Delhi University violence: Ramjas College caught in the middle

ABVP activists clashed with police and Left-wing groups on the second day. (WION)

Delhi University'sRamjasCollege,for the second consecutive day,remainedbesiegedby violenceonWednesdaybetweenthe Right wingstudents'groupABVP (AkhilBharatiyaVidyarthiParishad) andothers, includingLeft aligned groups like AISAand SFI.

Despite heavy police presence outsideRamjasCollege,violence broke out againat 1 pmwith the ABVP activists clashing with the police and students from the opposing group, including those fromLeft wing groupslike All India Students' Association (AISA)and Students'Federation ofIndia (SFI), who had gathered in the university to protest yesterday's violent disruption of a seminar held at the college.

"Many students remained trapped inside thecollege campus and couldleave only after 5 pm under heavy police protection," said a faculty member who did not wish to be named.

The fight, however, seems to have escalated much beyond the scope of a contentious seminar. Delhi University professorPrashantoChakraborty wasseverely thrashed by ABVP supporters at a protest held in the campusagainst Tuesday's violence.

Several students and teachers have also received injuries, while a few journalists also reported being heckled and pushed around with their cameras and phones being damaged. Classes are suspended atRamjas, and teachers who had turned up for a faculty meeting in the first half were asked to quickly disperse byRamjasCollege principalRajenderPrasad.

The confrontationcontinued on Wednesday as someRamjasCollegestudents,teachers andmembers of Left-aligned groups took out a protest march.ABVP membersalso forced their way into the college toprevent any further sessions of the seminar titled, 'Cultures of Protest'. Later, there wereclashes outside the college and the University'sArtsFaculty withABVP activistsattacking the others.

ABVP activistshad on Tuesdaypreventeda seminar,organisedby thecollege'sLiterary Society,from being held,and attacked the venue with bricks. The bone of contentionwasone of the speakers,Umar Khalid, a PhD scholar from Jawaharlal Nehru University,whowasbooked in a sedition case last year ostensibly for raising "anti-Indiaslogans". The charges have not been proven so far.

"In fact, we had cancelled our invitation to Umar Khalid after the initial objections by ABVP aligned students. We told them we understood their emotions about Umar Khalid andShehlaRashidShora(both JNU students and part of theprotestslast year) and had disinvited them, but somehow they continued to be violent. Today the ABVP peoplecame back again perhaps to target the seminar. But we had already cancelled it. Even classes have been suspended after yesterday's violence in the college,"aRamjasCollege teacher, who is an eyewitness to the attack on Tuesday and Wednesday's violence, told WION. He was not willing to be identified due to fear of being attacked.

"They are profiling anyone fromRamjasCollegeEnglishdepartment in hostels and paying guestsaccommodationsinneighbourhoodslike VijayNagar.ABVPpeople were constantly photographingourstudents at the seminar. There were young women students and teachers. Theyarescared," said the teacher.

By Wednesday evening messageswere circulating on social media platformsoffering assistance toanyone in need of a safe place to stay if they were worried about being attacked at their hostels or rented accommodations.

RamjasCollege principalPrasad had apparently refused to grant permission to invite Khalid to the campus thrice, but since the students and teachers werereportedlykeen, he gave in. But no written permission was issued.

On being contacted, Prasad told WION: "Academics should confront ideas, not people."

While some say this is just a manifestation of two camps, one Right-leaning, the other Left-aligned, trying to seize control of the prestigious institution since Principal Prasad is set to retireby February-end, others saythese allegationsare specious."Some teachers in theHistoryand English departments are perceived by some Right-leaning studentsas Leftist, but most of us are just liberals. If you are teaching Society, how can you only teach,'BharatMatakiJai'brand of education?"

However, those involved withorganisingthe event said they had not expectedthiskind of violence since Khalid was not invited to speak on any controversial topicand after some students objected, his invitation was also withdrawn quickly.

"We were naive in not thinking of approaching police for security.We cancelled Khalid's talk sincesome of our students had objected. The police told us they could not provide us security at such short notice and anything untoward would be the responsibility of the college andorganisers. Some of our students were disappointed with the arm-twisting and took out a march through the campus chantingazaadi,azaadi(freedom, freedom).They were confronted by ABVP members who were mostly outsiders. Only a small number was fromRamjas.Later, the police dispersed both the groups and asked us to continue with our seminar. We were locked into the conference hall when the ABVP people startedthrowing bricks throughthe glass windows. We were later rescued from our own college by policemen forming a human chain aroundus while outsiders armed with rods threatened and abused us. They came prepared," anorganiserrecounted.

"As we were coming out of the college, a young student looked at my colleague, who is in her late 50s, andabused her. He told herabkibaartobachgayihai.Aglibaarnahichodenge(We spared you this time, next time you wont be spared)," the eyewitness added.

The violence has left the college fraternity shaken, most of whom say they have never witnessed violence at such a scale in at least two decades. "We are dumbfounded by what has happened... Itwas a jarring day for me as I saw some of our students being abusive and violent to us--even though they were outnumbered by outsiders," said another teacher.

(WION)