After a panel discussion scheduled at Delhi’s University’s Ramjas College was cancelled after members of RSS’s students wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and ABVP-dominated Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) protested over the participation of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students Umar Khalid as one of the speakers, the entire North Campus has become a battleground for political parties.
While student organisations like ABVP and AISA have engaged in a tug-of-war to get the maximum media coverage out of this, most people are still unaware of events as they unfolded inside the campus. Here’s a timeline of everything that went down.
Day 1
– Seminar begins with talk on gender and sexuality with speakers like Vikramaditya and Akshay Khanna.
– Umar Khalid is supposed to arrive at 1 PM for his panel at 1:30 PM.
– ABVP starts protesting, shouting slogans. Violence erupts at the main gate and Khalid is sent back.
– ABVP protestors surround the conference room and start shouting slogans.
– The students and teachers alike exit the conference room and lead a protest march through the college.
– The students are surrounded by ABVP protestors with the police trying to protect the students.
– ABVP throws branches and stones at the students from the rooftop and hit people.
– The seminor carries on, and ABVP protestors throw bricks and break the windows of the conference room.
– Electricity to the conference room is cut.
– Students and teachers remain stuck in the room for over an hour.
– The police evacuates everyone. Witnesses describe the entire scenario as akin to a hostage situation.
Day 2
– A protest march by ABVP starts around 12:30 PM. They start attacking students sitting inside the college.
– Ramjas students’ silent protest begins in the college campus. They sing songs, but without slogans.
– Delhi Police seals all the gates. Apparently no one is allowed inside the college, except ABVP members. Media personnel are not allowed inside the college.
– ABVP protestors corner the students in the canteen area around 1 PM. The protestors surround them from all sides. The songs of protest continue.
– ABVP protestors continue on their march, allegedly hitting random students, pelting stones, hurling death and rape threats at the students. Videos of teachers being attacked emerge.
– The police forms a barricade around the students but do nothing to stop the ABVP.
ABVP students stall seminar, turn violent at Ramjas College from Debalin Roy on Vimeo.
– The students were held hostage in the same area in college till 5:15 PM when they were evacuated while the ABVP was contained by the police. Police evacuated and dropped the students and teachers to the metro station.
Please note that this is the sequence of events narrated to us by students in Ramjas College. This story will be updated as soon as more details emerge.
