Large number of Allahabad University students came out in streets on 20 October demanding the arrest of Chief Proctor Rakesh Kumar Singh who wielded lathis on Vivek Kumar, Campus President of All India Students Association, for peacefully protesting the revengeful suspension of students from the university. Students held a mass meeting at Ishwar Sharan Gate after a demonstration.
A dalit student and AISA unit president Vivek Kumar was brutally beaten up with lathis for demanding revocation of suspension of two students, Manish Kumar and Harendra Yadav, and release of students sent to jail for holding a peaceful demonstration.
Students assembled at Ambedkar Hostel and marched to Ishwar Sharan Degree college with posters and placards demanding FIR against Proctor and his arrest. Student leader Sudhir addressed the protesters and condemned proctor’s castiest feudal goondaism which is being protected by the university administration. The proctor regularly misbehaves and punishes students from dalit and backward caste communities, he said. Shashank said there is huge resentment in the university against this incident of physical attack on a student. Manish Kumar, a researcher, reminded of lack of basic amenities and educational atmosphere in the campus while fees are regularly being hiked. If students raise this issue then they are punished with suspension, even sent to jail.
Universities which used to cater to best spaces for exercising, and learning, democratic freedoms, are now being transformed into places of regimentation for the rightwing under emergency like situations. This scenario under BJP-RSS rule must be opposed.
Students formed a long human chain to express their resentment and protest on 20 October inside the university campus.
