Expect nothing, live frugally on surprise.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Democracy at shame

Delhi University Students’ Union president Nupur Sharma today called S A R Geelani a “terrorist” and gave a tacit approval to the act of violence by ABVP activists against the professor during a seminar on communalism at Delhi University on Thursday. “No one follows non-violence anymore,” Sharma, from the by BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), said. “If somebody slaps you on one cheek, you can no longer show them the other cheek.” On Thursday, a group of ABVP activists had protested violently before Geelani could have his say during the seminar, organised at the university’s Art Faculty. One activist went to the extent of spitting at Geelani. The row forced the police to intervene and goad away the activists. Sharma today maintained that Geelani, exonerated by the Supreme Court in the 2003 Parliament attack case, should not have been invited for the seminar. “Geelani is a terrorist and I had politely requested him to leave the venue,” Sharma said. “But he refused.” The protest by ABVP activists began at this point. Meanwhile, the Left-leaning Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and All India Students’ Association (AISA) protested the incident at the university today. Robert Rahman Raman, a DU student and a member of SFI, said: “Neither DUSU nor Nupur Sharma can decide who can speak in DU and who cannot. If they wanted to protest Geelani’s presence in the university, they could have listened to him and then asked him questions.” But the DUSU president said yesterday’s protest was fuelled partly because most of those fighting her and other ABVP activists back were from outside the university. “There were a large number of students opposing us who did not belong to Delhi University,” she said. “They attacked us first. “Who has given a right to outsiders to come to DU and conduct a seminar without any permission?” Sharma said she has shot off a complaint letter to Vice-Chancellor Deepak Pental regarding this. While Sharma stressed on the need to restrict entry of outsiders in the campus, the rest of DUSU panel belonging to the Congress-affiliated National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) refused to comment on the incident.

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