Lathicharge in BHU: Student bodies in Delhi stage protest in solidarity
NEW DELHI: After students were allegedly lathi-charged at Varanasi’s Banaras Hindu University (BHU), tension spilled in the capital with many youth groups protesting against the move.
Student and youth bodies like the Congress’ youth wing, Indian Youth Congress (IYC), and their student faction, the National Students Union of India (NSUI), and the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) held protests on Sunday, to express their solidarity with their peers at BHU, who were lathi-charged while protesting against alleged molestation of a university girl and the failure of the administration to act against the attackers.
Several BHU students, who had been protesting for more than three days and many of them girls, were injured on Saturday night when the police allegedly used force to remove protesters from outside the vicechancellor’s residence and one of the campus gates, sources said.
While a member of the youth Congress was seen getting tonsured to protest, the JNUSU burnt an effigy of the BHU V-C and the Yogi government. The Congress’ protest march, which started from their offices on Raisina Road, was allegedly stopped before they could reach the BJP offices.
“Where on one hand the BJP government spent crores of money on Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, on the other hand reality on ground level is completely opposite,” said the IYC in a statement.
The NSUI has demanded “safety audits of all universities” and “gender sensitisation training for all faculty and staff.”
Other student bodies, including members of the left back All India Students Association (AISA) and Students Federation of India (SFI), Pinjra Tod, Muslim Women’s Forum, Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch, and others, are expected to hold protests on Monday.