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ABVP to take up cops? action with NHRC
A DAY after the lathicharge on agitated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists on the campus, the student wing of the BJP has given a call for one-day closure of LU campus in protest.
A DAY after the lathicharge on agitated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists on the campus, the student wing of the BJP has given a call for one-day closure of LU campus in protest.
They demanded an apology from the V-C for not stopping the police from beating students. He happens to be the patron of the varsity, he should. ABVP also decided to apprise National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of the police action.
Addressing the media on Tuesday, ABVP office-bearers questioned police action saying that in the democratic country everybody was free to express their protest against any government policy. “During convocation day our protest was non-violent. We only waved black flags and raised slogans ‘Arjun go back’. But, the police cane-charged us, as if to say that we were traitors and were involved in a heinous crime,” they alleged.
ABVP activists has cautioned LU and district administration that on Wednesday during their agitation if the police accorded a similar treatment then they would be forced to intensify their agitation. Interestingly, the employee unions have extended their support to tomorrow’s call. The ABVP is confident that the students’ union and teachers’ association would also extend their support on this issue, which came in for a sharp criticism from all quarters.
“What was surprising that Chancellor, Vice- Chancellor and the Union HRD minister—who all saw it while sitting on the dais—remained a mute spectator and did not stop the police from using cane on the students who were protesting peacefully,” they argued.
According to them, recently at Jawaharlal Nehru University students protested while PM was addressing but the police did not apply force. ABVP office-bearers said they would seek an NHRC intervention in the whole matter and at the same time would submit a memorandum to the Chancellor and the V-C as well. They alleged that those in plain clothes who thrashed their activists were not police and they were the hired goons of LU administration. The ABVP demanded that a probe be ordered to look into the police action and those who thrashed their activists in plain clothes.
DD Sharma, state vice-president of the ABVP, said: “Whatever whip they cracked on our activists at the pandal was just a proverbial tip of the iceberg.
In fact, while the ceremony was under progress, the police took our activists inside a room at Arts faculty and continuously thrashed them for breaching the security and registering protest against HRD minister Arjun Singh.
Meanwhile, LU administration declined to make any comments on the whole issue. Pro V-C RS Yadav refused to make any comment over police action and remained tightlipped when asked to speak about LU’s stand in the entire matter.
“It was the police who applied cane and LU administration has no role to play in this. Those in plain clothes were cops and LU official has no right to stop them from doing their duties,” he said.
