It is alleged that 60% of the participants of the Diwali event were from outside the campus
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — Tension prevailed on the Jamia Millia Islamia campus as marauding members of the BJP’s student wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), misbehaved and harassed female students on Tuesday evening. They raised the Hindutva slogan of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ near Muslim girl students, prompting a confrontation with intense sloganeering from both sides.
The ABVP members reportedly attacked other students when they objected to the former’s harassment of Muslim girls.
The ruckus at the campus occurred during a Diwali event organised by the Rashtriya Kala Manch, an outfit affiliated with the ABVP.
According to the statements issued by the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and Majlis Student Wing, clashes broke out between two groups when participants of the Diwali event misbehaved with female Muslim students.
“When some actual students of the university objected to their behaviour, these goons led by their state leaders unleashed brutal violence over the students. At this point the police intervened by implementing a heavy lathi-charge which also ended up hurting and scaring the common students while the actual goons remained protective,” reads the statement by the Jamia unit of the SFI.
The leftist group said that the ABVP leaders who were invited by the organisers were “goons”. They had come with the intention to disrupt the peace of the campus.
The SFI pointed out that the university administration was directly responsible for the entry of outsiders as it allowed the event to be held. “It was due to the administration that these goons remained protected and could easily leave the campus without any inquiry of their activities while the common students of JMI were attacked and injured. The growing nexus of the administration with the ABVP is a concerning phenomenon for peace and the larger peace on the campus after the tumultuous incident of the police attack on Jamia in 2019,” noted the student group.
Majlis Student Wing (MSW), the student outfit of All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), also blamed ABVP for the violence and for creating a ruckus “under the guise of Diwali celebrations”.
According to it, people associated with the ABVP “engaged in hooting and eve-teasing, particularly targeting the girls. It puts a serious question mark on women’s safety, especially inside the university premises,” it said.
According to the MSW, 60% of the participants of the event were from outside the campus.
Condemning the violence, the MSW requested the authorities to take strict action against those spreading disharmony inside the university premises.
Meanwhile, Jamia Millia Islamia Alumni Association of Minorities said that Hindu students were attacked during the event describing the clashes as a “Hindu-phobic atmosphere”.
According to it, when students were celebrating the festival, some anti-social elements started shouting “Palestine Zindabad” and “Allah-o-Akbar”.
