Students protest against event

Opposing the two-day seminar “Shri Ram Janma Bhoomi Temple: Emerging Scenario” organised at Delhi University’s arts faculty, students’ outfits cutting across political affiliations protested at the university’s North Campus. The students’ wings of different political outfits said that by allowing the organiser to held the seminar the university authority was communalising the environment on the campus.

Outside the venue, All-India Students Association (AISA), Students Federation of India (SFI), Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS), National Students Union of India (NSUI), All India Students Federation (AISF), Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS) and members of the Pinjra Todd group protested against the seminar. They continuously shouted slogans against BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.

The protesters also raised slogans against the acting vice-chancellor for allowing communal elements to enter the campus. The Delhi police detained NSUI workers. Protesters said such an event was an effort to tone up sentiments and polarise the opinions of the students. NSUI national president Roji M. John said, “It is rather unfortunate that the government is using educational institutions to push the RSS agenda of dividing the country on communal lines.

They are trying every trick in the book to communalise our young minds, be it schoolbooks by Dinanath Batra that spew venom against a particular community or this particular pro-right-wing seminar in Delhi University.” Mr John said the NSUI will continue to stand strongly against all such attempts to poison educational institutions and won’t allow them to convert temples of learning into the RSS’ propaganda machinery. Heavy security was deployed around the venue and security personnel ensured that not a single protester was allowed to enter the venue.