“They are not allowing universities to open because then student activists will once again question the atrocities and will also raise issues again…,” said student leader Rajveer Kaur. She has also lodged a formal complaint at the Maurice Nagar Police Station on March 9, a day after a public meeting at Delhi University, organised by Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch was interrupted, allegedly by members of the right wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) the student organisation affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Kaur has alleged that the event on March 8, to mark Women’s Day, was disrupted by the ABVP, and has named Shivangi Kharwal (DUSU Joint-secretary) who Kaur accused of tearing posters that were put up at the venue. According to Kaur, ABVP members allegedly verbally abused the students gathered there, calling them “anti-nationals and terrorists”. She has detailed in her police complaint that some of the students who were caught in the scuffle, were allegedly injured by ABVP members and that guest speaker, Nodeep Kaur (Labour Rights Activist, and Rajveer’s sister) was “also pulled by the police.” According to Rajveer’s allegations, Shivangi Kharwal hit her face and broke her spectacles. Other students were also injured, she says, as was advocate Vasu Kukreja. Most students who were hurt have said they were pushed around, scratches, dragged and their clothes were torn.
As the event was being live streamed, this sudden violence too got beamed, and recorded. The many photographs tell their own story, stated a student who was there. Rajveer Kaur has asked the police to register a complaint under the valid legal provisions and has urged the police to take strict action against the culprits. However even ABVP had put out a statement claiming that the clash was started by the organisers. “DUSU was organising a self-defence clinic today. And these people, majority of which were outsiders, were holding a meet outside the Conference Centre of Arts Faculty,” stated ABVP State Secretary Siddharth Yadav.
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