By TwoCircles.net news desk,
New Delhi: Students and teachers from several universities took out a march to condemn and protest the vandalism unleashed by some activists of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of Bharatiya Janata Party, at the venue of a seminar on communalism and fascism at the Delhi University.
Some activists of the organization had barged into the venue of the seminar “Communalism, Fascism and Democracy: Rhetoric and Reality” on November 6 at Delhi University and one of them spitted on SAR Geelani, lecturer of the same university. Geelani was one of the accused in the Parliament attack case but he was later exonerated of the charges by the Delhi High Court. ABVP activists were protesting at his presence in the campus.
The protest march was held by the University Community on November 7. A large number of students and teachers from Delhi University were joined by JNU and Jamia students, and a march of more than 600 people traversed all colleges in the North Campus raising slogans against the vandalism.
The march also stopped in front of Delhi University Student Union office for around five minutes, raising slogans against ABVP as well as Nupur Sharma, union president and her associates who reportedly attacked the seminar on “Communalism, Fascism and Democracy: Rhetoric and Reality” on November 6. Students and teachers in one voice spoke against ABVP’s communal-fascist politics, the inaction of the Delhi Police as well as the administration’s attempt to curb the rights of speech and expression.
A delegation of students and teachers, which also included the representatives of University Community, the organizers of the public meeting of the 6th November, met the DU administration and demanded immediate and strict action against the ABVP lumpens who were responsible for full-scale vandalism, physical assault and inciting communal frenzy. The university administration was asked to file an FIR against the culprits, and to constitute a time-bound enquiry into the incident.
Meanwhile Barak Human Rights Protection Committee (BHRPC), a human rights organization, has strongly condemned the vandalism by ABVP in Delhi University, in which members of the
press community were also made victims.
“This is a failure on the part of police and administration that they could not provide security to ensure the exercise of the right to freedom of thought and expression by the citizens of the country” the BHRPC said in a statement.