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Discourse India style: Hindu
activist spits on scholar’s face
WSN Network
NEW DELHI:
Traditions of discourse in India hit their worst low when the Delhi
University’s (DU) faculty of arts building turned into a
battleground last Thursday as rightwing Hindu ultras of Akhil
Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activists stormed a public meeting in
progress and one of them climbed the stage and spat on
activist-lecturer SAR Geelani who was chairing the meeting. The
University Community, an independent group of DU teachers and
students, had organized the public meeting on the theme of
‘Communalism, fascism and democracy: Rhetoric and reality’.
There were
around 80 students inside the hall when the protesters started
smashing window panes. Journalist Rajesh Ramachandran, who was also
on the dias, said it was a planned attempt to disrupt the public
meeting. “ABVP ‘goondas’ were sitting inside the room and then they
rose to hurl abuses at the participants and physically attack them,”
he said. The worst thing was that the DUSU president and ABVP member
Nupur Sharma entered the room and declared that Geelani, a lecturer
of this university, could not speak in the university. In total
disregard of the notions of freedom of speech, the pro-vice
chancellor and the proctor called one of the organisers and told him
that the meeting could not continue as it was creating law and order
problems.
12 November
2008
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