ABVP members assaulted us, asked if we were from Pak: SFI activists to police

ABVP activists arrived at the spot and prevented them from distributing the pamphlets, claimed the SFI members, adding that they were also pushed around and beaten up.

The SFI has now lodged a complaint about the incident at the Maurice Nagar police station.

“We were campaigning inside the college when some ABVP activists arrived there and asked us what we were doing. They asked us to produce our ID cards, which we did. After that, they caught hold of us and took us to the science block, where they manhandled us. They asked us what our issue with the CBCS was, and accused us of ‘selling the country’,” said Ashique, a final-year student of Political Science.

Hijas claimed that when they told the alleged ABVP members that they could not speak in Hindi as they were from Kerala, they were abused and beaten up.

“They were speaking to us in Hindi and we couldn’t understand them completely, so I told them that I couldn’t speak Hindi. They then shoved me and said ‘Are you from Pakistan? You should know Hindi’. They told us that we were not allowed to campaign here because the college belonged to them,” said Hijas, a second-year student of Physics.

Earlier in the day, All India Students’ Association (AISA) activists, who were campaigning against the CBCS in the college, were allegedly asked to vacate the premises by ABVP members.

“We were also removed by these same ABVP hoodlums, who told us to vacate the premises. Since some of us are not students of the college, we left. But their behaviour was rowdy to say the least,” said Rahul, a member of AISA.

Though ABVP state secretary Saket Bahuguna acknowledged that some “fight” had broken out in the college, he denied that members of his organisation had indulged in such activities.

He claimed that both the SFI and the AISA were playing up the issue for “publicity”.

“I heard that some fight had broken out in Ramjas but no one called them Pakistani or told them to learn Hindi. No student in Delhi University speaks in that manner. All of this is just a publicity stunt before the elections,” he said.