A street theatre festival at SGTB Khalsa College has been cancelled after the Delhi University Students’ Union, ruled by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, issued threats over the “anti-national themes” of some of its plays. The decision also seems to be part of the fallout from the violence at Delhi’s Ramjas College over the past few days.
Staff advisor of the college’s theatre society Saikat Ghosh told The Indian Express that the event was called off “under duress”. “The police also appealed to us to call off the event in the interest of restoring peace and normalcy on the campus...The DUSU claimed some of the plays had anti-national themes,” he told the daily.
However, Principal Jaswinder Singh said the programme has been postponed and not cancelled. “We will hold the competition at a later date, when the environment is more peaceful,” said Singh.
DUSU President Amit Tanwar, on the other hand, claimed that they never threatened anyone. “I told him [college principal] that if the plays contained anti-national themes, the competition should be cancelled. The principal decided to cancel the event,” Tanwar told The Indian Express.
Simultaneously, Ramjas College may not host its annual cultural festival, Mosaic, this year. Referring to the tension on campus, Central Councillor of the students’ union Siddhant Rathour told Hindustan Times that the “fest might not even happen”. Yogit Rathi, president of the students’ union, added that even the preparations for the fest have been put on hold.
Meanwhile, Ramjas College will hold a staff council meeting on Saturday to ascertain the reasons behind the violence. “Ramjas teachers, students and management stand together,” college Principal Rajendra Prasad told The Indian Express.
This comes a day after three senior police personnel were suspended for “high-handedness with media persons and students”. The case has now been transferred to the Crime Branch, said Delhi Police Spokesperson and Special Commissioner Dependra Pathak.
Earlier on Thursday, the Delhi Police had registered an FIR against unknown persons a day after members of the ABVP and the All India Students Association clashed. Clashes broke out between members of the two organisations following a students’ protest march against the cancellation of Jawaharlal Nehru University student Umar Khalid’s speech at a seminar on Tuesday.
More than 20 students and several journalists were injured. The protest march was supposed to start from Ramjas College campus and continue up to Maurice Nagar police station, but the students were reportedly stopped by ABVP supporters.
A seminar on Tuesday had been cancelled after ABVP members protested against the participation of Khalid and Shehla Rashid Shora. The talk was part of Ramjas College’s Literary Society and English department’s two-day seminar on “Cultures of Protest”. Stones were pelted at the conference room windows when organisers had tried to hold the seminar, though Khalid was not present. Khalid is a student at Jawaharlal Nehru University and was one of three arrested in connection with a controversial Afzal Guru event at the university in February 2016.
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