Delhi: ABVP members accused of attacking student activist Kawalpreet Kaur at Satyawati College
The right-wing group leaders allegedly disrupted an event on digital safety, where she was one of the speakers.
Members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad – the students’ wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh – allegedly attacked an activist with the All India Students Association on Thursday at Delhi University’s Satyawati College. Kawalpreet Kaur said she was targeted while speaking at an event on digital safety, which Google and She The People TV had organised.
“After the talk was about to get over, many ABVP people gathered in the auditorium and started disrupting the event,” Kaur claimed. “They mishandled the professors and were after me, and when the police came to rescue me, they asked them, ‘Where are you taking her? We will take her life.’”
Kaur has filed a complaint at the Bharat Nagar Police Station.
The founder of She The People TV, Shaili Chopra, condemned the incident. “We had students from unions who came and disrupted our talk at a time Kawalpreet Kaur talked about how women are trolled,” Chopra tweeted. “Shocked that this is what colleges are about – politically-motivated groups of men threatening, manhandling.”
We organized a discussion on women’s safety and we had students from unions who came and disrupted our talk at a time @kawalpreetdu talked about how women are trolled - shocked that this is what colleges are about - politically motivated groups of men threatening, manhandling
— Shaili Chopra (@shailichopra) February 22, 2018
A representative of the ABVP-dominated students’ union of Satyawati College, Saket Bahuguna, dismissed Kaur’s claims. “She does not even have a scratch,” Bahuguna said. “She was not touched by anyone. In fact, she pushed and verbally abused students of Satyawati College. She was constantly trying to instigate male students specifically.”
Bahuguna also rubbished Kaur’s claim that the ABVP members had snatched away and broken her phone. “She has been responding to media calls on the same number ever since [the incident],” the ABVP leader said. “Had her phone been broken by students of Satyawati College, she would not have been able to talk to the media immediately and post immediate updates on WhatsApp groups through her own number.”