On 17 May AISA and other student organizations and civil society had protested against the violence by ABVP on Lucknow University Professor Ravikant, and demanded strictest action against the guilty persons. Earlier, on the 10th of May Prof Ravikant, an articulate social thinker and ideologue who comes from the Bahujan community, had been violently attacked by the ABVP inside the University campus. During the attack they hurled abusive and undemocratic slogans and gave him death threats. RSS and its terror-mongering organizations today want to promote a culture where freedom of expression and democratic rights are crushed and casteist and communal hatred prevails across the country.
The CPIML Uttar Pradesh unit has condemned another attack on Prof Ravikant and demanded arrest and action against the perpetrators. The party said that the slap on Prof Ravikant is actually a slap on the Yogi regime's law and order situation. The party holds the administration responsible for the attack (slapping) on Prof Ravikant. If action had been taken against the perpetrators of the first attack, this second attack would not have occurred. The administration took one-sided action and Prof Ravikant's complaint was not even registered in the Thana, thus boosting the attackers' morale. The University administration's silence is also deafening. Clearly, the attackers have the protection of the BJP government; otherwise they would not have dared to commit the second attack.
The party has demanded immediate arrest of the persons guilty of the second attack, immediate registration of Prof Ravikant's complaint and FIR, withdrawal of the FIR against Prof Ravikant, security for him and his family, and establishment of a democratic atmosphere inside the campus. The party appeals to peace-loving, progressive democratic people to come out against such saffron goondaism.
