Student politics came to the fore on Saturday, over the near repeat of Sabharwal incident, with the principal of the New Government Degree College fainting following alleged harassment by the women wing of Akhil Bharatiya Parishad (ABVP) at the college campus on Friday.
Principal Manjula
Choubey, 50, was mobbed by ABVP activists on Friday, causing her to faint and was rushed to a hospital. The student demonstration was demanding closure of the college in protest against inaction of their complaint of alleged eve-teasing by some class-IV employees.
Choubey who suffered a mild heart attack, was admitted to a private hospital and discharged on Saturday.
ABVP activist Shreshtha Joshi, who was arrested along with two other activists, Anjali Sharma and Richa Tiwari, on Friday and subsequently granted bail came out heavily against the police, college and local administration.
“The principal fainted half-an hour after we had left her cabin. If she was seriously ill she should have been sent to a government hospital instead of a private hospital, which creates a strong possibility of fishy business,” she said.
Trying to come clean on their role, she said, “Our demonstration was necessitated as the college administration was taking no action against peons Kishan Negi and Sunil Sirsia. Though complaint was of a serious nature... nothing happened against them.”
ABVP is the student wing of the BJP.
This incident brought recollection of the infamous Sabharwal case of Ujjain. Professor H.S. Sabharwal, head of the department (political science) at Madhav College, was attacked by a mob of students in 2006 in the college premises when he cancelled the students’ council elections. He died the next day.