ABVP members attacked activist Nodeep Kaur on Women’s Day event organized outside the Delhi University’s Arts Faculty on Monday evening.
The BSCEM ( The Bhagat Singh Chatra Ekta Manch) alleged that Delhi police remained mute spectators when the ABVP members tore the posters and attacked the students at the event.
It seemed that they were not happy with the event as labour activist Nodeep Kaur was one of the speakers. Nodeep Kaur was recently released from Karnal jail after her arrest and alleged custodial torture, adds BSCEM member.
Nodeep, who belongs to a Dalit community took part in the farmers’ protest. She was charged with an attempt to murder at a protest against irregular wages in January. She was kept in the jail for 44 days in Haryana’s Karnal jail. She was granted bail on February 26. After releasing from the prison, she claimed that she was physically assaulted in police and judicial custody ever since her arrest in January.
The women’s day event, on March 8, was organized by the Bhagat Singh Chatra Ekta Manch, a far-Left student group headed by Nodeep’s sister Rajveer Kaur, a PhD scholar at Delhi University.
The event went on well until Nodeep could start her address. ABVP supporters rammed into the hall and allegedly stopped the event. They questioned whether the organizers had valid permission to organize such an event. The Bhagat Singh Chatra Ekta Manch (BSCEM) alleged, in a statement, that the ABVP members “tore the posters at the site and attacked the students”, while the Delhi Police remained “mute spectators”.
Nodeep told the reporters that “Rajveer was speaking about the Butana gang rape and the Gurhmandi case when ABVP activists came and tore our posters, shouting slogans, Police were with them”.
When the speech about how the culprits who raped or killed Dalits roam free was in progress, the ABVP supporters attacked them at the event. But, the ABVP-led Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) said in a statement that men present at the event had attacked its joint secretary Shivangi Kharwal.
Furthermore, they said that “DUSU was conducting an event of self-defense training programme for girls where Delhi police personnel and other defense trainers were present to train the girls.
According to the statement, outsiders and ex-students of the university had organized an event, right outside the venue of the programme. Objectionable slogans were displayed, and slogans were raised just as a few girls led by Shivangi Kharwal (of the ABVP) were passing by.
Seeing the objectionable anti-army posters, the organizers were questioned about the motive of the event. Delhi University Students Union joint secretary Shivangi Kharwal wrote in the statement that in a reaction to the questions posed by Shivangi and her friends, was an attack by the men present on the spot.
Meanwhile, Vasu Kukreja, Kisan Morcha’s Legal Cell member who said he was at the location to meet Nodeep, alleged that Kharwal had thrashed him. “The disruption by the ABVP started while Rajveer was speaking. As I tried to record it with my mobile phone, some ABVP person tried to snatch it. When I resisted, a woman whom people there identified as Shivangi caught me by the collar and slapped me.”
