Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accused the city’s police yesterday of terrorising protesters after video footage of them belting university students with sticks at a peaceful demonstration went viral.
Delhi University students staged a protest in the Indian capital last weekend over the death of a young Dalit scholar who committed suicide after he was suspended from the University of Hyderabad.
Video of the protest held outside the headquarters of a rightwing Hindu outfit shows police hovering around the placard-waving and chanting students before suddenly beating them with wooden sticks and their fists.
The students are heard screaming and running away as police chase them, with some grabbing the protesters by the hair and pinning them to the ground.
“There was no provocation from the side of the protesters. It was a small group, non-violent and unarmed. The police could have easily managed such a small crowd without using brute force,” photographer Vikas Kumar, who covered the protest, said on the Catch News website.
Police have ordered an inquiry into the violence which sparked outrage on social media yesterday, while the video was being played repeatedly on India’s TV news channels.
“We have ordered an inquiry into the incident and are analysing the video,” police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said.
According to another Delhi police official, the students manhandled the police team.
“The protesters were stopped at the barricade by a police team and asked to continue their protest peacefully but they broke the barricade. They also manhandled the police team when they were stopped,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Parmaditya said.
The officer said he was unaware that the protesters were assaulted by the police.
Kejriwal claimed officers were being manipulated by his arch rival, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which rules at national level and is in charge of the city’s police force.
Protests have been staged in cities throughout India in recent weeks over scholar Rohit Vemula’s death, a highly emotional case that some have blamed on caste discrimination.
Vemula, a member of India’s lowest Dalit social caste, was among a group suspended by the University of Hyderabad after they were accused of assaulting the head of the BJP’s student wing there - a charge they denied.
The protest on Saturday was held outside the offices of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the hardline ideological parent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP.
“Del pol being used by BJP/RSS as their pvt army to terrorise n teach lesson to anyone opposing BJP/RSS. I strongly condemn attack on students,” Kejriwal tweeted.
Referring to earlier student protests at the Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and Hyderabad University, Kejriwal said: “FTII, Rohith case, Hyd Univ, IITs and now brutal attack on Delhi students. Modi government seems to be at war with students all across.”
The Congress too condemned the beating up of the students.
“The Congress would like to put on record that this government has become completely apathetic to the voice of students, in addition to being anti-Dalit and anti-poor. They have time and again indulged in crushing dissent,” Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi said.
“This insane crushing of dissent by using state machinery will not go down well with the youth of this country,” he said.
Bollywood star Swara Bhaskar too decried the “brutal” and “unprovoked” action of the police.
In an e-mail sent to media, an indignant Bhaskar said: “It was a peaceful students’ march in support of late Rohith Vemula calling for justice. They were simply raising the usual slogans when they were disrupted by Delhi police in the most brutal way. May I add that the police action was totally unprovoked.”
Bhaskar has also expressed her views on Twitter and Facebook, where she has shared a link of a video showcasing the policemen’s baton-charge on the students.
“The most damning aspect perhaps is that apart from police, there are also some random goons who are hitting men and also women. This act happened in the presence and under the watch of Additional DCP (deputy commissioner of police) Mr Kalsi.”
Bhaskar, who belongs to Delhi and is the daughter of well known strategic analyst C Uday Bhaskar, is among a new crop of young, well educated actors who do not hesitate to speak out against social wrongs and community injustices and take to social media to voice their opinions fearlessly.