A protest broke out on Saturday morning at at Delhi University when BJP leader Subramanian Swamy was due to speak at a seminar about rebuilding the Ram Mandir at the vicinity of Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya.
Swamy had tweeted, “Today is the first step for Ram Mandir construction-seminar of leading "saffron" intellectuals and scholars to prepare a clear list of facts.”
Today is the first step for Ram Mandir construction-seminar of leading "saffron" intellectuals and scholars to prepare a clear list of facts
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) January 9, 2016Members of the youth wing of Congress (NSUI) and left parties protested against the event organised at DU's Arts Faculty by Arundhati Vashishtha Anusandhan Peeth (AVAP), a research organisation founded by late VHP leader Ashok Singhal. The protestors blamed the current central government of saffronizing DU.
The seminar however started at the venue, as Swamy tweeted this picture post 10.30 am.
Start of Ram Temple seminar pic.twitter.com/xnHo8KXxTF
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) January 9, 2016According to media reports on Friday, Swamy had called the protestors ‘intolerant’ when they said that they will oppose the event.
"There has been a lot of hue and cry about the so called intolerance, where has that intolerance gone? This is a seminar on a topic which is very important, it is not being attended by politicians but by historians, researchers and academicians. What is the objection then? Those objecting are all left-wing people and naxalites. If they want to protest outside they can, but if they disrupt the law and order then police should take proper action," he said.
The protestors claimed they were against DU's decision as they deemed the seminar non-academic and as an attempt to communalise the campus.
Swamy on Wednesday had said that work on the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya would start before the end of 2016 only after the court verdict, which he hoped would come by August-September and with the mutual consent of Muslim and Hindu communities.