (AISA) at Delhi University’s Ramjas College on Wednesday over the cancellation of a seminar invite to Jawaharlal Nehru University students Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid.
Mr. Khalid was arrested on sedition charge in 2016.
Trouble started after a planned protest march by some students to the Maurice Nagar Police Station was disallowed.
Police resorted to a lathi charge to bring the situation under control.
No one has been detained so far in connection with the incident.
Delhi Police try to control the students at Ramjas College, in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Shubomoy Sikdar reports that students demanding an FIR over alleged ABVP violence were detained and taken away from the Maurice Nagar Police Station in two buses.
PTI adds:
On Tuesday, the ABVP locked down the college seminar room and pelted stones in protest against the invite to the two students, saying they are “anti—nationals“.
The college authorities had to withdraw the invitation to Khalid, who was charged with sedition last year, and Shehla, who was the face of the movement demanding the release of the students arrested in that case.
A section of teachers, students and members of the AISA, agitated over the college’s decision to “bow down” to “threat to freedom of speech” had decided to march to the Maurice Nagar police station, demanding action against ABVP members for alleged vandalism.
The ABVP members, however, did not allow the march to proceed on Wednesday and allegedly locked the students and teachers inside the college, while AISA members tried to enter the premises to “rescue the captives“.
“The students have been locked inside and those trying to come out were beaten up by ABVP goons. We tried to barge into the college to rescue the students but they are attacking us as well. They have come prepared with hockey sticks,” an AISA member said.
College Principal Rajender Prasad said he was in discussion with the teachers who were organisers of the event and requested both the groups to not disrupt the peace and harmony in the college.
On Tuesday, Mr. Prasad claimed that though the college advocated freedom of speech, the decision was taken keeping the situation in mind.
The two JNU students were earlier invited to take part in a session during a two-day seminar on ‘Culture of Protest’ organised by Wordcraft, Ramjas college’s Literary Society.
