ABVP activists gather outside Panjab University to disrupt seminar on ‘fascism’, heavy police deployed

The police personnel were deployed at the three gates of the university as the ABVP has been warning the organisers against inviting activist Seema Azad to the seminar

By: Aakash Biswas |
March 3, 2017 3:44 pm

After raging tension in Delhi University (DU), the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members assembled at the Panjab University campus on March 3 to disturb a seminar on “fascism” which was to b addressed by activist Seema Azad.

The situation in the university worsened and the district administration has to deploy police body to maintain the law and order status. The police personnel were deployed at the three gates of the university as the right-wing ABVP has been warning the organisers, the Students for Society (SFS), against inviting Azad to the seminar and to cancel the event named as ‘Rising head of Fascism’. However, the university ahs denied to organise the seminar but the society leaders took this step despite all the risks.

According to a Hindustan Times report, the ABVP members who gathered in the PU premises are not associated with the university. On March 2, these ABVP members have also threatened the SFS members that they would use swords or lathis if Seema Azad comes to the campus.

Further, the dean of student’s welfare at PU, Emanuel Nahar stated that the university is not a political platform for others to hold any such programs. “What if the speakers say something anti-national? We will be in a difficult situation,” the dean had said.

This incident happened days after a clash broke out between All India Students’ Association (AISA) and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists on February 22 in New Delhi over the cancellation of JNU student Umar Khalid’s event at Delhi University’s Ramjas College. Umar Khalid was supposed to speak at the seminar organised by Literary Society of Ramjas College on ‘The War in Adivasi Areas’ on February 21.