The Delhi Police came in the line of fire on Monday after a video of protesting students being thrashed brutally by police personnel outside the RSS headquarters went viral.
The Aam Aadmi Party lashed out at the Centre for being anti-students and claimed that BJP and RSS workers, along with police personnel, had beaten up the students.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is in Bengaluru for his naturopathy treatment, tweeted: “Del pol being used by BJP/RSS as their pvt army to terrorize n teach lesson to anyone opposing BJP/RSS. I strongly condemn attck on students [sic].”
The party has demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention and action against the Delhi Police personnel for carrying out the assault on the students protesting over the suicide of Dalit scholar, Rohith Vemula.
“FTII, Rohith case, Hyd Univ, IITs and now brutal attack on Del students. Modi govt seems to be at war with students all across [sic]” Mr. Kejriwal said in another tweet.
Many students from Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and other colleges had gathered outside the RSS headquarters in Jhandewalan to protest “Centre’s inaction in Rohith Vemula’s suicide case.”
“The BJP and the RSS were also involved in the assault on the protesters. The police are acting at the behest of the Sangh,” senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh claimed. At a press conference on Monday, AAP leaders said that in the video, men in plain clothes were also beating up the students and the police were not stopping them from taking law into their own hands. “Instead, the cops were siding with them and brutally beating up the students, who were unarmed. Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi will have to give an explanation for the act,” said party leader Ashutosh.
“This [the incident] shows the cruel face of the Delhi Police where even women protesters were assaulted. During the [Delhi Assembly] election campaign, the Prime Minister had said that he stays in Delhi and it is his home. How can he allow attack on women by his police?” Mr Singh questioned.
Congress vice-president tweeted: “Shocking attack on students. Instead of listening to them, now the Modi govt is brutally beating them up for protesting against the RSS!” He said the protesters were “brutally” beaten for one reason — that they were “protesting against the RSS.” Taking suo motu cognisance of the video, the Delhi Commission of Women has issued a notice to the Delhi Police seeking to know why no women personnel were at the protest site.
“The video is extremely disturbing,” DCW chief Swati Maliwal said in the notice, which seeks a detailed report about the incident.
