On Monday, the fifth day of the hunger strike by students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University against the high level enquiry committee, students burnt an effigy of the Akhil Bharaitya Vidyarthi Parishad for their alleged repeated attacks on professor GN Saibaba. Speaking at this event, Kanhaiya Kumar pointed at the ideological hollowness of the ABVP, singling out the current Delhi University Students' Union president Satender Awana.
Professor Saibaba is an English professor with 90 percent disability, who was suspended after he was arrested by the Maharashtra police for allegedly having links with the Maoists. He was released on bail on April 7.
Kumar accused the ABVP of "goondagardi" and said, referring to Awana's alleged involvement in a dowry case, "Gender justice yaha pe itna zaada hai ki dahej maango ge toh chappal khaoge (there is so much gender justice in JNU that if you ask for dowry you'll get hit by shoes instead)".
"Today I found out why students in Delhi University don't get hostels – because their president is too busy in hooliganism. Students have voted for him to represent their issues but instead he goes around asking for dowry."
"These people tried to attack professor Saibaba, this is what they do, they have tried to attack me repeatedly too... This is a straight fight, we are fighting for freedom and these people are the lackeys of colonialism. And we pushed the British out, we'll push you out as well. What we worry about is where we can send you because even Pakistan won't accept you. That's the problem with their kind."
He accused the members of ABVP of being anti-women and anti-dalits.
"We have taken a lot of the subsidy money, and have gained enough knowledge to not be scared of you."
Umar Khalid posted a comment on the event on facebook
So today, once again the whole day this bunch of sanghi lumpens from DU and other places (their support within JNU is clearly waning every day), led by none other than Satender Awana, the dowry infamous DUSU president loitered around in Freedom Square. They threw communal abuses at me, made open misogynist gestures at a woman comrade, hurled abuses against com. Kanhaiya and virtually every other student who had gathered in the ad block. They further tried to provoke us, tried to disrupt the effigy burning of ABVP against their hooliganism and continuous harrassment of Dr GN Saibaba, and hurled more abuses. They were desperate for an altercation, but all that the hundreds of students did was to laugh at those handful of jokers.
p.s. I later came to know from the press that Mr Satender Awana, has lodged a police complaint against me, Anirban and other 'unknown students', claiming that, we abused him! well I shall not even respond to that rubbish. The hunger strike is entering its sixth day. we all are a little tired, weak, dehydrated, but nothing stops us from breaking into splits of laughter, at these fascist jokers.
In another post Khalid said, "Apart from the students, a colleague of Dr Saibaba from his college and his partner AS Vasantha Kumari addressed the students, and also conveyed Dr Saibaba's solidarity with the ongoing movement in JNU."
Anirban Bhattacharya also spoke at the event (video below):
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