Twenty-five members of RSS’ student outfit Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) have been booked for assault and vandalism, on Wednesday, February 25. The case was registered at the Sarjapura police station a day after ABVP members forced their way into Azim Premji University (APU) campus in Sarjapura. All of them have been charged with unlawful assembly, trespass, assault, criminal intimidation, and property damage.
According to the complaint filed by S Wilson, Security Manager at the university, a group of individuals forcibly entered the campus on the evening of February 24. When security personnel attempted to stop them, they allegedly assaulted, verbally abused, and threatened them. Six security guards and one student sustained injuries in the incident, the complaint stated.
The ABVP members entered the campus to oppose an event organised that day by a student group, ‘Spark Reading Circle’. The group had planned a discussion on the alleged mass rape of women in Kunan and Poshpora villages in Kashmir’s Kupwara district on February 23, 1991, by Indian Army personnel. The Indian Army had denied the allegations and the Supreme Court had previously ordered a reinvestigation into the case. The legal proceedings are underway.
The ABVP members vandalised property, including the university’s name board, before being detained by the police. They also assaulted a student who was then taken to a hospital by faculty members and the police.
After ABVP members were removed from the campus, APU students held a counter-protest condemning ABVP’s actions and urging the government to take action against them.
Harshit, a law student and Bengaluru district organising secretary of the ABVP, told TNM that the group comprised entirely of students studying in different colleges in the city.
Claiming that Spark Reading Circle was sponsored by left-wing students organisation All India Students Association (AISA), he added they had been organising “anti-national” activities on the APU campus for the past two-three years.
“They organise events with slogans like ‘From Kashmir to Palestine, occupation is a crime’, and they support people like Umar Khalid,” Harshit told TNM. Umar Khalid is an Indian activist and former Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader who has been incarcerated without bail in the 2020 Delhi violence case.
Referring to the current event under controversy, Harshit said that the group was talking about a 35-year-old event and against the Indian army in an open hall. “This should not happen, so we protested.”
When asked about the vandalism, Harshit said that the damage occurred “in the heat of the moment”. “All we wanted to do was ensure that anti-national activities do not happen again at APU.”
Former Deputy Chief Minister and BJP MLA from Malleshwaram constituency CN Ashwath Narayan said Azim Premji University is a prestigious institution that has contributed significantly to education in India. However, he said, “Reading circles such as Spark, sponsored by the All India Students’ Association, are involved in activities against national interest and should not be allowed to operate in universities.”
Sachin Kumar, a member of AISA in Bengaluru, said, “Who deserves to be banned? Those who vandalised a university and assaulted a student, or those who want to talk about social issues? We raise issues such as scholarships, privatisation of education and high fees that universities charge. Has ABVP ever taken up these issues?”
AISA had issued a statement on February 24 expressing solidarity with students of Azim Premji University for “standing united to resist the ABVP–RSS onslaught” on campus.
“AISA salutes the students of APU who came out united to resist the ABVP–RSS attack on their campus,” the organisation said, calling on the wider student community to oppose “violence, hooliganism and vandalism”.
The statement also demanded that the ABVP members who vandalised the APU campus and assaulted a student be arrested.
Home Minister G Parameshwara said the alleged forcible entry and disruption were unacceptable, questioning whether police could “remain silent when individuals take the law into their own hands”. He said the government would take a strict view and initiate action against those involved, stressing that such incidents would not be tolerated in educational spaces.
(With inputs from IANS)